Why Do Archival Documents Become Classified?

Since 2022, the Russian government has increasingly classified archival documents and entire collections. Some argue that this resembles Soviet-era practices, but is this truly the case? In this interview from 1987, Soviet archival officials discuss the changes in archival policies during the late Soviet period, shedding light on the reasons and methods behind the classification of certain documents.

In recent years, the interest of Soviet people in the country’s past, especially its “blank spots,” has grown significantly. There is an opinion that these gaps are so numerous in history because access to the archives was closed until recently. This is discussed in our correspondent L. Novikova’s interview with the head of the Main Archival Administration under the Council of Ministers of the USSR, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor F. M. Vaganov, the Deputy Head of this Administration, A. V. Elpatyevsky, the Head of the Scientific Information Usage Department, N. M. Rassyppnova, and the Head of the Scientific and Publishing Department, L. I. Panin.

CORRESPONDENT: Fyodor Mikhailovich, “AiF” receives many letters with the question that can be formulated as follows: when will access to the archives be opened?

VAGANOV: We understand the growing interest in archives and the questions that arise in connection with this. This is probably mainly due to the lack of sufficient information from archival institutions about their work. Regarding access to archives, I would like to note that in accordance with Lenin's decree of July 1, 1918, "On the Reorganization and Centralization of Archival Affairs in the RSFSR," a branched network of archives was created, and now 3,273 state archives are operating in the country, all of which are open. The State Archival Fund of the USSR, for example, contains about 340 million storage units of various documents that capture the history of the peoples of our Motherland from ancient times to the present day.

ELPATYEVSKY: There are also departmental archives, for example, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR, the Ministry of Defense of the USSR, the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and the Union republics, the All-Union State Film Fund of Goskino of the USSR, party and Komsomol archives, etc.

VAGANOV: I would add that the State Archival Fund of the USSR is a collection of the most valuable documents reflecting the activities of institutions, organizations, as well as individuals — statesmen, writers, poets, and so on. The process of forming the State Archival Fund of the USSR is ongoing. Each year, about 3 - 3.5 million cases are submitted for storage from more than 230 thousand institutions and organizations and individuals.

The vast majority of these documents are available for work. According to the existing rules, all citizens have the right to visit state archives and work with the documents they are interested in. State archives are obliged to provide all kinds of assistance to researchers during their work in the reading rooms. I would like to note that our rules are based on a more democratic foundation than in some foreign countries.

Archival documents are issued for review by researchers, organizations, and individuals. Annually, 50 - 55 thousand researchers work in the reading rooms of the archives, including 200 - 250 people from other countries. They receive more than one million cases for study. Based on archival materials, scientific works, doctoral and candidate dissertations, articles in journals, and other publications are written. Here is an example: using archival documents, 13 central state archives of the USSR from 1981 to 1987 published 3536 scientific works, including 1675 on the pre-October period and 1861 on the post-October period.

CORRESPONDENT: And yet, obviously, there are restrictions on access to some documents, and some are completely closed?

ELPATYEVSKY: Of course, a small portion of archival documents is stored under a restricted access regime.

CORRESPONDENT: Please explain what this means.

ELPATYEVSKY: When some ministries and departments of the USSR transfer their documents for state storage, as fund creators, they determine the conditions for their use. This is why a limited access is set for some of these materials. It accounts for no more than 2-3% of the total number of documents in the State Archival Fund of the USSR. However, even the documents under restricted access are available and used in research work. The only difference is that they are issued upon official requests from scientific institutions to the respective ministry or department of the USSR, whose documents are needed for the development of the relevant topic. This procedure is established considering the state importance of the information they contain. After a certain period, these documents are declassified, and their issuance is handled by state archives.

RASSYPNOVA: Recently, extensive work has been done to lift the restricted access on many documents. For example, of the 1,109,086 cases under restricted access, state archives have been granted the right to issue 767,195 cases. In other words, they have been transferred to a general storage regime. These include, for example, 92,589 cases of the Central Statistical Administration of the USSR; 32,926 cases of the State Planning Committee of the USSR; 61,757 cases of the Ministry of Finance of the USSR; 243,035 cases of the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Maritime Fleet of the USSR; 229,077 cases of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions; 60,388 - TASS, and others.

ELPATYEVSKY: It is worth noting that there is a relatively small number of archival documents, primarily from the defense industry sectors, that are stored under a classified regime. These documents are accessible and used only with special permissions by employees of the respective sectors. Similar procedures exist in other countries for this type of documents.

CORRESPONDENT: Currently, there is an exceptionally increased interest in our history. This is evident from newspaper and magazine publications, as well as letters received by various institutions. Can anything better characterize different periods of our history than the original documents — the living witnesses of it? In this regard, could you tell us about the publication of archival documents?

PANIN: Indeed, this is extremely important today. Therefore, considering the great significance of documentary publications for the development of historical science, the state archives of the USSR, in cooperation with scientific institutions, annually release 50 to 60 volumes of document collections with a total volume of up to 1,500 printed sheets, thus introducing 7,000 to 9,000 new archival documents into scientific circulation. Let me give you some examples. The scientific community has highly appreciated and recognized, for instance, The History of Industrialization in the USSR, 1926 - 1941, The History of the Collectivization of Agriculture, 1927 - 1937, The History of Cultural Development in the USSR, 1917 - 1977. More than 250 volumes on the history of the Great October Socialist Revolution have been published. 200 volumes of documents on the history of the Great Patriotic War have been published. Additionally, 18 volumes on the history of the Decembrist uprising, 14 volumes on Russia's foreign policy, Special Journals of the Council of Ministers of Russia, 12 volumes of letters of Peter I, and more than 30 volumes of documents on the relations of the USSR with socialist countries, among others, have been published.

I would like to add that many of our well-known writers, especially those who write on historical topics, make extensive use of the archives of the State Archival Fund of the USSR. Such notable writers as V. Ardamatsky, Y. Semenov, and Doctor of Historical Sciences N. Pavlenko, who wrote remarkable books like “Peter I”, “Menshikov”, and “Nestlings of Peter's Nest”, spent a lot of time in our reading rooms. Still, such document publications are insufficient. Especially since the volume of the State Archival Fund of the USSR allows for a significant increase. The main difficulty lies in the insufficient publishing base.

ELPATYEVSKY: I would like to say a bit about the practical use of archives for economic purposes. For example, during the construction of the Illichivsk port, specialists studied topographic materials of the Dnieper and Dniester estuaries, and the information contained in archival sources allowed for a saving of 978 thousand rubles in the Leningrad region alone during the construction of drainage systems. The study of ancient documents enabled a group of Georgian architects to carry out the reconstruction of the medieval zone of Tbilisi, which was recently nominated for the State Prize.

CORRESPONDENT: Perhaps there are other forms of using the documents of the State Archival Fund of the USSR?

RASSYPNOVA: Of course. For example, state archives organize up to a thousand documentary exhibitions annually on various topics. This April, in connection with the 70th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution, the exhibition “The Great October in Documents and Photographs” opened. Newspapers and magazines publish unique documents on the history of this major event of the 20th century. It is worth mentioning that annually, more than 500 thousand citizens write or approach the state archives on various socio-legal issues.

VAGANOV: As you can see, state archives are open, and the archival documents stored there are accessible to researchers and citizens. In our opinion, the shortcoming lies elsewhere: the colossal capabilities of the State Archival Fund of the USSR are still underutilized, as a significant portion of its documents does not receive the corresponding interest.

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L. Novikova’s post-interview notes:

When this material was already in the issue, I was assigned a task by the editorial office that required consulting archival documents.

…Bolshaya Pirogovskaya, 17. This is where the reading room of the Central Archive of the October Revolution is located. However, I couldn’t get in right away — the police sergeant, saluting, explained that a special pass was required, which could only be obtained based on a work certificate.

I went to the editorial office and got the certificate. However, there was another “setback” — I didn’t know which specific archive held the documents I needed, particularly newspapers from the early years of the Soviet regime. I went to the reception, where the staff member E. E. Sharavina was very helpful in resolving the issue — she called the director of the scientific library, N. F. Mamonova. Ninelle Fedorovna explained that it would be better to review newspapers at the Lenin Library. If they don’t have the needed materials, I should bring a rejection letter from the library.

And if I need to see what the opposition newspapers were writing in the first months of Soviet power? — I asked the senior editor of the journal fund, N. N. Petrova.

In this case, you would need special clearance, which must be obtained from the security division at your place of work.

Unfortunately, “AiF” does not have a security division. Therefore, access to primary sources will be impossible. Many people indeed contact the pass bureau of the State Archival Fund of the USSR. They come for social and legal matters, which is simpler — they fill out a special form at the reception, and the archive staff handles it from there; many students and postgraduates come as well. They mostly know exactly what they are interested in, which documents and references they need. It is probably quite right that unique documents are not accessible to mere curiosity seekers. Another detail to note is that the working conditions for researchers in reading rooms leave much to be desired. But this, of course, is not the fault of the archive staff; it is their misfortune...

I would like to hear the opinions of historians and specialists on these issues.