The Central State Archive of the Republic of Kazakhstan was established in 1921 based on the Orenburg Provincial Archive. Its holdings cover not only Kazakhstan but also the administration of the Russian Empire’s steppe and Turkestan borderlands from the 18^th century onward. Prerevolutionary fonds carry the prefix “И-” and include records of regional administrations, district authorities, treasuries, and military headquarters, as well as extensive collections of registers of births, marriages, and deaths maintained by churches and mosques.

The Soviet holdings start with the Revolution and the Civil War. They include records of the highest governing bodies of the Kazakh Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic — including the Central Executive Committee, Council of People’s Commissars, and Council of the National Economy — as well as courts, prosecutors’ offices, revolutionary tribunals, and scientific and cultural institutions.

There is an “Electronic Archive” portal, where researchers can search by historical period, subject category, fonds title, and description. Subject categories are available through a dropdown menu. The portal is useful for identifying relevant holdings, though a catalog entry does not necessarily indicate that a digital copy is available.
We recommend consulting the research guides and reference materials published on the archive’s website, along with the forum for researchers working with its holdings.

The Archive of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan was established in 1994 based on the former party archive, then known as the Central State Archive of Contemporary History. Its records generally begin in 1918, though some personal collections contain earlier material. Toktagali Zhangeldin’s collection, for example, is cataloged as covering 1917–1985.

It is a key repository for Soviet history, holding Communist Party records from every level in Kazakhstan, including the Kirghiz Regional Committee, Kazakh Regional Committee, and the Central Committee, as well as provincial and district committees and primary party organizations. Its collections also include records of the Kazakhstani Komsomol and the personal papers of party officials. Other holdings document collectivization and famine, deportations, the war, the Virgin Lands campaign, and the events of December 1986.

The Center for the Study of Materials on Political Repressions of the 20^th Century has operated within the archive since 2021. In 2022–2023, it received more than 700,000 archival storage units from the special archives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, National Security Committee, and Prosecutor General’s Office, including criminal case files and registration cards documenting political repression in the 1930s–1950s.
The electronic catalog offers a search field but no advanced filters. The website does not provide a comprehensive, searchable collection of digitized documents. Its “Particularly Valuable Documents” section currently lists 30 PDF files organized by fonds and inventory. The downloadable PDF guides to the holdings provide a useful starting point for identifying relevant material. Researchers should plan to consult files in the reading room.

Note the archive relocated to Astana in 2025, transferring its independence-era records to the new capital. Meanwhile, its Soviet-era holdings remain at the Almaty branch.

The Central State Archive of Film, Photo Documents, and Sound Recordings has operated in Almaty since 1943. Its holdings include approximately 30,000 archival storage units of film material, 250,000 photographic negatives, and 15,000 sound recordings.

Its sources on the Russian Empire are relatively limited. The earliest photographs date from the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, with the glass-plate negatives of photographer Dmitri Bagaev representing a particularly important collection.
The archive is considerably more useful for the visual history of the Soviet period. It preserves early documentaries produced by Vostokkino and Mezhrabpom, including Zhizn i byt kazakhov (1927), Alma-Ata – stolitsa Kazakhstana (1929), and Turksib (1929), as well as wartime editions of Soyuzkinozhurnal, a weekly newsreel film series, some produced in Alma-Ata following the evacuation of Soviet filmmakers to the city. Its holdings also include photographs and film footage documenting collectivization, the war, the Virgin Lands campaign, and the late Soviet period, alongside recordings of Kazakh music and performances.

The archive has made substantial progress with digitization. In an article published in January 2017, its then-director reported that 40,664 photographic records, 6,600 sound-recording storage units, and 3,364 film storage units had been digitized and linked to catalog metadata. Digitization does not necessarily mean unrestricted remote access, however.

Each format has its own search interface: films, sound recordings, and photographs. Researchers can search films by title, release year, studio, director, and other production credits; photographs by source, location, date, and photographer; and sound recordings by title, performer, author, recording date, and source. All three interfaces also include an annotation field. Note that access to digital copies varies.

This archive specializes in project and engineering records, research documentation, geological materials, and architectural and construction records, as well as the personal papers of scientists and engineers.

For Soviet historians, it is particularly useful for specialized research on industrialization and major construction projects, mineral exploration and development, urban planning and architecture, and the history of science and technology in Kazakhstan.
There is separate “Electronic Archive” portal. Researchers can search by fonds, inventory, file number, year, country, city, title, annotation, project component, and originating or depositing organization. The archive’s reference-publications section provides guides to its holdings, including a downloadable 2024 second volume of the guide to personal fonds. These publications complement the electronic search portal and can help researchers identify relevant collections before searching for individual files.

The Scientific Archive was established in 1946 alongside the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR. Now part of Gylym Ordasy, formerly the archive of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR, it reports holdings of 146 fonds, encompassing institutional records, scientists’ personal papers, and a photographic collection. Most documents date from the 1930s–1990s.

It is a valuable resource for studying the history of science in Soviet Kazakhstan. Its holdings include records of the Kazakh Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR, and specialist research institutes. It also preserves papers of historians Yermukhan Bekmakhanov, Sergei Pokrovsky, Grigory Dakhshleiger, and Akai Nusupbekov, geologists associated with Kanysh Satpayev, and metallurgists and chemists.

A useful table on the website lists fonds by number and date range. The archive’s website does not provide a comprehensive searchable catalog or a collection of downloadable inventories and document scans. Some personal fonds are listed as unprocessed, while others include files classified as secret. The website serves primarily as a guide to the holdings; researchers should plan to consult the documents in the reading room in Almaty.

The Central Scientific Library traces its history to 1932, when a library was established at the Kazakhstan Base of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1946, with the establishment of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR, it became the Central Scientific Library. Now part of Gylym Ordasy, it holds approximately 5.8 million scientific publications, alongside important collections of rare books and manuscripts.
For research on the Russian Empire and the USSR, the library is particularly valuable for published sources: prerevolutionary publications on the steppe region and Turkestan, local periodicals, statistical publications, Soviet newspapers and journals published in Kazakhstan, and Candidate of Sciences and doctoral dissertations.
The website’s “Electronic Library” section lists full-text digital resources, including manuscripts, rare books, periodicals from the rare collections, microfilms, archival documents, and dissertations. The resource listings can be consulted without registration, but some links to individual documents currently redirect to a general file directory rather than opening the requested scan.