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Inventory of the Eesti NSV Riikliku Julgeoleku Komitee records, 1932-1991
2012C26
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Title: Eesti NSV Riikliku Julgeoleku Komitee records
Collection Number: 2012C26
Contributing Institution:
Hoover Institution Archives
Language of Material:
Estonian
Physical Description:
17,541 digitized file units
Date (inclusive): 1932-1991
Abstract: Digital copies of correspondence, reports, and investigative files, relating to secret police and intelligence activities,
dissident and anti-Soviet activities, and repatriation and nationalism issues, in Estonia. Detailed Russian- or Estonian-language
finding aids are available on the Hoover Institution website at
http://www.hoover.org/library-and-archives/collections/east-europe/featured-collections/estonian-kgb .
creator:
Eesti NSV Riikliku Julgeoleku Komitee.
The collection is open. The digital files may be viewed at a computer station in the Hoover Archives reading room.
Users must sign a use agreement that states (in part), "Researchers will not divulge--in print, electronic, or digital format
or over the Internet, or in any book, article, manuscript, commentary, blog entry, or other written material--the names of
any individuals found in their research of the Estonian SSR State Security Committee Collection for a period of seventy-five
(75) years from the date of the creation of the record in which the name was found to the date of the researcher's public
disclosure of the name.... Pseudonyms and allegories that protect the privacy and identity of private citizens may be created
and used." The full agreement is available on the Hoover Archives website.
The Hoover Institution Archives only allows access to
copies of audiovisual items. To listen to sound recordings or to view videos or films during your visit, please contact the Archives
at least two working days before your arrival. We will then advise you of the accessibility of the material you wish to see
or hear. Please note that not all audiovisual material is immediately accessible.
Quotations from this collection may be protected by copyright law. The Hoover Institution, Stanford University, does not hold
copyright to any of the materials in the collection; it is the researchers' responsibility, when necessary, to obtain copyright
permission.
[Identification of item] (Digital copy), [Reference code, for example ERAF.140SM.1.1], Eesti NSV Riikliku Julgeoleku Komitee
records, Hoover Institution Archives. Originals in the Eesti Riigarkhiv, Tallinn, Estonia.
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Archives in 2012.
Digitized files are received by Hoover in regular shipments, with the contents of a
fond potentially spanning multiple shipments. As a result, the
fondy listed in this finding aid may be available only in part. Please contact the Archives to ensure availability before you visit.
Originals in the Eesti Riigarkhiv, Tallinn, Estonia.
The collection is organized in multiple
fondy (record groups).
Archives of the Soviet Communist Party and Soviet State microfilm collection, Hoover Institution Archives
RFE/RL broadcast records, Hoover Institution Archives
Lietuvos SSR Valstybes Saugumo Komitetas [Lithuanian KGB] selected records,
The records were first held in the Estonian State Archives (Tallinn, Pagari 1) as the National Security Archives. According
to governmental order No. 172 of 19 April 1993 (State Herald 1993, No. 22, article 372, p. 532), they were placed in the Police
Archives or corresponding departmental archives within the system of the Estonian National Archives (former Party Archives,
Tõnismägi, 16).
The Estonian National Archives registered these
fondy with the letters SM (for Internal Affairs) appended to the
fond numbers to differentiate them from
fondy already existing within the Archives of the Communist Party of the Estonian SSR. The ERAF prefix refers to the Eesti Riigiarhiiv
(ERA) followed by an F (
Filiaal, or branch office), even though the archives has no branches.
The documents in the
fondy are included in the Estonian State Archives's Archival Informational System (AIS), and since the 2000s the finding aids to
them have been open to researchers; viewing documents is possible upon agreement.
The People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) of the Estonian SSR (ESSR) was established by order No. 001067 of 29
August 1940 as a territorial division of the USSR NKVD. From August 1940 through February 1941 operational work was conducted
by the State Security Directorate of the NKVD of the ESSR. In February 1941 the USSR NKVD was divided into two commissariats:
NKVD and People's Commissariat of State Security (NKGB). In July 1941 the two commissariats were merged again, with the NKVD
in charge of operational work.
During World War II the NKVD of the ESSR was essentially abolished. After April 1943 Estonia was again included in the Soviet
Union, and the ESSR NKVD was re-established and organized in six structural units, similar to the structure of the USSR NKVD.
While restoration of the most essential people's commissariats of the ESSR was completed in February-March 1944, after appointments
of people's commissars and commissariat personnel had been approved, the NKVD of the ESSR started taking shape to some extent
even earlier, in December 1943, with Lieutenant Colonel Aleksei Ivanov, Deputy Commissar for Cadre, in charge. The NKVD of
the ESSR was renamed in March 1946 as the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD), and in March 1953 it was again renamed as the
Ministry of State Security of the ESSR. It stayed under the authority of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs through March
1954, when it became the Committee of State Security of the Council of Ministers of the ESSR. In 1990 amendments that allowed
the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the ESSR to operate independently were adopted. In August 1991 the independence of the
Republic of Estonia was proclaimed, and the operations of the USSR KGB in the ESSR were officially banned. Since 1992 its
operations have been performed by the Police Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Soviet Union. Komitet gosudarstvennoi bezopasnosti.
Dissenters--Estonia.
Estonia--History--Soviet occupation, 1940-1941.
Estonia--Politics and government--1940-1991.
Nationalism--Estonia.
Police--Estonia.
Police--Soviet Union.
Secret service--Soviet Union.