Opening of the Archive of the Russian Empire MFA. Archive of foreign policy of the Russian Empire. Machine for making boxes
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke at the opening ceremony of the building of the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire, which took place on June 28.
The archive of the foreign policy of the Russian Empire "moved" from Smolenskaya-Sennaya Square to Bolshaya Serpukhovskaya, 15. Immediately after the completion of the move, the presentation of the new building of the Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire (AVPRI) took place. It was attended by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Lavrov and the head of the Federal Archival Agency Andrey Artizov. AVPRI continued to work almost in full and was temporarily located in a building on Smolenskaya-Sennaya Square, but the researchers were deprived of a reading room. The opening of the archive will become “full-fledged” when, in September, researchers will again be able to work in the archive's reading room. “The building is great. I would like to thank everyone who put their hand, soul and heart into this,” Sergey Lavrov said opening the ceremony.
The Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire was established in 1721 by Peter the Great and is in fact the oldest Russian archive. “Archival business today is not some kind of technical specialty, it is directly related to our Russian statehood, the preservation of the identity of our people, respect for its traditions and the study of what glorified our Motherland. It is not for nothing that the Rosarchive is now directly subordinate to the President of Russia,” the Foreign Minister emphasized.
“Archival business today is not some kind of technical specialty, it is directly related to our Russian statehood, the preservation of the identity of our people, respect for its traditions and the study of what glorified our Motherland. It is not for nothing that the Rosarkhiv is now directly subordinate to the President of Russia V.V. Putin.”
Sergey Lavrov noted that AVPRI is an archive open to researchers and closely cooperates with the Federal Archives in exhibitions, publishing activities, and in the creation of Internet projects covering various events in national history. Andrey Artizov in his speech stressed that the new building of the departmental archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is part of the consistent work to modernize the Russian archives. Over the 15 years of the history of modern Russia since 2000, 88 thousand square meters have been put into operation at the federal level. meters of new archival space, and if we count also 6 thousand square meters. meters of AVPRI, then this is already 94 thousand, and over the 70 years of Soviet history, 118 thousand meters of new archival space were built, that is, proportionally, the pace and volume of archival renewal are incomparable. And the work on updating consistently continues.
Attention to archival documents is increasing more and more, their role in the fight against falsification and distortion of history, in restoring historical truth is realized. “Without archival documents, without historical memory, we will be Ivans who do not remember kinship,” said Andrey Artizov. He noted that it is customary to come to a housewarming party with gifts - the day before, 119 volumes of the most complete anthology of the history of Russian social thought published by the Federal Archives were transferred to the Foreign Ministry.
“In modern conditions, we are forced to engage in work related to the restoration of historical truth, with the opposition to those myths and falsifications that quite often sound today in relation to our history, and our common past, and in relation to the Second World War.”
"Pearls" of the Fund of the Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire
For the solemn opening ceremony, the staff of the archive prepared a small but extremely valuable exposition of those documents that are the pride of the foundation. The most significant of them is the Treaty of Nystadt in 1721, which ended the long-term Northern War and marked the beginning of the Russian Empire. Russia received access to the sea and the Baltic provinces. The photo shows the original of the Nystadt Treaty, it was enclosed in a wooden “cover”.
And next to it, in a blue velvet cover, is the Swedish ratification of the treaty.
Swedish ratification of the Nystadt Peace Treaty with Friedrich's wax sealI.
It is signed by the Swedish king Frederick.
Authentic signature of King Frederick of SwedenIon the Swedish ratification of the Nishtad Peace Treaty.
The contract is sealed with a wax seal placed in a special metal case - the ark.
Friedrich's wax sealI.
The exhibition presents documents of the Napoleonic era - the Tilsit Peace Treaty of 1807, Napoleon's letter to Emperor Alexander from Moscow, engulfed in fire.
Here is a letter from M.I. Kutuzov to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Count N.P. Rumyantsev, that under Ruschuk, a victory was won over the Turkish forces of Akhmet Pasha, twice the size of the Russian army.
Letter from M.I. Kutuzov to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Count N.P. Rumyantsev.
Nearby is the project of Alexander I on the organization of post-war Europe in 1814. This is an autograph written in pencil. The exhibition also presents a watercolor, which shows the uniform of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the era of Alexander I.
Uniform of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the era of AlexanderI.
The Persian ratification of the Turkmenchay peace treaty of 1828 was also presented, in the development of which A.S. Griboyedov, the minister-resident in Persia, took an active part. The original is richly decorated with golden script, on one page there is a personal seal of Abbas-Mirza.
Turkmanchay peace treaty of 1828 between Russia and Persia.
A unique document on Russian-Chinese relations of 1810 is also presented - an illustrated ceremonial meeting of Russian and Chinese border chiefs. The artist depicted a parade of cavalry, the formation of which stretched out on paper almost in full length. The guardian, the first secretary of the Historical and Documentary Department, Olga Volkova, helped to unfold and show the unique archival document.
The guardian Olga Volkova holds a document of 1810 in full spread.
The archivists also showed the famous circular of A.M. Gorchakov of 1856: “Russia is not angry, Russia is concentrating,” the chancellor wrote and emphasized that the emperor, not wanting to infringe on the interests of any of the countries, would first of all observe the interests of Russia and concentrate on internal politics of the empire. "To be according to this," - the emperor's mark on the document.
A.M. Gorchakov's circular in French, 1856, signed by AlexanderII.
The exposition is completed by archival documents from the very end of the 19th century - a note to the diplomatic missions of the Western powers in the Russian capital about the convening of a peace conference in The Hague in 1899.
At the end of the ceremony, the head of the archive, Irina Vladimirovna Popova, conducted a short tour of the new premises of the AVPRI especially for International Affairs. In the archive, the restoration workshop is equipped with the most modern means of restoration, in which the life of historical rarities will be extended. “In each newly commissioned archive, - I. Popova said, - a reading room, a service library, restoration, copying and other rooms should be provided.” The restorer is a rare and now scarce profession. Many restorers go into commercial projects. I. Popova showed special dust-removing machines, computer-controlled machine for making cardboard boxes.
This vacuum cleaner machine extracts the most microscopic dust from paper.
In such a pressure chamber, using various nozzles, it is possible to process documents that are subject to a high degree of dilapidation.
Documents in AVPRI are stored horizontally in special archival boxes, many of them deteriorate, literally fall apart - two moves is too much for priceless documents - everything had to be done to save them. In the photo - a sample of a miniature owlet box created by a "box-making" machine.
Machine for making boxes.
The archive produces many copies of documents every year for historians, it happens that the leaders of Russia, during their visits abroad, as a gift to the host, are presented with a dummy of some historical document “with history” that is practically indistinguishable from the originals. Employees are pleased that one of the problems - the lack of intact boxes for storing materials - will be at least partially solved.
Machine for the restoration of documents.
Restoration equipment is diverse - from special paper cutters to the most complex devices - a paper refilling machine for restoring paper, normalizing its acidity, for working with stitched multi-page documents - all this equipment will extend the life of many historical documents.
The machine for work with volume documents.
For copying and digitizing, the archive has special high-quality scanners, special cameras for large-format documents and other equipment.
Single page machine.
Speaking about the just completed move, Irina Popova called it “from shelf to shelf”, which is achieved by careful preparation and technological calculation.
The main storage facility.
Thanks to painstaking preparation, AVPRI practically did not stop working. AVPRI is a non-replenishable archive, but one way or another, a reserve is necessary, therefore one of the storages is equipped with mobile, and not stationary, like all other storages, racks.
Mobile racks.
Microfilms are stored in special temperature and humidity conditions, in a separate storage on open racks, each box with film is on its own shelf.
Storage of microfilms with documents.
Concluding the tour, Irina Popova stressed that the new building has all the conditions for archival work.
Metal cells for storing a group of documents horizontally.
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Address: Moscow, Bolshaya Serpukhovskaya street, 15. Zip code 115093.
Story
The archive in St. Petersburg (PKID) had documents with an active term and diplomatic correspondence, the term of which was three years.
In 1720, the KID created an instruction for the archivist "On the disassembly and description of the archives of the Collegium." The first was the translator A. D. Poychanov. He had to put things in order first at KID, then at MAQID, where all the documents were bound into books:
In addition, the instructions indicated the address of the PKID: on Vasilyevsky Island, in the house of the Twelve Collegia:
The geographical location of MACID has also been determined. In the first half of the 18th century, he was in the Orders building in the Kremlin, after which he moved to the Rostov Compound. Then - until the 1870s, to the chambers of E. Ukraintsev at the address: Khokhlovsky lane, house 7.
All expired documents were transported from KID to MAKID. The MACID staff consisted of six people, most of them translators, since the documents were available in different languages. The board also said:
From 1740 to 1760, the head of the MACID was M. G. Sobakin. He conducted an active analysis and inventory of documents, as a result of which the archive became the historical and cultural center of the city until 1825. Also MAKID was the first archive in Russia to start publishing documents. In the 1770s, N. I. Novikov worked here. In 1811, N.P. Rumyantsev, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, contributed to the formation of the Commission for the Printing of State Letters and Treaties, where diplomatic papers of the state were printed. importance. During the 19th century, the commission issued 5 volumes containing state letters and treaties. After working at MAQID, I had the opportunity to go to other countries to get an education.
On April 10, 1832, according to the decree, the archive of the Russian Foreign Ministry was divided into three parts: two were in St. Petersburg, the other in Moscow. The Moscow Main Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MGAMID) contained documents from 1256 to 1801.
In 1870, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs received the premises of the Moscow Mining Board on Vozdvizhenka. Then the building was rebuilt and in 1875 the Moscow Main Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was located here.
On July 3, 1914, the law on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was adopted, where the functions of the archives were approved. According to which, documents from 1801 to 1832 and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs began to be stored in the main archive in St. Petersburg, and documents from 1256 to 1801 were supposed to be in the Moscow main archive. Until 1917, inquiries were made here for the Russian Foreign Ministry. In 1916, 110 researchers worked at MGAMID.
In September 1917, the Provisional Government divided the documents from the archive in Petrograd into three routes: to the Moscow State Museum of Foreign Affairs, to the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery in the city of Kirillov, the other remained in the city. In 1921, documents from the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery were transferred to the archive in Moscow, and in 1922 from Petrograd. Thus, the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are collected in Moscow.
From 1920 to 1925, the archives were under the control of the State Archives of the RSFSR, then - the Ancient Storage. In 1933 the archive was divided into two separate archives.
Since 1941, the Central State Archive of Ancient Acts has been merged [ ] . The archive was evacuated to Samara.
Since 1992, the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts [ ] . Subsequently, it became known as the Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire.
In 2015, the reconstruction took place. The reconstruction was completed in September 2016. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation S.V. took part in the opening ceremony of the new building. Lavrov.
At the moment, 400 funds are concentrated in the AVPRI (a guide to the funds was released in a limited edition in 1996) and collections with a total volume of about 600,000 items (files), which are diplomatic documents, mainly in originals, incl. reports addressed to the “highest name”, rescripts on foreign policy issues, instructions to diplomatic and consular representatives, their reports to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reports on international conferences with the participation of Russia, musical correspondence, annual reports of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, etc. The Archive contains collections of documentary materials of prominent Russian diplomats, statesmen and public figures, military leaders, scientists, writers, as well as a collection of microfilms received as part of international exchange.
Publication activity
The study of archival materials began with the Decree of Empress Catherine II dated January 28, 1779, to Academician G.F.
In 1811, on the initiative of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, N.P. Rumyantsev, the Collegium for Printing State Letters and Treaties was established. As early as 1813, N.N.
In 1861 - 1862. 4 issues of "Letters of Russian sovereigns and other persons of the royal family" were published.
From 1867 to 1916 was published in volume 148 of the "Collection of the Russian Historical Society".
From 1874 - 1896 - 15 volumes "Collection of treatises and conventions concluded by Russia with foreign powers" under the guidance of Professor F.F. Martens.
In December 1917, "Collections of Secret Treaties from the Archives of the Former Ministry of Foreign Affairs" were published. In the 1930s, a 20-volume series "International Relations in the Era of Imperialism, Documents and Materials from the Archives of the Tsarist and Provisional Government 1878-1917" was published.
From 1957 to the present, "Foreign policy of Russia in the 19th - early 20th century. Documents of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs" (16 volumes) and others has been published:
Literature
Young men from many wealthy families worked here: Golitsyns, Dolgoruky, Volkonsky, Trubetskoy, Gagarins, Novosiltsevs, Tolstoy, Bulgakovs - they were called "archival youths". A. S. Pushkin used this expression in the novel "Eugene Onegin" in the seventh chapter:
Archive access
At the moment, access to the archive can be obtained by Russian and foreign researchers. Russian researchers are required to provide an official letter of recommendation from the sending organization (educational institution, media, etc.) indicating the chronological framework and topic of work, it is also desirable to indicate the numbers of those funds with which the researcher will work. As for foreign researchers, they are also required to provide a letter of recommendation, but from a "well-known scientific, educational or public organization", while working in the archive, it is obligatory to indicate the address of temporary registration or residence in Moscow. The decision on the admission of each researcher is made within a month, but can be made in a shorter time.
The new reading room is designed for approximately 15-20 workplaces
On February 28, 1720, Peter I issued the “General Regulations of State Collegia”, a special chapter of which was devoted to the archives and ordered to concentrate all documents of the central government of the country, except for financial ones, in the archive of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs * (* Complete collection of laws of the Russian Empire (hereinafter - PSZRI ), St. Petersburg, 1830, 1 collection vol. VI, No. 3534 ..)This was the beginning of the Moscow and St. Petersburg archives of the Collegium. The Moscow Archives of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs (MAKID) concentrated materials that had lost their operational significance, documents of the Ambassadorial Order - the Russian Foreign Ministry before the Collegium. Among them were the remains of the Moscow grand-ducal and tsarist archives of the 14th-16th centuries inherited by the Ambassadorial Order, documents on the diplomatic relations of the Russian state from the 15th to the beginning of the 18th century, a unique library of manuscripts, the most valuable editions of Russian and Western European authors. The St. Petersburg archive of the KID has become an archive of current affairs. After three years, the current diplomatic correspondence was sent there.
In 1720, the KID compiled instructions for the first Russian archivist, translator A.D. Pochainov “On the disassembly and description of the archives of the Collegium”. He was instructed to first streamline the affairs in the collegiate archive in St. Petersburg, and then in Moscow, and “there are state and other ancient affairs found in the Ambassadorial order, taking a statement that, according to previous decrees, was dismantled there, disassemble and make a detailed description of them by states and registers with numbers ". The documents in the “columns” were to be bound into books by the archivist, “gluing the pillars against the sample given to him” * (* AVPRI, f. Internal Collegiate Affairs (hereinafter - VKD), op. 2/6, d. 1, l. 260. .)
The instruction also determined the location of the archive in St. Petersburg: “And take the lower chambers for the archive of the office of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs and in them one table with cloth, and the rest - simple, and make wardrobes, tables and benches and what will be needed and give two watchmen for storage. And those who will be assigned to the affairs of the archive, they will not have them for other matters, but they will be inseparable from that matter” * (* Ibid., fol. 261-261v.). From 1732, the State Committee for Foreign Affairs and its archive were housed in the famous building of the Twelve Collegia on Vasilyevsky Island.
Archive of the collegium in Moscow in the first half of the 18th century. was located in the Orders building in the Kremlin, then - in the Rostov courtyard near Varvarka, and then was moved to the chambers of E. Ukraintsev on Pokrovka (Khokhlovsky lane, 7), where he was until the 70s of the XIX century.
The instruction given to the first Russian archivist regulated the disassembly and description of cases and largely determined such work in the archives of the Foreign Ministry for a long time. 1720 can be considered the date of the final creation of the first formalized state archive in Russia. In the lists of officials of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs in 1721, the following composition of the archive in St. Petersburg was mentioned: archivist Alexei Pochainov, one clerk and seven copyists Ibid., l. 32-32ob.. Officials dealing with archives also remained in Moscow.
Already at the end of 1720, both archives carried out reference work on the instructions of the leadership of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs
For example, on December 2, 1720, the KID in St. Petersburg was asked to “search with all diligence” in Moscow for documents on Russian relations with Poland in the early 18th century; materials “required ... for writing a story that continues in the office of the s.c.v. - L., 1925, p. 3.,), etc. Treatises concluded by Russia with foreign states were transferred to the St. Petersburg Archive shortly after they were signed. So, the agreement with Sweden, concluded in Nystadt on August 30, 1721, was transferred to the archive on September 27 of the same year * /l..)The connection between the current (St. Petersburg) and historical (Moscow) diplomatic archives was manifested in the fact that the files of the St. Petersburg archive, which had lost their practical significance, were transported to Moscow.
In MAKID in the first half of the XVIII century. there were significant staff for that time - six people, since documents in many languages \u200b\u200bare stored here and qualified translators were needed. Moreover, the leadership of the KID noted that “officials from the Moscow office of the Collegium, as well as from outsiders, need to be assigned to the archive, as many capable and reliable people need to be recruited”, because “review, analysis and a decent description of cases in the archive takes quite a while, then, probably, it is only necessary to have effort so that time does not pass in vain”* (* AVPRI, f. VKD, op. 2/6, d. 2057, l. 2/2v..) under M.G. Sobakin, who headed the archive in the 40-60s of the XVIII century.
In the second half of the XVIII - first quarter of the XIX century. MAKID has become a prominent historical and cultural center of Moscow. The archive managed to put things in order in the accounting and storage of documents, which became easier to use when compiling certificates for the needs of the State Committee for Foreign Affairs and publications.
MAKID is also known as the first Russian archive to start publishing documents. In the 70s of the XVIII century. the remarkable Russian educator N.I. Novikov participated in this work. In 1811, on the initiative of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia N.P. Rumyantsev, a Commission for the Printing of State Letters and Treaties was established at the archive, which aimed at publishing diplomatic and other materials of national importance. The commission, which worked for almost the entire last century, issued five volumes of state charters and treaties (four volumes in 1813-1828, the fifth volume in 1894), which included more than 1000 historical documents of the 13th-18th centuries.
At the end of the XVIII - the first half of the XIX century. in the archives of the Foreign Ministry, prominent public figures, diplomats, publicists, historians, writers, in particular, P.B. Kozlovsky, D.P. Severin, brothers Kireevsky, P.M. Stroev, K.F. Kalaidovich, M. P. Pogodin, D.V. Venevitinov, A.K. Tolstoy, Decembrist N.I. Turgenev, N.P. Ogarev, A.N. Afanasiev and others.
After several years of work in the archives, young people could go to foreign universities to complete their education, get a place in Russian embassies and missions abroad. In 1802, Bantysh-Kamensky, sending to St. Petersburg a list of employees of the Moscow Archives, in particular, wrote: All these young, noble people serve without salary, translating, listing cases and various extracts according to decrees sent from the Collegium, and thereby prepare themselves for further service for the state ”* (* AVPRI, f. Administrative Affairs (hereinafter - AD), III -1, 1802, d. 1, l. 3 ..)
Representatives of many aristocratic families were listed here as junkers, actuaries, translators:
Golitsyn, Dolgoruky, Volkonsky, Trubetskoy, Gagarin, Novosiltsev, Tolstoy, Bulgakov. It is about these “archival youths” A.S. Pushkin wrote in the seventh chapter of “Eugene Onegin”: “Archival young men in a crowd look stiffly at Tanya” ... A public figure and writer of the middle of the 19th century. A.I. Koshelev, who also served in MAKID in his youth, recalled that “the archive was known as a gathering of brilliant Moscow youth, and the title of“ archival youth ”became very honorable, so that later we even got into the verses of A S. Pushkin " * (* Avtokratova M.I., Buganov V.I., Treasury of documents of the past. M., 1986, p. 38 ..)The most massive influx of documentary materials occurred in 1868, when the archives of the departments of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that existed before that were abolished and their documents were transferred to the St. Petersburg Main Archive. In the second section of the archive, materials were distributed according to artificially created categories, subdivided into genera. As a result of such a division, the stock belonging of documents was violated, and the files of the same department turned out to be dispersed into several categories.
In 1916, 110 researchers worked in the reading room of the Moscow State Academy of Foreign Affairs. The Commission for the Printing of State Letters and Treaties, which was attached to the Archives, in which all its publishing activities were concentrated, its main duty “in the present state of Russian historical science,” as it was written in the report on the work of the Moscow State Museum of Foreign Affairs for 1916, “recognizes the publication of inventories of the archive and its libraries." In 1914 she published the first volume of the Archive of the Kingdom of Poland. In 1915, she was engaged in the preparation of two editions: “Description of the Manuscripts of the Archival Library” and the second volume of the “Archive of the Kingdom of Poland” * (* AVPRI, f. Reports on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1916, op. 475, d. 147, d. 11 .. )
Highly qualified specialists continued to work in the archives. From 1886 to 1918 (32 years in total) Sergey Alekseevich Belokurov (1867-1918) served in the Moscow State Foreign Museum. Since 1898, the clerk Belokurov actually managed the Moscow Main Archive of the Ministry. He was a real ascetic, an excellent historian, the author of more than 350 works * (* Belokurov S.A. 1882-1907. List of scientific works, M., 1908.,) an archivist, a doctor of church history, comparable in scientific research only with N.N. .Bantysh-Kamensky and A.F. Malinovsky, famous archivists of the State Committee for Foreign Affairs - the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the late XVIII - early XIX century. Under the influence of Belokurov, the archive “from the refuge of well-born young people who aspired to a diplomatic career, became a haven for those who were interested in historical science and saw in reading and studying archival documents not boring, lifeless work, but the meaning and content of their lives” * (* Historical Bulletin, Pg., 1919, p. 435..)
An expressive description of this outstanding Russian historian and the atmosphere in which he worked is given in the article by M.M. Bogoslovsky “On the writings of S.A. Belokurov on Russian history”: “But being neither a historian-thinker, nor a historian-artist, he was in all purity - a researcher, a searcher. His scientific activity consisted precisely in collecting and searching for facts. For many years he was the custodian of that huge and precious treasury of ancient documents that the Moscow archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs hides, and was not limited only to the duties of a custodian. During these many years, there are hardly many days when he does not work on the study of stored documents.
Entering the archive hall, one could always find him at his desk, leaning over some old manuscripts... The entire repository passed through his hands and was in a slow succession, document after document under his attentive gaze, on his desk. He clearly knew the entire archive: there was probably not a single corner in this collection, not a single cardboard, book or bundle, of which he did not have a more or less detailed idea. No matter how detailed archive inventories are compiled, they are never able to replace this living knowledge, and Sergei Alekseevich was precisely this living inventory of the archive, precious for every scientist. The writer of these lines, and whether he was the only one, often had to turn to Sergei Alekseevich for information about the documents stored in the archive, with the question of what could be found in the archive ... and not a single such question was left without a completely exhaustive and detailed answer, without guidance and precise indication.
Knowing the archive well ... Belokurov was not an egoistic guardian of those treasures in which he stood, and generously shared them with the scientific world, constantly publishing and publishing the documents stored in the archive, thus increasing the stock of factual material at the disposal of science and enriching it by collecting everything new and new facts”* (*Bogoslovsky M.M. Historiography, memoirs, epistolary. M., 1987, p. 99..)
After the February Revolution of 1917, documents from the Winter and Anichkov Palaces, as well as Peterhof, Gatchina and Tsarskoe Selo* (*AVPRI, f. St. Petersburg Glavarchiv, op. 718, d. 193, l. 1. .)
Readers of the "Diplomatic Bulletin", the journals "Mezhdunarodnaya Zhizn" and "New and Contemporary History" have already been able to get acquainted with a large number of documents related to the problems of Soviet-German military cooperation in the 1920s, the conclusion of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in 1939 and the treaty about friendship and the border with their secret protocols, the trip in November 1940 of the head of the Soviet government V.M. Molotov to Berlin and his cipher telegrams to I.V. troops in the Baltics, etc.
To date, 103,595 archival files have been declassified from
fixed assets of WUA RF for the pre-war, war and post-war years
This large-scale work was not without flaws. Gaps in the regulatory framework have become apparent both on the issue of declassifying documents and extending the periods of their closed storage. In a careful analysis of certain categories of declassified documents, some aspects of the practical activities of diplomats turned out to be underestimated. Already in the mid-1990s, a number of negative aspects appeared in the examination of archival documents carried out in a short time. It became clear that a more thorough and balanced approach to the declassification of archival files containing specific documentation, the so-called. "sensitive or personal" information.As a rule, in the archives of foreign countries, analogues of such documents are removed from the scope of user access, or, if they are provided, they undergo strict filtering, i.e. only that part of the document is declassified, the disclosure of which cannot harm the state or a particular person.
Continuing the story about the Archive, we can name several large groups of materials that are listed in 1702 funds. First of all, it is a collection of "International Treaty Acts".
It has evolved since the creation of the Politarchive and began to grow especially rapidly after the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted on March 2, 1951 a resolution imposing on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs the responsibility of storing authentic international treaty acts. This function of the Russian Foreign Ministry as a depository is also confirmed by the Law of the Russian Federation "On International Treaties". Most of these treaties are published in periodicals and in the International Treaties series published by the Legal Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.
A specific group of materials are the funds of the secretariats of ministers (People's Commissars), their deputies, members of the board of the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs, materials and resolutions of the board of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (NKID). These are 30 funds, formed mainly in the 20-40s, including the funds of G.V. Chicherin, L.M. Karakhan, M.M. Litvinov, N.N. Krestinsky and others.
In the fund, for example, of the secretariat of the Deputy People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs S.A. Lozovsky (Dridzo) from 1939 to 1946, numbering more than 1700 cases, one can find notes of the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs in the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, memos to the People's Commissar, records of his conversations with foreigners, and also records of conversations of other leading employees of the NKID, note correspondence with foreign diplomatic representatives in Moscow, mainly from the countries of the East, which he supervised, reports and bulletins of the Press Department of the NKID, information on various foreign policy problems, correspondence of the All-Union Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries ( VOKS), USSR Academy of Sciences, the Union of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (SOCC), the Union of Soviet Writers, etc.
Along with general questions, this fund stores correspondence on individual countries, where, for example, documents on the steps of the Egyptian government to establish diplomatic relations with the USSR in 1943, on military cooperation with China in 1945, on the visits of Song Zingwen and Jiang Chingguo to Moscow, on the extension of the trade agreement, on the Soviet consular network in China, on the establishment in March 1941 of diplomatic relations with Thailand, on the main aspects of Japan's foreign and domestic policy in the light of Soviet-Japanese relations, on the inter-allied control mechanism for Japan and etc. Far from all the questions that Lozovsky had to deal with are named here.
The range of his interests was very wide and covered both the countries of Europe and the Far East
A significantly larger number of archival files and, accordingly, documents on various issues are stored in the funds of the secretariats of those ministers who have been in office for a longer time. So, in the fund of the Chicherin secretariat there are over 9 thousand files, in the fund of the Litvinov secretariat - about 3 thousand files, in the fund of the Molotov secretariat - over 12 thousand files. The formation of secretariat funds continued until the mid-1950s. Recreated in 1957, the General Secretariat no longer concentrated in its fund that variegated palette of documents that was typical for the funds of the minister and his deputies.The territorial departments of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs unite, along with the general affairs of the department, funds for specific countries. The names of departments, such as the "First European Department", and the number of countries included in it, may change, but the files of the referent or department for a particular country continue to be archived according to a strictly defined inventory in chronological order. For each of the countries with which the Russian Federation, the legal successor of the USSR, maintains diplomatic relations, a fund is formed, which consists of documents of correspondence on this country. The number of files depending on the country and the activity of foreign policy relations is different, but the principle of forming archival files remains common.
Take, for example, the reference fund for Norway. It contains cases reflecting the course of negotiations on the conclusion of a trade agreement between Russia and Norway in 1920-1921, draft concession agreements, documents on the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1924. There are materials on negotiations on various issues, in particular on the pacts on neutrality and non-aggression, concluded in the 1920s and 1930s. Documents from the period of the Second World War testify to the joint struggle of the two peoples against fascism, to the liberation of Northern Norway by the Soviet troops. Archival materials of the post-war years reflect the general confrontation of Soviet policy in connection with Norway's entry into NATO. At the same time, trade and economic cooperation continued, in particular between the northern regions of the two countries.
Some departments that do not have clearly directed regional structures and perform purely intra-ministerial functions submit their materials to the archive for other reasons. For example, personal files of employees are handed over by the Human Resources Department at the appropriate numbers. The Historical and Diplomatic Department or the Department of the State Protocol have their own specifics in the formation of archival files. This also includes the Legal Department, the Monetary and Financial Department, the Central Scientific Library and many others. Knowledge of all these numerous features distinguishes an experienced archivist from an amateur.
The next category of archival materials are the funds of embassies
The funds of the embassies of the Russian Federation abroad are formed directly in the embassies and are constantly replenished. There are so-called "dead funds", ie. funds of those embassies that ceased to exist, for example, the embassy in the GDR. At the same time, the former "dead funds", for example, in the Baltic countries, revived again. At present, the materials of the funds of the embassies, in connection with the improvement of means of communication, are somewhat poorer than in the past. But still, many documents can only be found there. Note correspondence with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the host country and the embassies of third countries, correspondence on economic and cultural issues, student exchange, etc. is deposited in the funds of embassies.Many embassies compile such documents as a chronicle of events, press reviews of the host country. Given the poverty of our libraries, where it is not always possible to find newspapers, for example, from Bolivia or Jordan, press reviews made by embassy workers are of great value to Russian researchers.
By the nature of the documentation, the funds of the representative offices of the Russian Federation at international organizations, in particular at the UN (New York), at the UN European Office (Geneva), at UNESCO (Paris), etc. adjoin the funds of the embassies.
The beginning of the publication of documents of the diplomatic history of Russia was laid by Empress Catherine II. Her skillful and complex diplomacy required special attention to the study and publication of Russian diplomatic documents - letters and treaties. This task was entrusted to Academician G.F. Miller, who was appointed head of the Moscow Archive of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs. By decree of Catherine on January 28, 1779, the “Russian Diplomatic Collection” began to be published. In order to speed up the publication of the collected materials, Catherine II ordered that copies of the documents be handed over to the well-known publisher and publicist N.I. Novikov, who published them in Ancient Russian Vivliofika. However, after Miller's death, his successors in charge of the archive were not authorized to continue publishing. Work on the publication of diplomatic documents and reference materials was put on a systematic basis only after the establishment in September 1802 of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia.
During the years of the Napoleonic wars, the complicated political situation led to the need for new and more extensive editions of diplomatic acts. In 1811, on the initiative of the well-known connoisseur and collector of Russian antiquities, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Count N.P. Rumyantsev, the Commission for Printing State Letters and Treaties was established at the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which immediately began work. The first part was published in 1813 under the direction of N.N. Bantysh-Kamensky, manager of the Moscow archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Later, the next three parts of the Collection of the most important state letters and treaties were published. They include state acts on the internal history of Russia until 1696. This publication was suspended (the fifth part was published only in 1894). After these publications, N.P. Rumyantsev intended to start publishing treaties with foreign states, but could not fully implement this due to the lack of persons in the commission who were “versed in the ancient forms of foreign languages”.
At the same time, attempts were made by the Russian diplomatic department to found a ministerial periodical. In 1806, the newspaper "Journal du Nord" was founded, which was then renamed "Conservateur Impartial", and in 1825 received its final name - "Journal de Saint-Petersbourg". The task of the newspaper, according to P. G. Divov, a responsible official of the Ministry and the actual organizer of this publication, was to resist the “impudence and absurdities” that foreign “scribblers” sought to spread in Europe. The newspaper was given the appearance of an independent body, as which it existed until the 20th century. In fact, it was a newspaper of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which, with its help, tried to influence public opinion in Russia and abroad. The pages of the "Journal" regularly published current diplomatic documents.
In 1874, under the guidance of Professor F.F. Martens, work was resumed on the publication of treaties with foreign states, which from 1874 to 1880 published 4 volumes of treaties with Austria and the 1st volume of treaties with Germany with extensive historical commentaries based on archival documents. This work was carried out until 1909. Following these publications, treaties with Germany, England and France were published in several volumes. The collections published the most important treaties, conventions and agreements with European states, which in time covered the period of the 18th - early 20th centuries.
Among the fundamental works published under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we can include the “Collection of the Moscow Main Archive of the Ministry”, compiled in 1880 under the direction of F.A. Buhler; “Proceedings of members of the Russian spiritual mission in Beijing”, “Eastern collection”, which published scientific works on Asian topics. In 1889, the "Collection of Treaties between Russia and China (1689 - 1881)" was published, and in 1900 - "The Code of International Regulations Defining Mutual Relations between Russia and China in 1689 - 1897."
In general, the range of thematic collections of diplomatic
documents and other materials in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was quite wide An example of this is prepared by the Second Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was in charge of consular and trade and economic relations with other countries: “Materials for the development of issues relating to the north of Russia” (1881), “Norwegian laws relating to Russian subjects” (1883) , “Review of trade relations between Portugal and Russia” (1891), “Russian workers in Prussia” (1896), “Svalbard. Diplomatic Correspondence” (1917).In addition to political and diplomatic documents, a number of periodicals covered issues related to the internal life of the Ministry and its individual divisions. So, from 1888 to 1900, the “Collection of Circulars of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the Department of Internal Relations and the Department of Personnel and Economic Affairs” was published, and from 1898 the publication of the “Collection of Consular Reports” was launched, which was published every two months.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also published a number of closed collections of documents and materials on topical international problems, published under the heading "secret" and distributed according to the list. These, first of all, included the magazine “Special Meeting”, which was essentially a protocol of interdepartmental meetings and sessions at which the most important issues of foreign policy were discussed.
Of all the variety of periodicals of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Yearbook and Izvestia undoubtedly deserve priority attention, since they were published regularly and, in terms of their content, selection and presentation of material, most fully met the daily needs of the apparatus of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its foreign agencies.
The “Yearbook of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs” was published from 1861 to 1917 and contained various information and reference materials on foreign policy and the activities of Russian diplomacy, in particular, lists of all personnel of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicating positions and ranks, the diplomatic corps in St. Petersburg and personnel foreign consulates in other cities of Russia, the rules for entering the service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for various positions, the basic requirements for candidates who had to pass competitive exams, various orders and circulars on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the schedule of departure and arrival of diplomatic mail, as well as tables of parity of the main currency units.
The “Diplomatic Documents” section published multilateral and bilateral international treaties, conventions, agreements and declarations with the participation of Russia, as well as government messages, circular notes of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to foreign embassies and notes of embassies sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Quite unusual for the practice of our days was the publication in the Yearbook of individual telegrams from operational ciphered correspondence between the Minister of Foreign Affairs and this or that Russian embassy on sometimes very delicate issues of Russia's relations with other countries. It was intended both for officials of the Ministry, and for representatives of political and scientific circles.In 1912, the first issue of the News of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was published.
The magazine was published in separate books, which came out every two months. According to the Minister S.D. Sazonov: “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has long felt the need to publish a permanent periodical body that could serve for printing all kinds of international acts, diplomatic and consular reports and private works related to the subjects of the department of the Ministry ...” * (* AVPRI, f. Department of personnel and economic affairs. Reference material, op. 664/1, d. 179, l. 5 ..) It was supposed to make the publication more accessible to employees of the Ministry, as well as to the general public. “Assuming the center of gravity of the publication in the printing of official materials,” the minister considered it necessary to have in Izvestia a department for “private scientific or practical work of persons serving or not serving in the Ministry. These private works could be devoted to questions of the history of international relations, international law, foreign trade policy, and so on. ... To assist in the serious development of such is therefore the second task of the publication ”* (* AVPRI, fund DLS and KH. Reference material, op. 664/1, d. 179, fol. 5v.). In this spirit, Comrade Minister A.A. Neratov’s circular dated March 3, 1911 was drawn up to the heads of Russian embassies, missions and consulates, in which it was proposed to assist the ministerial brainchild and deliver materials for publication.It is worth noting that according to a similar concept, the “Journal of International State Law” was published back in 1897 by E.K. Simson, Privatdozent of St. Petersburg University. It also published international treaties, printed government orders under the authority of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there were sections of international chronicles, scientific research, and bibliography. The magazine lasted one year, only six issues were published.
In 1917, after the February Revolution, in connection with the newly undertaken reorganization of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the question arose of merging the press department and the information department into one unit "due to the similarity of goals" of these departments. This united department was also entrusted with the publication of Izvestia under the name Journal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As the authors believed, such a journal should be in the nature of a periodical dedicated specifically to foreign policy issues and its content could be of interest not only to specialists, but also to a wider circle of the educated public.
On May 17, 1917, the new minister M.I. Tereshchenko approved a note on the merger of departments. However, Izvestia of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs not only did not begin to be published more often, but soon ceased to exist altogether. The new Journal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs never saw the light of day.
After the October Revolution, with the formation of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, the publication of foreign policy documents was resumed. In 1917, the revolutionary sailor Nikolai Markin was instructed to publish secret documents from the archives of the former Foreign Ministry of the Russian Empire. Then, from December 1917 to February 1918, under the direct supervision of Lenin and Trotsky, seven “Collections of Secret Documents from the Archives of the Former Ministry of Foreign Affairs” were published, later called “Markin’s Notebooks” by historians. Then the publication was suspended. “The edition of the following numbers of the Collection of Secret Documents due to technical difficulties, the editorial board has been placed in the need to temporarily stop,” the afterword to No. 7 said.
In 1919, the NKID Bulletin began to be published, in which notes and other documents of the Commissariat were published, as well as articles on foreign policy issues. Vestnik was published once every two or three months, had a volume of 38 pages, which at that time looked like a rather large publication. In parallel with it, from February 1920, the “Bulletin of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of the RSFSR” began to be published, which is a collection of articles from the foreign press, published in an abbreviated form. The Bulletin was printed weekly on 12-18 pages and was practically the only source of information about foreign publications.
In March 1922, the Vestnik and Bulletin were replaced by the International Life magazine.
The publication of the journal in 1922 is directly related to the implementation of the New Economic Policy by the Soviet government. At that time, calls for a world revolution were replaced by proposals for business cooperation, for attracting foreign investment. For the implementation of the new foreign policy, this journal was required. “International Affairs,” wrote People’s Commissar Georgy Chicherin, the political body of the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, wrote in No. 1 for 1923, it should serve in its sphere the general tasks of the foreign policy of the Soviet Republic,” which, in his words, “is looking for the main, deepest trends in the course of development political and economic relations of the present”.The journal was published at various intervals, but mostly once every two months. The circulation also changed - from 500 copies in the first year of existence to 2,000 in subsequent years. With the end of the NEP period, the journal ended its existence. His last issue came out in 1930. After Stalin's death, the question arose again of publishing a journal with the former name International Affairs. On September 7, 1953, the head of the Press Department of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs L.F. Ilyichev turned to the Minister of Foreign Affairs V.M. Molotov with a proposal to create a special journal that would deal with comprehensive coverage of foreign policy issues. In August 1954, based on the decision of the Central Committee of the CPSU, the first issue of the magazine was published. The publication was originally two-monthly, and in 1954 only two issues of the magazine were published. Then it began to appear monthly.
In parallel with Mezhdunarodnaya Zhizn, in 1987 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs resumed publication of the Bulletin of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs (now the Diplomatic Bulletin). The main goals and objectives of this publication are the publication of the most important diplomatic documents (statements, notes, etc.), problematic articles, analytical reviews, various information, including those related to anniversaries, chronicles of consultations with foreign diplomats, as well as other materials on issues within the competence of the relevant departments of the Central Office and foreign agencies. A special place is occupied by publications of documents from the archives of Russian foreign policy, which are of interest from the point of view of the history of international relations.
Thus, it can be stated that over the past two centuries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has paid special attention to its periodicals, which, despite their official nature, are of both practical and scientific value.
On the publishing activity of the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the 50s - 90s of the XX century.
Petr Ivanovich Pronichev - Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Envoy of the 2nd class, Deputy Director of the Foreign Ministry of RussiaOne of the important activities of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the use of archives for practical and scientific purposes is the publication of collections of documents on various problems of the foreign policy of the Russian Empire, the USSR and the Russian Federation. This work became regular and purposeful after 1956.
Under the general leadership of the interdepartmental Commission for the publication of diplomatic documents under the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which existed until 1985 and was headed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs A.A. Gromyko, serial publications of Documents of the Foreign Policy of the USSR, Foreign Policy of Russia in the 19th and early 20th centuries were launched, a number of thematic documentary collections on various issues of foreign policy and international relations were published, a significant number of bilateral collections of documents prepared jointly with foreign ministries countries, as well as "History of Diplomacy", "Diplomatic Dictionary" (four editions) and many others. Most of these publications have made a significant contribution to the study of the history of the foreign policy of the USSR (Russia) and international relations in general. In total, from 1917 to the present, more than 100 titles of various documentary collections (250 volumes) have been published.Publications based on the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation
a) Serials. 23 volumes of the publication Documents of Foreign Policy were published, covering the period from 1917 to June 22, 1941. As part of this publication, more than 10 thousand previously unknown archival diplomatic documents have been introduced into scientific circulation.In 1996, the first volume of a new series of current foreign policy documents entitled "Foreign Policy of Russia" was published, covering the period from 1990 to 1992.
B) Thematic collections. Publications were regularly prepared on topical issues of foreign policy and international relations. For the pre-war period, it should be noted such collections as "Documents and materials on the eve of the Second World War. 1937-1939." (in 2 volumes), "The year of the crisis. 1938-1939." (in 2 volumes), "The plenipotentiaries report ... August 1939 - August 1940."
The well-known publications "Correspondence of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR with the Presidents of the United States and the Prime Ministers of Great Britain during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945" are devoted to the war period. (in 2 volumes), "The Soviet Union at international conferences during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945." (in 6 volumes), documentary collections about Soviet-English, Soviet-French and Soviet-American relations in 1941-1945, the first and second volumes of the collection "USSR and the German Question. 1941-1949." and etc.
The problems of the foreign policy of the USSR in the post-war years are reflected, in particular, in such thematic publications as "The Soviet Union in the struggle for disarmament", "The USSR in the struggle against colonialism and neo-colonialism. 1960-1986", "The USSR in the struggle for security and cooperation in Europe . 1964-1987", "USSR and the Middle East settlement. 1967-1988", "International cooperation in the field of human rights" (two issues). It should also be noted that a unique thematic publication "Letters of Former Tsarist Diplomats. 1934-1940" was prepared jointly with the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation and published in 1998. (in 2 books).
C) Bilateral collections. Such a form of international cooperation as bilateral collections of documents prepared by the Russian Foreign Ministry together with the ministries of foreign affairs of interested foreign countries continues to develop and improve. In total, since 1956, together with the Foreign Ministries of more than 20 countries, 40 such collections have been published on the relations of Russia (USSR) with Argentina, Bulgaria, Hungary, Venezuela, Italy, Mongolia, Norway, Poland, France, Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, Yugoslavia, etc.
In February of this year. published the first volume of the joint collection "Soviet-Israeli relations. 1941 - 1953." (in 2 books). Taking into account the prospects of this form of cooperation, negotiations are underway with the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of a number of foreign countries (Austria, Bulgaria, Belarus, Denmark, Norway, etc.) on the publication of archival documents covering the history of our relations at different stages of history.
Publications based on the Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire
Since 1956, the fundamental serial publication "Foreign Policy of Russia in the 19th - early 20th centuries" has been published, in total 16 volumes have been published. Currently, the layout of the 17th volume has been prepared. For many years this publication was carried out under the guidance of Academician A.L. Narochnitsky, at present it continues under the guidance of Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences G.N. Sevostyanov. Also published: two volumes of the collection of documents "Russian-Chinese Relations in the 18th century", one volume of the collection "International Relations in Central Asia", the Soviet-American collection "Russia and the USA: the formation of relations 1765 - 1815." (negotiations are underway with the American side on the possibility of continuing this publication); three volumes of the collection "Russia and the Bulgarian National Liberation Movement 1856 - 1876"; two volumes "The First Serbian Uprising of 1804 - 1813 and Russia"; two volumes "The liberation struggle of the peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Russia. 1865 - 1875"; "Russia and Sweden. 1809 - 1918"; "Russia and Spain. 1667 - 1917"; "Russia-Siam. 1863 - 1917" and a number of other publications.Currently, joint documentary collections are being prepared on Russian-Greek relations in 1831-1917, Russian-Portuguese relations since the 18th century. to 1917 and Russian-Lebanese relations from 1839 to 1917. In 1992, AVPRI archival materials, along with documents from other state archives of the Russian Federation, were published in the collection Under the Banner of Russia, reflecting the processes of formation of the Russian centralized state - the Russian Empire from the 16th to the third quarter of the 19th centuries. and eloquently and convincingly showing the common historical destinies of the peoples of Russia.
In 1993, the publishing house "Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya" in the series "Russia in the memoirs of diplomats" published, according to the manuscript stored in the AVPRI, the notes of the Russian Foreign Ministry official G.N. This is the first experience of publishing the richest collection of the Archive's memoirs. In 1995, the guidebook "The Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire" was published. It consists of five parts: the College of Foreign Affairs (1720 - 1832); central institutions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia (XIX - early XX centuries); foreign institutions of the foreign policy service of Russia (late 18th - early 20th centuries); temporary institutions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, various commissions and societies, collections of documentary materials, personal and other funds; collections of microfilmed documents from foreign and Russian archives.
In 1998, a collection of documents and materials "Chancellor A.M. Gorchakov. 200 years since the birth" was published, including materials from the Jubilee Gorchakov Readings held at MGIMO on April 28-29, 1998, as well as documents related to the activities of A.M. .Gorchakov.
In the autumn of 1999, the fundamental 5-volume edition "History of Russian Foreign Policy" by the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as the collection "Russia - Morocco" by the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, prepared with the participation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, were published.
In February of this year. the first volume of the multi-volume fundamental publication "Russia and the USA in the 20th century" was published. The volume is devoted to Russian-American relations in 1900-1917. A feature of this series is that it is carried out jointly with the Institute of World History and is an example of actively developing cooperation in the publishing field between the Ministry and scientific institutions of the Russian Academy of Sciences on the basis of relevant agreements. Such agreements have been concluded or are being prepared for signing with the Institute of the Far East, the Institute of Oriental Studies, the Institute of Military History, Moscow State University.
Currently, the Department is working on preparing for publication more than 20 documentary collections. Of these, in 2000 it is planned to publish more than ten collections of documents and materials, incl. the next XXIV volume of the series "Foreign Policy Documents";
Volume XVII of the series "Foreign policy of Russia in the 19th and early 20th centuries"; three volumes of the "Foreign Policy of Russia" series for 1993-1995; two volumes of the series "Russia and the USA in the 20th century" for 1917-1933; the first volume of the series "Middle East Conflict" for 1947-1953; collection "Russia in the Holy Land"; two volumes of the joint collection "Soviet-Romanian relations. 1917-1941"; joint collection "Russia - Ukraine. 1990-1999"; joint collection "Soviet-Finnish relations. 1944 - 1948"; reference book "Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation"; collection of materials of the Scientific-practical conference dedicated to the 90th anniversary of A.A. Gromyko; collection of materials of the Scientific conference dedicated to the 450th anniversary of the Ambassadorial order.
1772-1783 V.E. Lvov
Adamov Evgeny Alexandrovich - 1920-1930
Zalkind Horace Abramovich - 1931-1932
Yakubovich Ignatiy Semenovich - 1934-1935
Kuznetsov Nikolai Kirillovich - 1935-1936 (Interim Archivist)
Pastukhov Sergey Konstantinovich - 1936-1937
Krupsky Vladimir Teofilovich - 1938-1939
Zyabkin Ivan Kornilovich - 1939-1943
Garmash Efim Stepanovich - 1943-1945
Archival Administration 1946-1958
Khvostov Vladimir Mikhailovich - 1945-1957
Historical and diplomatic administration 1958-1991
Zemskov Igor Nikolaevich - 1957-1967
Kharlamov Mikhail Averkievich - 1968-1975
Tikhvinsky Sergey Leonidovich - 1975-1980
Sevostyanov Pavel Petrovich - 1981-1986
Kovalev Felix Nikolaevich - 1986-1991
Historical and documentary management 1992 - present. (since 1993 - department)
Lebedev Igor Vladimirovich - 1992-1998
Stegniy Petr Vladimirovich 1998 - presentArchive of the foreign policy of the USSR 1946-1992.
Sarapkin Nikolai Pavlovich - 1947-1948
Gorokhov Ivan Matveyevich - 1949-1956
Klyukas Vikenty Ustinovich - 1957-1959
Maslakov Alexey Alexandrovich - 1960-1975
Sokolov Vladimir Vasilyevich - 1976-1992Archive of the foreign policy of the Russian Federation 1992-present
Bykov Anatoly Alexandrovich - 1992-1993
Belevich Elena Vladimirovna - 1993-1998
Mozzhukhina Nadezhda Pavlovna - 1998-presentArchive of Foreign Policy of Foreign States 1946 - 1955.
Ryzhykh Fedor Mikhailovich - 1946-1948
Koblyakov Ivan Kuzmich - 1949-1953
Churbanov Lev Grigorievich - 1953-1955Russian Foreign Policy Archive 1946 - present(since 1992 - Archive of the foreign policy of the Russian Empire)
Morovskaya Elena Petrovna - 1946-1950
Deev Georgy Konstantinovich - 1950-1953
Suslin Serafim Mikhailovich - 1953-1954
Solovyov Oleg Fedorovich - 1954-1958
Yakubovsky Vasily Pavlovich - 1958-1961
Mazaev Valery Ivanovich - 1961-1980
Agafonov Nikolai Sergeevich - 1981-1986
Kizichenko Vsevolod Leonidovich - 1986-1988
Filatov Vladimir Gerasimovich - 1988-1990
Budnik Igor Vladimirovich - 1991-1999
Kushpel Valery Leonidovich - 1999 - present"Instructions for a Young Archivist"
L.S. Mitrofanova * (* This, of course, is not an official document, which, however, testifies to the spirit of corporatism, without which the work of the Archive is impossible. It was compiled by Liliya Sergeevna Mitrofanova, adviser to the Historical and Documentary Department, in connection with her resignation after almost 40 years of service in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the transfer of affairs to a young fund keeper.)1. Always remember that you are primarily entrusted with the custody of a great documentary wealth.
A) In this regard, you should establish good, business contacts with the offices of your structural divisions and, if necessary, visit "on the ground" as often as possible in order to organize a regular and correct delivery of cases to the archive.
B) Try to keep a strict record of the incoming movements and departures of materials. Keep this account only yourself!
C) Do not be lazy to record in your notebook any movement of the case.
D) Do not make blockages. Make sure that things regularly return to their places. In the presence of blockages, an erroneous layout is also possible.
E) Take it as a strict rule never, for any time, to put your affairs in the cabinet of other fund guardians and do not put files from other funds in your cabinet, unless you have signed for them in the appropriate journal.
E) Set an iron rule for yourself: do not leave anything related to your service on the table at night and do not put it on the table. Get special folders for requests, inventories, draft material, etc. Keep these folders in your work cabinet.
G) If, when viewing cases, you have a whole folder from the fund in your hands, do not be lazy to check the presence of cases in the folder and on the cover, make a note "All cases are in place" - date, painting. This will make it easier for you to find "lost" cases.
All inquiries received (verbal and written) must be recorded in the "request book". In this notebook you can make notes such as: "performed", "handed over to so-and-so." If the request is complex, then it would not hurt to write down those cases where information was found on the request. (Requests are repeated even after 5-10 years. Therefore, "request notebooks" must be kept permanently.) When fixing requests in a notebook, it is advisable to indicate the number and date of registration of the document. Received a request - immediately fulfill it. Never delay your requests! I received a request - carefully read it and think about how to fulfill it with a minimum expenditure of working time. If the request covers a long period, start looking at cases "from the end", i.e. from a late period. This way you will be able to reduce your time searching for previous documentation, as at the end of the correspondence, the history of the issue is often given, indicating the chronological framework.
It is desirable to issue "complex requests" then in the form of archival certificates with the obligatory indication of case codes.
Never rush to say "no!". Pronounce this word loudly only when you are really convinced that there is no requested information in your affairs. But also remember that a good archivist, if he says "no", he will definitely tell you the way to further search, and sometimes he will tell you exactly where the requested information was deposited.
If, God forbid, you start kicking requests, it means that you went to slide into those whose price is worthless.
And remember that the most embarrassing thing in work is when you say "no", and after a while you, or even worse, someone else, will find what you did not find. And know that if you feel embarrassed and ashamed in this situation, this is not so bad, and if you do not experience this feeling, then this is already a disaster for the Archive. The archive does not tolerate people working full-time, somehow, without any responsibility for the work being done. Such people cause enormous and sometimes irreparable harm to the Archive, and consequently to the national wealth.
Do not use written requests as bookmarks in cases, do not use more subtle cases as bookmarks in other cases. It's like looking for a needle in a haystack later.
Get a separate folder "Requests" for requests.
Keep draft answers to standard requests for yourself so as not to waste time on the next compilation of answers.
3. If you want to become an expert in your field, do not avoid this type of work as the processing of previously deposited cases.
With all responsibility I can say that those employees who, not understanding the importance of this type of work for them personally, considering it invisible and not prestigious, never became real specialists.
Remember that in the process of this work, invisible to the eye of the authorities, you expand your knowledge of a particular country or problem, learn the contents of the fund, and then you will easily and freely work on these materials. During processing, you will definitely come across interesting documents and, therefore, you will be able to prepare a publication and actively engage in propaganda of Soviet foreign policy. Do not forget during processing to enter on the card documents related to the name of V.I. Lenin, and the main documents of relations between the USSR and this country.
5. Expand your language knowledge so as not to resort to outside help in understanding the text of a document in a foreign language.
6. Be sure to write reference reports and do not wait for the topic of the report to be offered to you. Choose the topic yourself, but "with a long-term vision", i.e. so that your report would serve you in the future as a scientific reference apparatus. Replenish constantly the pantry of the reference apparatus of your funds.
For example, such undeveloped topics as: "Manuilsky's Mission in France", "Ustinov's Mission in France (1923)", "Paul Langevin and the France-USSR Society", "Participation of Soviet Citizens in the Resistance Movement in France", " Squadron "Normandy-Neman" in the Soviet Union "etc.
It is advisable to make appropriate notes on the availability of such reports and certificates in the working inventory. To do this, blank sheets should be pasted in front of the inventory, in which notes "for memory" are made. For example: "Certificate on the transfer of the ashes of Herzen" - see ASB, op. __, p. __, d. __. I made similar notes in the inventories for the corresponding year, in the "note" column.
7. Do not forget about the presence of an exhibition hall and when working with documents, try to take note of those documents that could be used in expositions.
8. Never divide the work in the archive into "black" and "white". Do not shy away from "dirty" work, even if you have to clean up the vaults, pick up a rag, wipe the dust and wash the floors. Your hands, on occasion, should be able to sew, glue, make an inscription, number folders, rationally place materials in storage, make convenient topography, etc.
Any kind touch to archival affairs is their knowledge!
Wish you success!
Lilia Sergeevna
November 1983 MFAThe Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire (AVPRI) is a departmental archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation with a permanent composition of documentary materials; Organizationally, it is part of the Historical and Documentary Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry. The archive carries out state storage of documentary materials of a foreign policy nature from 1720 to 1917, being at the same time a depository of international treaties of the Russian Empire.
AVPRI has 400 funds and collections with a total volume of about 600,000 storage units (cases), which are diplomatic documents, mostly in originals, incl. reports addressed to the “highest name”, rescripts on foreign policy issues, instructions to diplomatic and consular representatives, their reports to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reports on international conferences with the participation of Russia, musical correspondence, annual reports of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, etc. The Archive contains collections of documentary materials of prominent Russian diplomats, statesmen and public figures, military leaders, scientists, writers, as well as a collection of microfilms received as part of international exchange.
The history of the formation of the Archive begins with the "General Regulations" of Peter I dated February 28, 1710, in which a special chapter was devoted to the organization of archives in the established state colleges. For a long time, all the files of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs were kept in Moscow, and only by the end of the 18th century. there was a need to open a collegiate archive in St. Petersburg.
With the formation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in September 1802, all the most important political correspondence began to be concentrated in the Chancellery of the Ministry, until 1832, the decree of Nicholas I on the reorganization of the structure of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the role of the main archive was still played by the archive of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs in St. Petersburg.
From 1832 to 1917, the Ministry owned three archives: in the capital - the St. Petersburg Main Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the State Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in Moscow - the Moscow Main Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
After the revolution, the Russian diplomatic archives were organizationally subordinate to the State Archive of the RSFSR, and since 1924 - to the Archive of the Revolution and Foreign Policy. Then part of the funds became part of the Ancient Storage, which was transformed in 1934 into the State Archive of the Feudal-Serfdom Era, and in 1941 - the Central State Archive of Ancient Acts (TsGADA). In 1934, the funds of the former Ministry of Foreign Affairs were separated into an independent archive, but in 1941 they were again merged into the Central Historical Archive in Moscow. During the war (1941-1945) the archives were evacuated.
In 1946, the materials of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire 1720 - 1917. due to practical necessity, they were separated from the state historical archives and subordinated to the Archival (since the end of 1958) Historical and Diplomatic Directorate of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs. By Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated March 14, 1995, they became part of the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Russia.
The study of archival materials began with the Decree of Empress Catherine II dated January 28, 1779, to Academician G.F.
In 1811, on the initiative of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, N.P. Rumyantsev, the Collegium for Printing State Letters and Treaties was established. As early as 1813, N.N.
In 1861 - 1862. 4 issues of "Letters of Russian sovereigns and other persons of the royal family" were published.
From 1867 to 1916 was published in volume 148 of the "Collection of the Russian Historical Society".
From 1874 - 1896 - 15 volumes "Collection of treatises and conventions concluded by Russia with foreign powers" under the guidance of Professor F.F. Martens.
In December 1917, "Collections of Secret Treaties from the Archives of the Former Ministry of Foreign Affairs" were published. In the 1930s, a 20-volume series "International Relations in the Era of Imperialism, Documents and Materials from the Archives of the Tsarist and Provisional Government 1878-1917" was published.
From 1957 to the present, "Foreign policy of Russia in the 19th - early 20th century. Documents of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs" (16 volumes) and others have been published.
AVPRI has extensive international ties in the field of publishing activities - the publication of joint collections, in holding bilateral exhibitions about friendly relations with a particular country, in exchanging copies of historical documents with foreign archives.
Even under Chancellor A.M. Gorchakov, the archive was open to researchers. To date, AVPRI is also an open public archive, in which both Russian and foreign historians can work. In order to get the right to study in the AVPRI reading room, the researcher must provide a letter of application from any educational or scientific organization indicating the topic, chronological framework and purpose of the study.
Applications for admission to the AVPRI reading room can be sent to the address 115093, Moscow, Bolshaya Serpukhovskaya st., 15, by fax + 7 499 236 52 01 or by e-mail [email protected] The reading room is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday from 9.30 to 17.00, Wednesday, Friday from 9.30 to 15.00. The last working day of each month is sanitary.
ARCHIVE OF THE FOREIGN POLICY OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE (FAR RI), departmental archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. It traces its history from the Moscow Archive of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs (MAKID; formed in 1724 on the basis of the General Regulations of 1720), which collected documents from departmental office work that had lost their practical significance. In 1779, Empress Catherine II ordered Academician G. F. Miller, manager of MAKID affairs, "to establish a collection of all Russian treatises, conventions and other similar acts." Since 1832, in connection with the reorganization of the structure of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, documents of the department began to be stored in 3 archives: the 1st Main Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (since 1834 the St. Petersburg Main Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), the 2nd Main Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (since 1834 the State Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in St. Petersburg) and the Moscow Main Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1920-1925, their funds were part of the State Archive of the RSFSR, during the dissolution of which part of the funds was transferred to the Ancient Storage (since 1941 TsGADA, now the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts), the other part became part of the Archive of the Revolution and Foreign Policy of Russia [in 1933 divided into 2 archives - the State Archive of Foreign Policy and the State Archive of the Revolution, which in 1941 were merged into the Central State Historical Archive (TSGIA) in Moscow]. In December 1945, due to practical necessity, the documents of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs (stored in the Central State Archives) and the funds of the foreign policy department of the Central State Institute of Arts were transferred to the Archives Department of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1946, on the basis of pre-revolutionary funds, the Archive of Russian Foreign Policy was created (until 1992). Exists along with the Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation.
Over 650 thousand archival files for 1720-1917 (1800 inventories) are stored in the WUA of the Republic of Ingushetia. Among them: treaty acts and instruments of ratification, rescripts, decrees and resolutions on issues of Russian foreign policy, reports of diplomatic representatives of the Russian Empire abroad and instructions to them; reports on international conferences; protocols of negotiations, correspondence of foreign ministries of various states; historical references; information about Russia's trade with most countries of the world.
The beginning of scientific work with the documents of the Foreign Ministry was laid in MAKID. In 1811, at the initiative of the Minister of Foreign Affairs N.P. Rumyantsev, the Collegium for Printing State Letters and Treaties was created, which published the "Collection of State Letters and Treaties" (parts 1-5, 1813-94). In 1813, based on archive materials, N. N. Bantysh-Kamensky prepared a “Review of Russia's Foreign Relations (up to 1800)” in 4 parts (published only in 1894-1902). Among other publications prepared using the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: "Letters of Russian sovereigns and other persons of the royal family" (Issue 1-4, 1861-62); "Collections of the Russian Historical Society" (vols. 1-148, 1867-1916); "Collection of treatises and conventions concluded by Russia with foreign powers" (vols. 1-15, 1874-1909; under the direction of F.F. Martens), "Collection of secret treaties from the archives of the former Ministry of Foreign Affairs" (issue 1-7, 1917 -eighteen); series “International Relations in the Age of Imperialism. Documents from the archives of the tsarist and provisional government 1878-1917” (vols. 1-10, 18-20, 1931-40); "Essays on the history of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia" (vols. 1-3, 2002). Since 1960, collections of documents “Foreign policy of Russia in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Documents of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs” (vols. 1-16), etc.
Lit .: Bogoyavlensky S. K. 200th anniversary of the former Moscow Main Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs // Archives. 1925. Issue. 2; Mazaev V. I., Chernetsov A. S. Archive of Russia's foreign policy // New and recent history. 1978. No. 6; Budnik I. V., Turilova S. L. Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire // New and Contemporary History. 1994. No. 4-5; Archive of foreign policy of the Russian Empire: Guide. Minneapolis, 1995.