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Guide to the Archives of the Soviet communist party and Soviet state microfilm collection: State Archives of the Russian Federation
(Gosudarstvennyĭ arkhiv Rossiĭskoĭ Federat͡sii - GARF)
XX881
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Table of contents
Title: Archives of the Soviet communist party and Soviet state microfilm collection: State Archives of the Russian Federation (Gosudarstvennyĭ
arkhiv Rossiĭskoĭ Federat͡sii - GARF)
Date (inclusive): 1903-1991
Collection Number: XX881
Contributing Institution:
Hoover Institution Archives
Language of Material:
Russian
Physical Description:
8034 microfilm reels
Abstract: Relates to political conditions in the Soviet Union from 1917 to 1991. Filmed from finding aids and holdings dating from 1903
to 1991 of the Gosudarstvennyĭ arkhiv Rossiĭskoĭ Federat͡sii.
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Archives
Contributor:
Kommunisticheskai͡a partii͡a Sovetskogo Soi͡uza.
The collection is open for research; materials must be requested at least two business days in advance of intended use.
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Archives.
[Identification of item], original located in GARF, [Fond number, Opis number, Delo number], Archives of the Soviet communist
party and Soviet state microfilm collection, [Reel number], Hoover Institution Archives.
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Archives.
Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. To determine if this has occurred, find
the collection in Stanford University's online catalog at
http://searchworks.stanford.edu/ . Materials have been added to the collection if the number of boxes listed in the online catalog is larger than the number
of boxes listed in this finding aid.
Location of Original Materials
The original documents are located in three Russian archives:
- -State Archives of the Russian Federation (Gosudarstvennyĭ arkhiv Rossiĭskoĭ Federat͡sii - GARF);
- -Russian State Archive of Contemporary History (Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyĭ arkhiv noveisheĭ istorii - RGANI);
- and
- -Russian State Archives of Social and Political History (Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyĭ arkhiv sot͡sial'no-politicheskoi istorii - RGASPI).
Portions or the entirety of the microfilm collection may be found at the following institutions in addition to the Hoover
Institution: The Library of Congress, Grinnell College, Harvard University, John Hopkins University, University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, Ohio University, University of Washington, University of Melbourne Australia, Glasgow University United Kingdom,
Bavarian State University, Germany, and Hokkaido University, Japan.
The microfilms containing only the Russian language
opisi or finding aids may be found at the following institutions: University of Illinois, Indiana University, Columbia University,
and New York University.
Scope and Content of the Microfilm Collection
This collection concerns political conditions in the Soviet Union from 1917 to 1991. The documents come from three Russian
archives. Material was selected for microfilming based on two criteria: (1) records of the highest policy-making units of
the Communist Party were the priority; and (2) record series were filmed in their entirety, rather than selecting only particular
files or documents (except for some of the Gulag material in GARF)
Fond R-9414).
To locate material in the collection, it helps to know that archival documents in the former Soviet Union, and later in the
Russian Federation, are arranged in record groups according to the institution that issued or received them. These major groups,
which sometimes include thousands of documents, are called in Russian
fond (plural
fondy). Within each
fond the documents are generally divided into smaller groups called
opisi (singular
opis).
opisi are generally organized according to the internal structure of the corresponding institution, but sometimes
opisi consist of documents relating to one subject. The Russian word
opis has two meanings: (1) a series of documents; and (2) a finding aid. Each
opis "series of documents" is provided with a descriptive
opis "finding aid." Each
opis "series of documents" is further organized into files called dela (singular delo) that contain the documents.
Out of a total of 11,818 microfilm reels, 11,349 reels contain documents and 469 contain finding aids to the
fondy available at the Hoover Institution, as well as to some
fondy available only in Russia. Each reel of microfilm contains approximately 850 pages, or frames.
The microfilm reel numbers consist of two parts separated by a period, for example 3.427. The first numerical segment is a
1, 2, or 3, identifying the Russian archive source; 1 is RGANI, 2 is RGASPI, and 3 is GARF. The second segment, which is sequentially
numbered starting with 1, represents a specific microfilm reel number for that Russian archive.
Scope and Content of the GARF Records
Relates to political conditions in the Soviet Union from 1917 to 1991. Filmed from finding aids and holdings dating from 1903
to 1991 of the Gosudarstvennyĭ arkhiv Rossiĭskoĭ Federat͡sii.
The collection is organized by the name of the Russian archive that holds the original materials. There are three finding
aids for the collection, one for each one of the Russian Archives:
- -State Archives of the Russian Federation (Gosudarstvennyĭ arkhiv Rossiĭskoĭ Federat͡sii - GARF);
- -Russian State Archive of Contemporary History (Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyĭ arkhiv noveisheĭ istorii - RGANI);
- and
- -Russian State Archives of Social and Political History (Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyĭ arkhiv sot͡sial'no-politicheskoi istorii - RGASPI).
Within Russian institutional archive, the materials are organized into two groups: (1)
fondy (record groups consisting of documents); and (2) finding aids that describe each
fondy.
Fondy are usually subdivided into
opisi (series of documents); the number of
opisi in each
fondy varies.
- This glossary defines acronyms and names for all three organizations of the microfilming project: the Russian State Archive of Contemporary History (Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyĭ arkhiv noveisheĭ istorii - RGANI), the Russian State Archives of Social and Political History (Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyĭ arkhiv sot͡sial'no-politicheskoi istorii - RGASPI), and the State Archives of the Russian Federation (Gosudarstvennyĭ arkhiv Rossiĭskoĭ Federat͡sii- GARF).
- ASSR
- Avtonomnaia Sovetskaia sotsialisticheskaia respublika
- BUND
- The General Jewish Workers' Union in Lithuania, Poland, and Russia
- Gospolitizdat
- Gosudarstvennoe izdatelstvo politichesko literatury
- GUITK
- Glavnoe upravlenie ispravitel'no-trudovykh kolonii
- Gulag
- Glavnoe upravlenie ispravitel'no-trudovykh lagerei
- GUMZ
- Glavnoe upravlenie mest zakliucheniia
- IKKI
- Ispolnitelnyi komitet Kommunisticheskogo Internatsionala
- IMEL
- Institut Marksa-Engelsa-Lenina
- Komsomol
- Kommunisticheskii soiuz molodezhi
- KPSS
- Kommunisticheskaia partiia Sovetskogo Soiuza
- Krymizdat
- Krymskoe izdatelstvo
- Lenizdat
- Leningradskoe izdatelstvo
- Malyi Sovnarkom
- Malyi sovet narodnykh komissarov
- MOPR
- Mezhdunarodnaia organizatsiia pomoshchi bortsam revoliutsii
- MVD
- Ministerstvo vnutrennikh del
- NKGB
- Narodnyi Commissariat gosudarstvennoi bezopasnosti
- NKID
- Narodnyi kommisariat inostrannykh del
- NKPS
- Narodnyi kommisariat putei soobshcheniia
- NKVD
- Narodnyi kommisariat vnutrennikh del
- OGIZ
- Obiedinennoe gosudarstvennoe izdatelstvo
- OGPU
- Obiedinennoe gosudarstvennoe politicheskoe upravlenie
- Okruzhkom
- Okruzhnoi komitet [partii]
- Politizdat
- Izdatel'stvo politicheskoi literatury
- Profintern
- Krasnyi internatsional profsoiuzov
- PUR RVS
- Politicheskoe upravlenie revoliutsionno- voennogo soveta
- RKI
- Raboche-krestianskaia inspektsiia
- RKP(b)
- Rossiiskaia kommunisticheskaia partiia (Bolshevikov)
- ROSTA
- Rossiiskoe telegrafnoe agenstvo
- RSDRP
- Rossiiskaia Sotsial-Demokraticheskaia Rabochaiia Partiia
- RSFSR
- Rossiiskaia Sovetskaia Federativnaia Sotsialisticheskaia Respublika
- RVSR
- Revoliutsionno-voennyi sovet respubliki
- SNK or Sovnarkom
- Sovet narodnykh kommisarov
- SSR
- Sovetskaia sotsialisticheskaia respublica
- STO
- Sovet truda i oborony
- Tsentrosoiuz
- Tsentralnyi soiuz kooperativnykh obshchestv
- TsIK
- Tsentral'nyi ispolnitel'nyi komitet
- TsK
- Tsentralnyi Komitet
- TsKK
- Tsentralnaia kontrolnaia komissiia
- TSU
- Tsentralnoe statisticheskoe upravlenie
- VChK
- Vserossiiskaia chrezvychainaia komissiia
- VKP(b)
- Vsesoiuznaia kommunisticheskaia partiia (Bolshevikov)
- VLKSM
- Vsesoiuznyi Leninskii Kommunisticheskii Soiuz molodezhi
- VSNKh
- Vysshii Sovet Narodnogo Khoziaistva
- VTsIK
- Vserossiiskii tsentral'nyi ispolnitel'nyi komitet
- VUChK
- Vseukrainskaia chrezvychainaia komissiia
- USSR
- Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Soviet Union--History.
Soviet Union--Politics and government.
Communism--Soviet Union.