The archival branch of Ukraine from 1917 to 1960 ...
183
On March 9 , 1920 , the People ’ s Commissariat on Education adopted the ‘ Interim Regulations on Archival Affairs ’ according to which all archives – including private archival collections , church and monastery archives were declared public property and transferred under the control of the archival sections of provincial education divisions 27 . One of the first acts which determined the state archival policy in Soviet Ukraine was the decision of the Council of People ’ s Commissars of UkrSRR , dated April 20 , 1920 , and signed by Chrystian Rakovskyi ( 1873 – 1941 ) 28 . The basic points of the previous act were duplicated in it and based on these acts the archival sections operated in provinces . On April 6 , 1921 the All-Ukrainian Central Executive Committee made a decision to establish the Commission on the history of Ukrainian Revolution and Communist Party (‘ Istpart ’) which laid the foundations for the Communist Party ’ s archival system 29 .
In Kharkiv , on April 28 , 1921 , a panel of the People ’ s Commissariat on Education heard a suggestion by the Chief of the VUKOPMYS Levko Kovaliv for extracting the Main Archival Administration from the VUKOPMYS , linking it with the ‘ Istpart ’, and creating another panel to manage this entity consisting of an adherent of the Ukrainian Republic ’ s Independence and the cultural Ukrainization in Soviet Ukraine Mykola Skrypnyk ( 1872 – 1933 ), the Deputy People ’ s Commissar on Foreign Affairs Levko Kovaliv ( 1894 – 1937 ) and Stanislaw Kosior ( 1889 – 1939 ) 30 . The next panel , moderated by the Deputy People ’ s Commissar on Education Yan Riappo ( 1880 – 1958 ), was held on August 24 , 1921 . Yan Riappo was a historian and had been involved in archival affairs since 1917 , when he had created an archival commission in Mykolaiv . He signed a decision to approve the Statute , the staff schedule , and the composition of the Main Archival Administration ( Holovarkh ) panel . M . Skrypnyk was the first Chairman of this panel ; his deputy was an outstanding Ukrainian historian and academician , Dmytro Bahalei ( 1857 – 1932 ); members included – scholars Petro Halperin ( 1902 – 1988 ), M . Dovnar-Zapolskyi , and Vasyl Veretennikov ( 1880 – 1942 ) 31 . In addition to the Main Archival Administration in Kharkiv , the central and historical archives , as well as the central archives of revolution , were founded in Kharkiv and Kyiv and the provincial centers of Ukraine . The control over archival affairs in provinces was assumed by provincial archival administrations ( gubarkhs ) under which provincial
27
TsDAVO of Ukraine , F . 2 ‘ The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine , 1918 – 1999 ’, Op . 1 , Spr . 591 , Ark . 124 .
28
DAMO , F . R-97 , Op . 1 , Spr . 3 , Ark . 6 .
29
Постанова Всеукраїнського Центрального Виконавчого Комітету ‘ Положення про комісію при ВУЦВК з історії Української Революції і Комуністичної Партії ’, [ in :] ‘ Культурне будівництво в Українській РСР ’, Київ 1959 , p . 112 – 113 .
30
TsDAVO of Ukraine , F . 166 , Op . 2 , Spr . 16 , Ark . 22 .
31
TsDAVO of Ukraine , F . 166 , Op . 2 , Spr . 16 , Ark . 75 .