Государственный архив Калининградской области
- State Archive of the Kaliningrad Oblast
- Gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Kaliningradskoy oblasti
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History
History of the State Archive of Kaliningrad Oblast started after the Second World War, when former Eastern Prussian city Koenigsberg became part of the Soviet Union and received new name of Kaliningrad.
Full Soviet state administration in the city was established in the years 1946 and 1947. Only year later Ministry of Internal Affairs have sent to Kaliningrad its officials to organize system of archival documentation produced by the new Soviet administration as well as one that was left by the German state. Finally, 11 July 1949 State Archive of the Kaliningrad Oblast was established.
For more than a decade archive was located in a small building not suited for its task. In 1961 State Archive of the Kaliningrad Oblast was unifed with the archival department of regional administration, and two years later relocated to the building at Komsomolskaya Str. 31. In 1976 the archive moved to the new building at Komsomolskaya Str. 32, which contained all the facilities needed for this kind of institution and where it is located until today.
Until the end of the Soviet period the archive was mainly documenting post-war history of the region. After the fall of the Soviet Union, from the early 1990s the institution started actively to amend its documents collection referring to the pre-war history of the region. In order to fulfill this new task the archive signed agreements with various archival institutions from Germany, Poland and Sweden.
In 1994 State Archive of Kaliningrad Oblast started to publish its own periodical "Kalendari Pamyatnykh Dat" and from 1998 another one "Kaliningradskiye archivy".
From year 2003 the State Archive of the Kaliningrad Oblast became a separate legal institution. Three years later it was integrated into structures of Culture Ministry of the Kaliningrad Oblast.
In 2019 the State Archive of Contemporary History of Kaliningrad Oblast was united with the State Archive of Kalininigrad Oblast
Geographical and Cultural Context
Archive contains documents referring to the history of Koenigsberg/Kaliningrad region. Bulk of the documents is from the period after 1945, but it has also reasonable collection referring to the preceeding years.
Mandates/Sources of Authority
Archive works on the basis of the Russian Federation archival laws.
Main legal sources of its authority and activity are:
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Federal law 'On archival activity in Russian Federation (F3-125) from 22 of October 2004,
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Law of Kaliningrad Oblast "On archival activity in Kaliningrad Oblast", which was adopted by the Kaliningrad Oblast regional parliament on 29 of June 2006.
For the legal mandate and sources of authority see:
Administrative Structure
State Archive of Kaliningrad Oblast has 5 departments:
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Department of securing, registration and scientific organization of the documents of Russian Federation archival resources
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Departament of economical and material securing of the archival documentation.
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Department of archival resources formation and operation of departamental archives.
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Department of scientific information and publication of the documents
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Department of the automated archival technologies, of microfilming and restoration of the documents.
Records Management and Collecting Policies
Archive is collecting documents from more than 200 hundred local central goverenment, local administration and private institutions, as well as bequests of private poeple living in he region.
Archival and Other Holdings
Main group of archival resources are documents referring to the history of the Kaliningrad region from the years 1945-1997. Documents connected to the war history are mainly referring to the year 1945 and establishment of the Soviet rule in the region.
In addition archive has reasonable collection of documents from 1945 period. Main basis of this collection are documents from the German period Archive of Eastern Prussia. They are organized in 1176 folders and encompassing period between 1557-1944. It is important to note that most of the collection of Archive of Eastern Prussia during and after the Second World War were relocated to Germany, Poland, Baltic States and main Russia. Today archive has detailed index of pre-1945 documents referring to the history of Koenigsberg/Kaliningrad region that can be found in German, Polish and Lithuanian archives.
Finding Aids, Guides, and Publication
Partial index of the archival holdings, divided for two periods: before and after 1945 is accessible online:
Opening Times
Reading rooms of the archives are opened from Monday to Thursday between 10 a.m. and 5.30 p.m
Conditions of Access
Archival calls can be made on Mondays and Wednesdays, between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.