Central State Archive-Museum of Literature and Art [Центральний державний архів-музей літератури і мистецтва України; Tsentralnyi derzhavnyi arkhiv-muzei literatury i mystetstva Ukrainy or ЦДАМЛМ; TsDAMLM; known as ЦДАМЛМ УРСР; TsDAMLM URSR until 1992]. A national-level state archive and museum established in Kyiv in 1966 as a multi-purpose center, combining museum exhibits with an archive focusing on Ukrainian literature and the arts as well as other aspects of culture. It functions under the auspices of the State Archival Service of Ukraine. The collection purportedly was to include materials from the time of Kyivan Rus’ to the present, although the majority of its holdings are from the Soviet and post-Soviet periods. There is a small amount of valuable pre-Revolutionary material (eg, the records of the Kyiv branch of the Russian Music Society or the Society of Antiquities and Art in Kyiv).

TsDAMLM’s holdings include the records of numerous official bodies (eg, the Shevchenko Prize committee, Ukrkontsert), cultural associations, professional organizations (eg, the Union of Artists of Ukraine), literary and artistic publishing houses, theater groups, and film studios which were active in Ukraine as well as the personal fonds of many prominent Ukrainian writers, artists, musicians, and cultural figures, including Pavlo Alioshyn, Borys Antonenko-Davydovych, Mykola Arkas, Ivan Bahriany, Mykola Bazhan, Vasyl Barka, Oleksander Biletsky, Vasyl Blakytny, Oleksander Bohomazov, Ivan Drach, Oleksander Dovzhenko, Ivan Dziuba, Andrii Holovko, Oles Honchar, Alla Horska, Abram Katsnelson, Yurii Kosach, Hryhorii Kosynka, Ahatanhel Krymsky, Mykola Kulish, Borys Liatoshynsky, Andrii Malyshko, Vadym Meller, Metropolitan Illarion (Ivan Ohiienko), Viktor Petrov (Domontovych), Anatol Petrytsky, Maksym Rylsky, Taras Shevchenko, Yar Slavutych, Yurii Smolych, Volodymyr Sosiura, Yevhen Sverstiuk, Borys Ten, Pavlo Tychyna, Ostap Vyshnia, Vira Vovk, Volodymyr Vynnychenko, Yurii Yanovsky, and many others.

The archival collection consists of some 1,442 fonds (127 fonds of institutions and organizations and 1,315 personal fonds) with approximately 323,852 units. In addition, it has 21,649 photo documents and 2,061 archival electronic documents. The museum collection has 13,247 objects ranging from paintings (Ivan Izhakevych’s Mother of God, Quartet, and Road to Muscovy; Hryhorii Diadchenko’s Jesus Christ before the Choice; Mykola Hlushchenko’s Sea, March, and February Evening; Mykola I. Murashko’s Boiarka; Anatol Petrytsky’s Portrait of Actress V. Varetska; Oleksander Bohomazov’s Self-portrait, Summer Day, and Zolotonosha) to sculptural busts (Volodymyr Antonovych’s by Luigi Iorini, Oleksander Dovzhenko’s by Vera Mukhina, and Hryhorii Skovoroda’s by Ivan Kavaleridze) and musical instruments (Volodymyr Sosiura’s guitar, Marian Krushelnytsky’s lyre, and Vasyl Vasylko’s piano). Other artefacts include easels and sketchbooks of Vasyl H. Krychevsky, Bohomazov, Petrytsky, and Mykola Hlushchenko. The museum also showcases a number of reconstructed ‘memorial’ offices and studios of prominent artists and writers, among them Andrii Holovko, Yurii Yanovsky, Leonid Pervomaisky, Andrii Malyshko, Platon Maiboroda, O. Dovzhenko, and M. Hlushchenko. The offices contain original furniture, writing instruments, household items, works of fine art from the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and unique printed materials.

TsDAMLM’s library has 112,641 copies of books and brochures, 80,005 volumes of journals, 2,489 annual newspaper binders, and 1,429 copies of special publications (posters, leaflets). Much of its holdings consist of personal collections of artists and writers (among them Andrii Holovko, Oleksander Dovzhenko, Andrii Malyshko, Yurii Yanovsky, and Yurii Smolych). Over 7,000 books have gift inscriptions, including the autographs of Valeriian Pidmohylny, Mykola Kulish, Maksym Rylsky, Mykola Khvylovy, Yu. Yanovsky and many others. Among the rarities are the lifetime editions of Kobzar by Taras Shevchenko (1860), Black Council by Panteleimon Kulish (1857), and Evgenii Onegin by Aleksandr Pushkin (1827).

The archive has published four volumes of the detailed guide to its collections, which are also available online at the TsDAMLM’s official website: https://csamm.archives.gov.ua/nashi-vydannia/. The archive’s official website is: https://csamm.archives.gov.ua/.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Grimstead, P. Archives and Repositories in the USSR: Ukraine and Moldavia (Princeton, NJ 1988)
Kriachok, M.; Kushch, S.; Zendyk, Z. Tsentral'nyi derzhavnyi arkhiv-muzei literatury i mystetstva Ukraïny: Putivnyk (Kyiv, vol 1, 2003; vol 2, 2004; vol 3, 2014; and vol 4, 2015)
Arkhiv-muzei u prostori i chasi (Kyiv, vol 1 2013, vol 2 (2015–2017), 2023)
ARKHIVazhlyva SPRAVA (Kyiv 2021)

Serhiy Bilenky

[This article was updated in 2025.]