Archives of Ukraine

	Archives of Ukraine

The State Committee on Archives of Ukraine

is the central executive power body in the field of archival affairs and document preservation, created by the Presidential Decree of December 15, 1999 as a successor to the Central Archival Administration of Ukraine.

The State Committee on Archives of Ukraine develops and submits proposals to the Government of Ukraine on the following issues:

formation of public policy in the field of archival affairs and document preservation;
management of public archival affairs and record-keeping within the country;
development of programs on archival affairs and record-keeping;
coordination between different ministries, other authorities and institutions, ensuring public control of preservation of records in current record-keeping practices;
development and elaboration of guidelines, procedures and methodology in the field to ensure an appropriate acquisition, appraisal, preservation and usage of records included in the National Archival Fond of Ukraine (NAF, i.e. National Archival Heritage).

The priority issues and projects include the following:

reforms of archival affairs on the legislative basis of the National Archival Fond;
formation of the National Archival Fond, including acquisition of records, collections and archives on the history of Ukraine created and/or preserved abroad;
providing appropriate conditions for records preservation;
work with the non-government sector on record production to ensure preservation of the archival documents of significant social value;
automation of archives, creation of the data infrastructure (Internet); development of web resources of state archives, integration of local electronic catalogues and other databases into the central nationwide database with remote access and other on-going improvements and upgrades;
dissemination of information in terms of archival programs and projects;
wide usage of archival information to meet the social, scientific, cultural and other demands of citizens, society, state;
organization and coordination of research in the field of archival, source and record studies, archeography etc.;
providing legal and social protection of employees of public archival institutions;
implementation of international cooperation in the field of archival matters.

The network of state archives under the State Committee on Archives of Ukraine includes about 680 institutions. They are:

Seven Central State Archives of Ukraine;
Ukrainian Research Institute for Archival and Record Studies in Kyiv;
Reference Library of Central State Archives of Ukraine in Kyiv;
State Service for Documents Preservation;
Financial Department for Central State Archives;
State Archive in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea;
Twenty four State Oblast Archives;
State archives of Kyiv and Sebastopol;
487 archival departments of district (local) state administrations;
159 municipal archives.

The archival system of Ukraine employs more than 3,000 persons.
The archival institutions under the State Committee on Archives of Ukraine preserve more than 53 million files (units, or spravy), 71,000 video documents, more than 1 million photo documents, 32,000 audio documents and 651,000 items of scientific and technical documentation, all included in the National Archival Fond as one of the most important components of the national information resources and historical heritage of Ukraine.

The government archival institutions responsible for the permanent preservation of records include: the Security Service Archives, the Archives of the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry for Internal Affairs, the State Cartography and Geodetical Fond etc. as well as archival institutions and departments of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine which are partially subordinate to the State Committee on Archives of Ukraine.

Since 1956 the State Committee on Archives of Ukraine has been a member of the International Council of Archives, a non-government professional organization under the aegis of the UNESCO.

In accordance with the Decree of the President of Ukraine in 1998 there was declared a professional holiday - Archivists' Day, which is celebrated on December, 24.

On December 13, 2001, the Verkhovna Rada (the Parliament) of Ukraine passed a new Law "On National Archival Fond and Archival Institutions" that significantly improved the public access to the archival records.

Welcome to the State Archives of Ukraine!