Abstract
The Access to Russian Archives project will create a digital database of regional and national guides to the Russian Archives. The project will digitize both the printed and handwritten guides to the approx. 105 central and regional archives in Russia (with a total of 37,829 pages). This digital database would provide the most comprehensive access to the holdings of the entire Russian archive system in one simple, user-friendly electronic format. Creation of this database will allow students and scholars from anywhere in the world to quickly and efficiently identify important archival holdings related to their research or areas of interest.
Since the fall of the Soviet government there has been a new era of open access to information in Russia. Since 1991, it has been much easier for Slavic scholars to gain access to archives. Unfortunately, even as access to the archives themselves has opened up, prospective researchers continue to face a lack of access to information about and indices of holdings of individual archives, or the ability to do comprehensive searches in all archives simultaneously. Information about the location of archival resources is essential for researchers in planning research trips to Russia. Russian archives, which were restricted during the Soviet period, may now be increasingly open for research, but without improved access to the key reference literature, they will effectively remain as inaccessible to the public as they were under Soviet rule.
Rosarkhiv, which administers the Russian archive system, holds guides to both the central and regional archives in Russia that provide a summary of the holdings of each archive. Many of the regional guides were published in very limited runs of fewer than 500 copies and some were never published but created for in-house use only and are therefore inaccessible outside of Russia, or in some cases, even outside of the specific archive. In addition, the guides can be very difficult and time-consuming to use. For example, if a scholar were conducting research on the Russian poet Pushkin, he would have to search through all guides, one at a time, to determine where in Russia the archival holdings pertaining to Pushkin are housed.
After the 105 guides are digitized, the text will be marked up utilizing standardized XML tagging—making the information fully searchable. The final steps to completing the project will involve the conversion of the text from Cyrillic into Library of Congress Russian transliterated text. The converted text, identical to the original Russian text, will also be available for use. Such a conversion makes the digital database completely searchable in Russian and in English transliteration and allows scholars who do not have Cyrillic capabilities on their computers to access the information through transliteration. The text will also be machine-translated into English making the vast majority of the text available to non-Russian speaking researchers. The database will be made available to any students, scholars and others free of charge via the World Wide Web. The end result will be the creation of a major research tool that will literally revolutionize the way we access materials in Russian archives.
Project Status
Significant progress has been made on the Access to Russian Archives project. On March 1, 2004, an agreement was signed with Rosarkhiv, which administers the Russian archive system for their formal participation on this project. Even before the contract was signed, the PI worked with representatives of Rosarkhiv, and East View Publications on the technical and content aspects of this project. We expect to have the content digitized and at least a portion of the database available for use in early 2005.
Meeting the purpose of the authorizing statute
The objectives of this project are to digitize, preserve, and provide bibliographic access to important scholarly guides to the Russian archive system. The project is creating a digital database of regional and national guides to the Russian Archives. Upon completion, this digital database will provide the most comprehensive access to the holdings of Russian archives in one simple, user-friendly electronic format. The database will allow students and scholars from anywhere in the world to quickly and efficiently identify important archival holdings related to their research or areas of interest.
Since the fall of the Soviet Government, the Russian archive system, which houses most of the important documents for the study of contemporary and historical Russia, has been opened, to varying degrees, for research. Throughout the country, researchers have been gaining access to these archives and have “unlocked” important information pertaining to Russian/Soviet history, culture and politics. Given the new openness of the archives, students and scholars could have unprecedented access to a wealth of material that was formerly inaccessible.
Unfortunately, even as access to the archives themselves has opened up, prospective researchers continue to face a lack of access to information about and indices of holdings of individual archives, or the ability to do comprehensive searches in all archives simultaneously. Information about the location of archival resources is essential for researchers in planning research trips to Russia. Russian archives, which were restricted during the Soviet period, may now be increasingly open for research, but without improved access to the key reference literature, they will effectively remain as inaccessible to the public as they were under Soviet rule.
Rosarkhiv, which administers the Russian archive system, holds guides to both the central and regional archives in Russia that provide a summary of the holdings of each archive. Many of the regional guides were published in very limited runs of fewer than 500 copies and some were never published but created for in-house use only and are therefore inaccessible outside of Russia, or in some cases, even outside of the specific archive. In addition, the guides can be very difficult and time-consuming to use. For example, if a scholar were conducting research on the Russian poet Pushkin, he would have to search through all guides, one at a time, to determine where in Russia the archival holdings pertaining to Pushkin are housed.
Specifically, access to the information in the documents from archival collections of the Russian Federation is provided by the system of reference tools. This system comprises the following types of archival reference sources: registers, guides to archive collections, catalogs, indices, reviews, and databases. Each of the archival reference types is targeted specifically to contents and structure of items in the collections. Guides give a general idea on the structure and content of all the collections in an archive, or specific subject groups within the collections. Catalogs provide more detailed on the document contents, while indices provide information on the subject terms cited in the documents (names, titles, events). Reviews expand on the contents of documents in individual collections, or subject documents arrays, and provide their source analysis.
Research and reference tools can be provisionally divided into inner archival research and reference tools (un-replicated registers, catalogs, indices, reviews, databases at archive reading rooms and staff offices), and reference and information publications with a broader distribution. Guides and brief reference books can differ in completeness of the descriptive entry make up the core of these publications. Guides to archival collections are the mandatory reference and information publication of archives at all levels - from federal to municipal ones. The guides systemize the data on all the collections within an archive and are utilized by the patron before working in the archives. The publication of other types of archival reference books is usually connected with the demand from scholars for information on specific document arrays. In addition to reference and information publications prepared by archival institutions, additional reference works are published that are traditionally comprised of reference books on the history of government agencies and administrative and territorial division.
The bibliography of reference and information publications of the Russian Federation includes individual reference books published by central state archives of the USSR, archives of RSFSR (Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic), republics, and districts (i.e. krays and regions) in the 1930-50s. The most intensive efforts to publish reference materials occurred in 1960s-70s, when the archives processed documents that had been evacuated, or partially damaged during the World War II. In the 1970s, reference books on the structure and content of archival collections became a mandatory provision for the country's archives. Ten to twelve reference books were published annually, and as a result, by the early 1990s, almost all the RF archives had published reference guides to their holdings. Reference books were both published at printing houses for wider distribution, and at reprographic centers. In the latter case, due to little circulation and "Restricted" classification, the use of such publications was very limited. As a result, many reference books published before the 1990s became a rarity.
Beginning in 1991, significant changes took place in the network and structure of the federal archival agencies and regional archives, as well as in the structure of Archival Collection of the Russian Federation. According to the Presidential Decree No.83 of August 24, 1991 "On the Party Archives", the central and local archives of the Communist Party of Soviet Union (i.e. Central Party Archive of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the CPSU Central Committee, CPSU and Young Communist League Central Committees' archives, Communist organizations in the RF autonomous republics and oblasts) passed to the control of the Federal Archival Service. In order to house these former party archives, 80 centers and special depositories at the federal and regional levels were established within the state archives. The RF Archival Collection received over 50 million items from the liquidated Communist organizations. Those items, however, lacked finding aids that met current archival standards. About five million items lacked standardized records. This is a result of the fact that regulations of the Communist archives did not provide for the creation of guides as reference resources—these archives were for the Party, and not readily accessible to scholars and other interested parties. As a result, the federal and state archives holding these documents do not have reference guides to these collections.
In addition, in 1991-2001, 19 million were deposited in the state archives, including managerial and staff documents of liquidated enterprises and organizations (including enterprises established in the 1990s); documents of parties and social movements; private archives; cinema documents, photos, video documents and records; and, science and technology documentation. Planned declassification of archival documents was also being carried out, and as a result, 6.5 million items were declassified from secret holdings. This infusion of documents significantly affected the qualitative and quantitative structure of access to materials in the state archives of Soviet and post-Soviet periods. Additionally, some changes also took place in pre-Soviet collections because some collections were moved, or processed.
As a result of all of these changes, the majority of reference books published earlier has failed to reflect the current conditions of archival collections and is unable to support information retrieval to the full extent. In addition, as a result of democratic changes in the society, increased interest in the country's history and revival of traditions is influencing the patron’s choice of materials that they wish to utilize. The creation of this database will assist scholars in their work to locate and utilize this wealth of information.
When completed, this project will benefit all students and scholars in Slavic studies. Slavic library collections are the backbone of all college and university Slavic studies programs that train future experts and scholars in the field. In order to fully understand the current situation of most East Central European countries, one must have a detailed understanding of the country’s history, culture, and language. In order to successfully conduct research on Russia, one has to have access to its archives. Although most Russian archives are more “open” then their Soviet predecessors, scholars still have a difficult time finding and using discovery tools that will allow them to work in the appropriate archive.
This project allows the University of Kansas Libraries to work with the Rosarkhiv to digitize, preserve, and provide bibliographic access to important scholarly guides to the Russian Archive System. Upon completion, this digital database will provide the most comprehensive access to the holdings of the Russian archive system in one simple, user-friendly electronic format. The database will allow students and scholars from anywhere in the world to quickly and efficiently identify important archival holdings related to their research or areas of interest. In order to provide access to the finished resource, the KU Libraries will create appropriate records in the OCLC international bibliographic database, which is available to over 9,000 libraries worldwide so that scholars globally will have access to this database. In addition, appropriate bibliographic records will be included in the local online catalog that is accessible through the World Wide Web at: http://catalog.lib.ukans.edu. The Slavic holdings at the University of Kansas Libraries are widely available. Anyone may use the KU collections in situ. The collections are also available off-site through interlibrary loan. A net lender by a ratio of 2:1, the KU Library loans over 2,800 Slavic items annually. Most importantly, the electronic resource created will be available to anyone with access to the World Wide Web.
The potential audience for this project is immense. The major audience that this project is intended to serve is the academic and scholarly community, primarily composed of faculty and students pursuing Slavic studies throughout the United States and abroad. The secondary audience is the non-academic public who is interested in Slavic studies.
In the United States alone there are over 290 institutions that have established programs in Slavic and East European studies. Most of the faculty teaching these courses are members of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS). AAASS boasts a membership of over 4,200 scholars and holds a national convention as well as 10 regional conferences annually. There are also many scholarly societies affiliated with AAASS, both in the United States and abroad including the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages, American Council of Teachers of Russian, and the Association for the Study of Nationalities, to name a few.