May, 2004
On April 10, 2003, at 12:30 PM, a fire broke out in Warehouse № 1 of the Kamianets Podilsky Archives. It took over 5 hours to put out the fire.
Five of the most valuable fonds (record collections) were ablaze:
These historical fonds (about 100,000 files) cover the history of Podolia Gubernia from the end of the XVIII century through the beginning of the XX century.
More than 2 tons of archival material were evacuated from the destroyed warehouse. About 1,500 items (wet but not ablaze) were dried in four special rooms for drying. Fortunately, in a few days after the fire, these records were already in a good condition. As the greatest fear was the ensuing rot of water soaked paper, about 10, 000 items were transferred into a refrigerator and frozen at -30C. Now we must proceed with the delicate process of thawing and fumigation in special chambers. Only aftermath it would be possible to summarize the losses finally. At the moment we can estimate the lost part of the archives as no less than 50, 000 items. Thus over 50% of the records housed in this building were exterminated completely and hopelessly by fire.
In addition to those records that were completely destroyed, many unique historical documents were water-damaged.
Since the fire, for a few weeks hundreds of people - local archivists together with cadets, policeman, fireman and other municipal personnel, students, ordinary people have been working around the clock to save whatever is possible.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation. Obviously it was triggered by electrical wires.
Now Archives in Kamianets Podilsky is closed. All records that are not of local but of high National importance have been transferred to the State Archives of Khmelnytsky region (oblast) in Khmelnytsky city after defrosting and drying procedure.
On tentative estimations the restoration works will last some 50 years.
On June 12 and June 17 the Commissions were issued accordingly by the President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma and the Prime-Minister of Ukraine Viktor Janukovych in order to liquidate the fire consequences. Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has allocated 406, 000 hryvnas (about $80,000) out of Governmental Emergency Fund to transfer the rescued records and fonds from other warehouses in Kamianets to Khmelnytsky, to purchase the equipment and materials, also to employ staff for newly created Restoration Center at Khmelnytsky Archives.
During this tragic time, the Ukraine State Archives have received hundreds of letters and e-mails from friends, colleagues and concerned people from all over the world, expressing their shock and hope that some documents may be saved.
Additionally, we have received assistance both in technical advice and support as well as financial support that is enabling us to use the most sophisticated and known methods of preservation in such a situation.
Our archival colleagues in neighboring countries have been of valuable assistance and we are grateful for this.
The Polish State Archives immediately following the fire proposed to deliver technical assistance in transportation, defrosting, drying and fumigation of the part of frozen records in the territory of Poland. We are very grateful to the Polish State Archives for their proposal to arrange this complicated and costly procedure. Unfortunately because of some legal controversies we turned out to be unable to use this possibility. Defrosting process was arranged almost at site at the "AVIS" Enterprise, Humentsi village, in December, 2003.
Recently Russian colleagues have made an offer to make requested copies from the Russian State Historical Archives in Saint Petersburg at low cost. This will help us to re-construct at least part of the lost records on a base of the records of central governing bodies. We express our gratitude to them.
Also we are very grateful to the number of individuals and institutions who have made generous contributions towards the restoration project.
Present seminar in Kyiv is organized under the auspices of the EURBICA as a workshop where specialists from several countries are met to evaluate the surviving documents and the best way to proceed.
Dear Colleagues, any further assistance in searches of a benefactor who would help to save the rest of survived Kamianets archives by providing special equipment such as cameras, scanners and other copying systems, restoration equipment, special paper and other restoration materials would be highly appreciated. Thank you for any your thoughts, advises, and efforts.
We are trying to save the damaged records. We realize it is impossible to return lost. The tragic fire in the Kamianets Podilsky archives destroyed many unique and historic documents for ever as these documents had not been microfilmed or copied in any way. But it is our intention to try and re-construct the lost files to the best of our ability. We are asking for assistance from institutions, organizations, archives and individuals who have received photo copies of any documents from this archive. We would appreciate receiving the best quality photo copy of any documents you may have. We will need identifying information for each document sent including: Fond, Opis and Delo numbers.
In case you have copies requested and are ready to send it to Ukraine, please write the identifying information on the reverse side of the document copy. Also, it would be helpful if you can provide page numbers and any other identifying information you may have for each page you submit. Please submit your material by mail and send to the address below:
Please provide your e-mail address with your submission so that we can acknowledge your submission. Your assistance will help us to re-constitute these files and the lost heritage for so many people throughout the world.
State Committee on Archives of Ukraine
24 Solomianska St. Kyiv 03110 Ukraine
Tel. (044)275-2777
Fax: (044)275-3655
E-mail: mail@archives.gov.ua
kp-fire@archives.gov.ua
Web: www.archives.gov.ua
Головна сторінка | Nota Bene | Генеалогія | Новини | Публікації | Архіви в Україні | Архіви в світі | Контакти | Карта порталу
Copyright © 2008 - Державний комітет архівів України
Всі права застережені
Вебмайстер: webmaster@archives.gov.ua