Central State Archive of Higher Organs of Government and Administration of Ukraine
Central State Archive of Higher Organs of Government and Administration of Ukraine (Центральний державний архів вищих органів влади та управління України or ЦДАВО; Tsentralnyi derzhavnyi arkhiv vyshchykh orhaniv vlady ta upravlinnia Ukrany or TsDAVO). The central Ukrainian state repository for archival documents of the organs of government, located in Kyiv and functioning under the auspices of the State Archival Service of Ukraine. The archive preserves documents of all governments that operated in Ukraine during the 20th century: from the Central Rada of the Ukrainian National Republic to independent Ukraine. It was established in spring 1941 under the name Central State Archive of the October Revolution and Socialist Construction of the Ukrainian SSR (TsDAZhR) in Kyiv, but its opening was prevented by the outbreak of the Second World War. Its immediate predecessor was the Central State Archive of the Revolution, established in 1921 in Kharkiv, which preserved documents on the history of the revolutionary movement and documents of central Soviet state institutions starting from 1917. The archive’s holdings later also included documents stored in the Central Labor Archive (established in 1926) and the All-Ukrainian Central State Archive (established in 1930). In July 1941 the three central archives, which were supposed to be united into the TsDAZhR, were evacuated to the Urals to the city of Zlatoust, where they worked until November 1943. In December 1943 TsDAZhR began its activities in Kyiv, and its branch in Kharkiv. In September 1945, it was transferred to Kharkiv, and its branch was abolished in 1958. In 1969, in accordance with the resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR, TsDAZhR was returned to Kyiv and placed in its current location: in the complex of central archival buildings at 24 Solomianska Street. In 1980 the archive was renamed the Central State Archive of the October Revolution, the Highest Organs of State Power, and Organs of State Administration of the Ukrainian SSR. In 1992, following the 1991 Ukraine’s Declaration of Independence, it assumed its current name.
TsDAVO is the largest central state archive in Ukraine in terms of the size of its holdings. As of 2021, there were 2,250,207 storage units (spravy) in 3,463 fonds, with 6,024 inventories. Its holdings include a wide range of documents produced by various government structures that operated in Ukraine during the 20th century: the Central Rada of the Ukrainian National Republic (UNR) (March 1917–April 1918); Ukrainian State of Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky (April–November 1918); Directory of the Ukrainian National Republic (November 1918–November 1920); Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (1917–91); and independent Ukraine (since 1991). Among the highlights of the collection are the universals of the Central Rada, drafts of the Constitution of the Ukrainian National Republic (December 1917) and the Constitution of Ukrainian State (1918), and the Universal (Act) on the unification of the Western Ukrainian National Republic (ZUNR) with the UNR of 22 January 1919. They are supplemented by documents on national symbols, language, citizenship, documents of the ZUNR, and Carpatho-Ukraine. The contemporary history of Ukraine is represented by the documents from the late 1980s and early 1990s, in particular, the Act of 1991 Ukraine’s Declaration of Independence of 24 August 1991, and documents on the preparation and adoption of the Constitution of Ukraine of 1996.
One of the most valuable collections is the documentary complex of the so-called Prague Archive that includes sources on Ukrainian émigré community in interwar Czechoslovakia, as well as the activities of the state bodies of the Ukrainian National Republic in emigration. It was initially accumulated in Prague by the Museum of Ukraine's Struggle for Independence and the Ukrainian Historical Cabinet but was dispersed as a result of postwar relocations to the Ukrainian SSR and other parts of the USSR. TsDAVO received the biggest share of the holdings (232 out of 340 fonds, or 28,400 out of 33,000 storage units). Among them is a unique card index featuring biographical and reference data on over 100,000 people who participated in the Ukrainian struggle for independence (1917–20). In 1996 TsDAVO received documents from the Government-in-exile of the Ukrainian National Republic for 1946–92, which arrived from Canada. In 1999 it added documents from the UNR mission in Switzerland for 1919–24. The fonds from the period of the Second World War includes the archives of central and local bodies of German occupation authorities, local self-government, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.
The archive also contains personal fonds of prominent figures of modern Ukrainian history: Symon Petliura, Volodymyr Vynnychenko, Mykyta Shapoval, Ivan Ohiienko, Dmytro Antonovych, and others. Many more documents reflect the activities of statesmen of various periods, including Mykhailo Hrushevsky, Pavlo Skoropadsky, Nikita Khrushchev, Volodymyr Shcherbytsky, and presidents of independent Ukraine since 1991. Every year, TsDAVO receives documents from different state institutions, such as the Administration (Office) of the President of Ukraine, the Supreme Council of Ukraine, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, the Supreme Court of Ukraine, the Office of Prosecutor General of Ukraine, and individual ministries.
The archive published and co-published such collections of documents as Ukraїns'ka Tsentral'na rada: Dokumenty i materialy u 2 t. (Ukrainian Central Rada: Documents and Materials, 2 vols, 1996–97); Dyrektoriia, Rada Narodnykh Ministriv Ukraїns'koi Narodnoї Respubliky 1918–1920: Dokumenty i materialy u 2 t. (Directory, Council of National Ministers of the Ukrainian National Republic, 2 vols, 2006); Arkhivy okupatsiї: 1941–1944 (Archives of Occupation, 1941–1944, 2006);“My b’iemo v Velykyi dzvin...” Holodomor 1932–1933 rr. ochyma ukraїns'koї diaspory: Dokumenty z fondiv TsDAVO Ukraїny (We Toll the Great Bell... Holodomor of 1932–1933 through the Eyes of Ukrainian Diaspora: Documents from the Collections of TsDAVO of Ukraine, 2008); Ukraїns'ka Derzhava (kviten'–hruden' 1918 roku): Dokumenty i materialy u dvokh tomakh (Ukrainian State [April–December 1918]: Documents and Materials, 2 vols, 2015); Arkhiv Ukraїns'koi Narodnoї Respubliky: Ministerstvo zakordonnykh sprav; Dyplomatychni dokumenty vid Versal’s’koho do Ryz’koho myrnykh dohovoriv (1919-1921) (Archive of the Ukrainian National Republic: Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Diplomatic Documents from the Versailles to the Riga Peace Treaties (1919–1921), 2016); Arkhiv Ukraїns'koi Narodnoї Respubliky: Ministerstvo vnutrishnikh sprav; Spravozdannia guberniial'nykh starost i komisariv (1918–1920) (Archive of the Ukrainian National Republic: Ministry of Interior; Reports of Provincial Starostas and Commissars [1918–1920], 2017); Arkhiv Ukraїns'koi Narodnoї Respubliky: Ministerstvo vnutrishnikh sprav; Zvity departamentiv derzhavnoї varty ta politychnoї informatsiї (1918–1922) (Archive of the Ukrainian National Republic: Ministry of Interior; Reports of the Departments of State Guard and Political Information, 2018); Arkhiv Ukraїns'koi Narodnoї Respubliky: Ministerstvo vnutrishnikh sprav; Dopovidi dyrektoriv departamentiv ta ahentiv (cherven' 1918–sichen' 1922) (Archive of the Ukrainian National Republic: Ministry of Interior; Reports of Directors of Departments and Agents (June 1918–Januray 1922), 2019).
The first guide to its collections was published in 1960. The archive has also developed a series of specialized catalogues for its collections, some of which are now available online, including the list of all fonds and those fonds that have been digitalized, at the TsDAVO official website: https://e-resource.tsdavo.gov.ua/.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Tsentral'nyi derzhavnyi arkhiv Zhovtnevoї revoliutsiї i sotsialistychnoho budivnytstva URSR: Putivnyk (Kharkiv 1960)
Grimstead, P. Archives and Manuscript Repositories in the USSR: Ukraine and Moldavia (Princeton, NJ 1988), book 1
Grimstead, P. ‘The Odyssey of the Petliura Library and the Records of the Ukrainian National Republic during World War II,’ Harvard Ukrainian Studies, 1988, vol 22
‘Tsentral'nyi derzhavnyi arkhiv vyshchykh orhaniv vlady ta upravlinnia Ukraїny (TsDAVO Ukraїny).’ Arkhivni ustanovy Ukraïny: Dovidnyk, vol 1: Derzhavni arkhivy. 2nd ed. (Kyiv 2005)
Serhiy Bilenky
[This article was written in 2026.]