State Committee on Archives of Ukraine

State Committee on Archives of Ukraine [Державний комітет архівів України; Derzhavnyi komitet arkhiviv Ukrainy, or Держкомархів; Derzhkomarkhiv]. The central management body for archival matters in Ukraine, established in its present form in December 1999 on the basis of agencies succeeding the first Main Archival Administration in Ukraine dating from 1919. The committee’s functions include establishing and maintaining legal control over public archival records in Ukraine, forming state policy in respect to archival planning, standardizing and controlling records maintenance, co-ordinating the work of Ukrainian archive institutions, and overseeing the National Archival Fond of Ukraine.

The earliest predecessor of Derzhkomarkhiv was the Main Archival Administration, established under one of the branches of the Ukrainian SSR’s People’s Commissariat for Education in 1919. After a few interim adjustments it was turned into the Central Archival Administration of the All-Ukrainian Central Executive Committee in 1923. From 1938 to 1960 archival co-ordination in Ukraine was carried on directly under the security services or under the auspices of the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs. From 1960 centralized responsibility for archival matters came under the jurisdiction of the Archival Administration (later Main Archival Administration) of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR. The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine assumed control over the Main Archival Administration in 1992 and established the State Committee as its successor in 1999.

Derzhkomarkhiv oversees the work of 680 institutions which employ over 3,000 archivists. These include seven national-level archives (Central Archive of Higher Organs of Government and Administration, Central State Archive of Civic Alliances, Central State Historical Archive in Kyiv, Central State Historical Archive in Lviv, Central State Film, Photo, and Sound Archive, Central State Scientific-Technical Archive, and Central State Archive-Museum of Literature and Art), the Ukrainian Scientific Research Institute of Archival Affairs and Document Studies, the Scientific Research Library of the Central State Archives of Ukraine, 24 oblast archives as well as the Crimean state archive and the state archives of the cities of Kyiv and Sevastopol, 487 raion archival departments, and 153 local archives. It publishes the journal Arkhivy Ukraïny as well as (since 2000) the bulletin Visnyk Derzhavnoho komitetu arkhiviv Ukraïny. Derzhkomarkhiv has been active in preparing electronic guides to the major state archives, and maintains an “Archives of Ukraine” Web site (<http://www.archives.gov.ua>) which provides a broad range of information on archival matters in addition to links to individual Ukrainian archival sites.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]




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