State Committee on Archives of Ukraine

	Archives of Ukraine

State Committee on Archives of Ukraine
(Derzhkomarkhiv Ukraiiny)

Address: 24 Solomianska st., 03110 Kyiv
Tel: +380(44) 275-27-77, 275-26-66
Fax: +380(44) 275-36-55
E-mail: mail@archives.gov.ua
Web: www.archives.gov.ua
Working hours: M-Th, 8:45-17:45, F 8:45-16:30

Olha Hinzburh, Director General Tel.: +380(44) 275-27-77 Fax: +380(44) 275-36-55 E-mail: oginzburg@archives.gov.ua, mail@archives.gov.ua
Prof. Dr. Iryna Matiash, First Deputy Director General E-mail: imatjash@archives.gov.ua
Prys Tetyana, Deputy Director General E-mail: tprys@archives.gov.ua
Muzychuk Olga, Deputy Director General Tel.: +380(44) 275-82-33 E-mail: omuzychuk@archives.gov.ua

The State Committee on Archives of Ukraine (Derzhkomarkhiv Ukraiiny) is a central executive power body for archival affairs and record keeping. It was established according to the Decree of the President of Ukraine No 1573 of December 15, 1999 "On Changes in the Structure of the Central Bodies of Executive Power". It is a successor of the Main Archival Board of Ukraine.

The first centralized body for archival affairs in Ukraine was created by Tsentralna Rada in 1917. It was the Library and Archives Division of the Arts Department of Education General (since January, 1918 - the People's Commissariat for Education of the Ukrainian People's Republic); later it had been known as the Archival and Library Section of All-Ukrainian Arts and Historical Monuments Protection Committee, the Main Directorate for Archives of the People's Commissariat for Education of Ukrainian SSR (Golovarkhiv), the Central Directorate for Archives at the All-Ukrainian Executive Committee (Ukrtsentrarkhiv), the Archives Department of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, the Directorate for Archives at the Council of Ministers of Ukrainian SSR.

Derzhkomarkhiv Ukraiiny submit proposals to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in terms of public policy formation and implementation in the archival affairs and record keeping; manage archival affairs and record keeping; develop and implement public programmes on archival affairs and record keeping; perform inter-branch coordination, functional regulation as well as normative and legal provision of archival affairs and record keeping.

The basic tasks of Derzhkomarkhiv include:

reforming of archival affairs in accordance with the National Archival Fond legislation;
formation of the National Archival Fond, namely, acquisition of Ukrainian cultural heritage kept abroad;
providing adequate conditions for maintaining the National Archival Fond;
enhancing the government impact on non-government sector with a view of ensuring safety of archival holdings of significnt social value;
IT implementation in archival affairs;
providing access to archival records aimed at meeting scientific, social, cultural and other demands of citizens, society and the state;
conducting and coordinating research in the sphere of archival affairs, record keeping and archeography, developing archival legislative and methodical basis;
providing legal and social protection of public archives employees;
implementing international cooperation in the sphere of archival affairs.

The network of state archives under Derzhkomarkhiv Ukraiiny includes 696 insitutions. These are 9 central state archival institutions of Ukraine (the Central State Archives of Supreme Bodies of Power and Government of Ukraine; the Central State Archives of Public Organizations of Ukraine; the Central State Historical Archives of Ukraine in Kyiv; the Central State Historical Archives of Ukraine in Lviv; the Central State CinePhotoPhono Archives of Ukraine named after H. Pshenychnyi; the Central State Scientific and Technical Archives of Ukraine; the Central State Archives and Museum of Literature and Arts of Ukraine; the Central State Archives of Foreign Archival Ucrainica; the Central State Electronic Archives of Ukraine; the State Scientific Archival Library in Kyiv; the Ukrainian Scientific and Research Institute of Archival Affairs and Record Keeping (founded in 1994); the State Center for NAF Documents Preservation; the State Archives in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea; 24 state oblast archives; the state archives of Kyiv and Sebastopol; 488 archival divisions of regional state administrations; 168 archival divisions of city councils. The archival system of Ukraine employs about 3700 persons.

Derzhkomarkhiv Ukraiiny manages the activities of archival institutions of other ministries and departments having the right to hold documents, that is branch archives of the Security Service of Ukraine, Ministry of Defense, Ministry for Internal Affairs etc.; the archival institutions of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, museums and libraries which keep manuscript collections and documentary fonds.

The state archives of Ukraine preserve more than 56,5 million items of various NAF documents: managerial, personal, scientific, technical etc. on paper basis; cinema-, photo-, phono-, video documents and the others. The state archives also supervise 42286 archival departments of the central and local governments, various institutions, public organisations selecting the most valuable documents for permanent keeping.

The National Archival Fond of Ukraine has an immense cultural and information capacity; it is one of the most significant components of public information resources, the concentrated Memory of the state and the nation within eight centuries of written history (the most ancient documents in the state archives of Ukraine are dated by the XII-XIII centuries); it is about 1000 km of archival shelves!

The archives of Ukraine receive more than 631 thousand applications from both Ukrainians and foreigners per year.

Every year the state archives are visited by approx. 28.000 researchers; 849.000 visitors of the official Derzhkomarkhiv website are fixed annually.

The archives of Ukraine implement a number of branch programmes aimed at simplified access to archives resources; in particular, via the reference books system (The Ukrainian Archival Collections Programme), modern IT included. Today the National Archival Information System with on-line access to 225.000 archives fonds is being developed.

Every year dozens of documentary and reference books are published by Ukrainian archival institutions.

Since 1956 Derzhkomarkhiv Ukraiiny have been the member of the International Council of Archives (ICA) - a non-government international professional organization at the UNESCO. Derzhkomarkhiv are also engaged in international activities, representing Ukraine at international professional conferences, such as annual International Round Table of Archives (CITRA); having signed bilateral agreements with archival services and national archives of Austria, Bulgaria, Armenia, Georgia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, Poland, Russia, Romania, Turkey, Hungary, Sweden, Kazakhstan, Moldova; contribute to the UNESCO and European Council international archival programmes (such as "Renewal of Memory of Poland", "Common Archival Heritage of Central and Eastern European Countries"); taking part in cultural values restitution process within the framework of European integration.

In accordance with the Decree of the President of Ukraine of October 30, 1998 the Day of Archivist is celebrated on December, 24.

The updated Law of Ukraine "On the National Archival Fond and Archival Institutions" was passed in December, 2001.

"The Herald of the State Committee on Archives of Ukraine" - the official edition of Derzhkomarchiv - has been published since 2000. "The Archives of Ukraine Journal" has been published since 1947 (its on-line Internet version is available since 2000).

Since December, 2000 an official Derzhkomarkhiv website is available at: www.archives.gov.ua.