204 Larysa Levchenko
Larysa L e v c h e n k o
The archival branch of ukraine from 1917 to 1960 : Structural and management reforms
Abstract
In this article , the changes in the structure and the management of the archival branch of Ukraine during 1917 – 1960 are considered . The Archival service and archival branch of independent Ukraine began its history in September 1917 after the Library and Archival Division of the Ukrainian Central Council had been established , a date confirmed by a number of Ukrainian scholars , and one that allows us to state that the archival branch of Ukraine has a 100-year history . Changes in the structure of the archival branch and its management depended on the policy of the Communist Party , reforming the administrative and territorial division and public authorities ’ structure , and also on the evolution of views on the role and place of archives in society . The history of the archival branch during the period of 1917 – 1960 can be divided into the following stages : in 1917 – 1921 the archivists of Ukraine proposed projects for the creation of a centralized archival system of Ukraine ; in 1921 – 1928 the organs for governing of the archives of Soviet Ukraine were formed , and conducted a relatively independent policy in the archival sphere ; the period of 1929-1938 marked by the struggle of Ukrainian archivists for independence from the archival organs of the RSFSR and the USSR , the integration of the Ukrainian archives into the archival system of the USSR , the beginning of repressions and the removal of documents from the archives of Ukraine to the central archives of the RSFSR . During this period the modern structure of the archival branch of Ukraine was divided into central , regional , district and city archives , and acquired its present framework , and a system of party archives was likewise formed ; in 1938 – 1960 the archives of Ukraine were subordinated to the NKVS ( the Ministry of Internal Affairs ), archival documents were used for operational NKVS purposes , and many archivists were repressed . Only during the Khrushchev Thaw ( 1960 ) were the archives of Ukraine saved from the NKVS and a new stage of their history began .
Keywords : archives of Ukraine , history of Ukrainian archives , archival reforms in Ukraine , State Archival Service of Ukraine