Historical and Political Archives of St. Petersburg

Categories / Science. Education/Archives
HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL ARCHIVES OF ST. PETERSBURG, Central State Historical and Political Archives situated at 39 Tavricheskaya Street. The archives originated from the Commission for the Collection and Study of Materials on the History of the October Revolution and Russian Communist Party established in 1920. The Leningrad Branch of the United Party Archives was founded in 1929, renamed Leningrad Branch of the Central Party Archives in 1934 and Party Archives of the All-Union Communist Party (of Bolsheviks) of Leningrad in 1939. The archives were evacuated to Chelyabinsk in 1941-44. Renamed as Leningrad Party Archives, they were transferred to the Institute of Party History in 1945. The archives were in closed storage with only limited access for researchers. After they passed under the control of the Archives Office (today, the Committee) of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region in 1991, the archives were reorganised and received their present-day name. As of 2002 they contained 548 files and over 4.8 million cases including 3.9 million personal cases of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. They are among the largest storages of documents of organs and organisations, educational institutions, scientific institutes and political education institutions of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the All-Union Leninist Communist Youth League in Leningrad, as well as documents on the history of the Civil War and the Great Patriotic War that exist. The archives cover not only political history but also economic, social, scientific, and cultural state of the region from the early 20th century to 1991, as well as provinces of north-western Russia and the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic between 1921 and 1927 and districts that were reorganised as part of Novgorod Region, which had formerly fallen within the administrative confines of Leningrad Region. The files of the Institute of Party History include collections of documents such as autobiographies, letters, diaries, and reminiscences including those collected before 1917. There is also a personal collection of M. A. Malykh, a St. Petersburg publisher. The archives have been accepting and storing documents of modern political parties and social political movements mainly on a regional scale since 1992. It has been also engaged in declassifying documents since 1992 with over 107,000 cases handed over for open-access storage. Based on materials of the archives, about 70 collections of documents were published. The scientific reference library includes about 114,000 books and magazines.

Reference: Центральный государственный архив историко-политических документов Санкт- Петербурга: Путеводитель. М., 2000.

O. N. Ansberg. Malykh Maria Alexandrovna
Tavricheskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 39
Центральный государственный архив историко-политических документов Санкт- Петербурга: Путеводитель. М., 2000