This is the principal archive for the history of right-bank and central Ukraine from the 14th to the 20th century. Its holdings include documents of the Cossack Hetmanate and the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, municipal magistrate records, church registers (Orthodox and Uniate), land records, documents of noble families, and court records from the Lithuanian and Polish periods.
The archive holds the world’s only collection of record books from the Cossack Hetmanate, as well as a substantial portion of the surviving church registers from right-bank Ukraine. For genealogical and historical research on the region in the 17th-19th centuries, these holdings are unparalleled, the materials not duplicated in either Russia or Poland.

The archive has its own digital platform, Archium (https://archium.cdiak.archives.gov.ua/), which researchers can use to locate relevant documents. Its search feature is organized by categories including judicial institutions; educational, academic, and cultural institutions; personal papers; and individual collections, among others. Some files have been fully digitized and are available through the platform.

The reading room is open by appointment. Researchers must provide identification and submit an application stating their research topic. Foreign researchers are generally required to provide a letter from their sponsoring institution, such as a university or research institute. Since 2022, some particularly valuable collections have been evacuated or duplicated for preservation purposes. Researchers are advised to confirm the availability of specific files in advance by contacting the archive at mail.cdiak@arch.gov.ua.

This archive specializes in records of Ukrainian government bodies from 1917 onward, including the Ukrainian People’s Republic. Its holdings include records of Soviet ministries and government agencies, as well as a substantial body of materials on Ukrainian emigration. It represents a major repository for the history of Ukrainian statehood in 1917-1921, including the Ukrainian People’s Republic Directorate, with collections on a scale unavailable anywhere outside of Ukraine.

Like the Central State Historical Archives, it has its own platform with partially digitized documents from individual fonds, as well as e-resource collections (https://e-resource.tsdavo.gov.ua/). Other online resources include the digital archive of the West Ukrainian People’s Republic (https://zunr.arinsy.com/) and the Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce documents database (https://err.tsdavo.gov.ua/), which contains materials relating to the removal of cultural property from Ukraine by the Nazis.

Researchers can order digital copies of specific documents or submit a research request concerning a particular event or historical period at tsdavo@arch.gov.ua.

This archive holds declassified records of the Soviet security services, including files on political persecution and materials relating to the Holodomor and the dissident movement. It is one of the most important archives in the post-Soviet region for research on political persecution because other comparable collections, like that of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), remain closed. The archive contains a substantial body of primary sources on the Great Terror, collectivization, and the Holodomor.

Digitization is carried out through third-party projects. Some digitized holdings can be found on the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center portal (https://babynyar.org/ru/archive/37), while individual documents are available through Russia’s Electronic Library of Historical Documents (https://docs.historyrussia.org/ru/indexes/values/130958). A complete guide to the structure and holdings of the Sectoral State Archive of the Security Service of Ukraine is available on the website of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance (https://uinp.gov.ua/dostup-do-arhivnoyi-informaciyi-represyvnyh-organiv/knygy/otraslevoy-gosudarstvennyy-arhyv-sbu-putevodytel-2010). Researchers wishing to work with original documents must submit an application to the archive.

The Babyn Yar project deserves particular attention, bringing together more than eight million digitized copies of documents from various Ukrainian archives relating to the early Holocaust as carried out in northwestern Kyiv. Researchers studying that related topics are encouraged to explore the portal (https://babynyar.org/en/archive/).

This is the country’s largest research library. Its holdings include manuscripts, early printed books, 19th- and 20th-century periodicals, the personal papers of scholars, and a substantial Judaica collection. The library’s Institute of Manuscript holds unique Slavic manuscripts, including medieval codices, as well as one of the largest collections of Jewish manuscripts and early printed books in Eastern Europe. The Institute of Manuscript’s inventories can be accessed online (http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua).

The Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine also maintains extensive digital collections in its Digital Library of Historical and Cultural Heritage (http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_ir/cgiirbis_64.exe?C21COM=F&I21DBN=COL&P21DBN=ELIB), which includes a subject index for searching the collections. Another major project, Ukrainica, is an electronic library providing full-text access to books, collections, and journals on subjects ranging from philosophy to agriculture.

The archive holds the personal papers of writers, artists, and composers, as well as the records of creative unions and public organizations and a variety of individual collections. A complete list of fonds is available online (https://csamm.archives.gov.ua/perelik-fondiv-tsdamlm-ukrainy/), with an alphabetical search available for personal fonds. Digital copies of files can be ordered by emailing csamla.ua@gmail.com after submission of an application with the researcher’s personal information and research topic.

This is the country’s only archive dedicated to documentary film and photographic materials. Its holdings are relatively limited in size, and many cover the post-Soviet period, although the Soviet period is also represented by newsreels, photographs, audio recordings of personal recollections, and video documents. Film and video documents are accompanied by shot lists and descriptions of the footage. The archive’s catalog is available online (https://avd.archives.gov.ua/#tab-4).

The archive holds documents on the history of Galicia under the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Austria-Hungary, and interwar Poland, including court and administrative records, Greek Catholic and Roman Catholic parish registers, and the papers of noble families such as the Potockis and Lubomirskis. Its collection of Greek Catholic parish registers is the largest of its kind and an essential source for genealogical research on Western Ukraine, with no comparable body of material of this scale in either the Polish or Austrian archives.

Some fonds have been digitized and are available on the archive’s website (https://tsdial.archives.gov.ua/index14.html). Researchers can use the archive’s online guide, which lists all inventories and record creators, to navigate the collections (https://tsdial.archives.gov.ua/index5.html).

The library holds hundreds of thousands of items, including nearly 1,500 titles of Ukrainian periodicals from the 19th and early 20th centuries, more than 250,000 rare books dating from the 16th through the 19th and early 20th centuries, and an extensive collection of cartographic materials, with particularly comprehensive holdings of 19th- and early-20th-century European maps.

The manuscript section holds original documents written in the Ukrainian chancery language of the 15th and 16th centuries, examples of Ukrainian writing from the 13th-18th centuries, and Latin, Polish, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Hebrew manuscripts from the 13th-18th centuries. The art collection contains approximately 350,000 original works of Ukrainian and international art, including prints, drawings, watercolors, gouaches, photographs, and sheet music, with works by prominent European artists representing the Ukrainian, Polish, German, French, Russian, and other schools.

An archive of Ukrainian periodicals is available online through Libraria (https://libraria.ua/all-titles/). This is a joint project with the Ossolineum Institute in Wroclaw, Poland, to bring together digital collections of books, periodicals, graphic works, and other materials representing the shared Ukrainian-Polish heritage. All of the library’s catalogs are available online (https://www.lsl.lviv.ua/index.php/uk/resursi-i-fondi/tsyfrovi-kolektsiyi/). Electronic books, however, are available only to registered users. A library card can be obtained remotely, but researchers must complete the required application and pay the registration fee.

The archive holds records of government bodies, political and public institutions, organizations, businesses, and associations that operated in the Lviv region under the Austro-Hungarian monarchy (1784-1918), the interwar Polish Republic (1918-1939), the Ukrainian SSR (1939-1941 and 1944-1991), the German occupation (1941-1944), and independent Ukraine since 1991. Catalogs and inventories are available in the electronic archive section on the website (https://archivelviv.gov.ua/).

The archive holds documents on the history of Kharkiv and Sloboda Ukraine from the 18th century to the present, including records of prerevolutionary governorate institutions and Soviet government bodies, as well as a large body of documents relating to political persecution in the 1920s-1950s.

Particularly valuable collections include parish registers and revision lists from the Kharkiv Governorate, documents on the famines of 1932-1933 and 1921-1923, and materials from the period of German occupation and World War II. The archive’s website (archives.kh.gov.ua) has an electronic archive section that includes collections of genealogy books from the Kharkiv Governorate and criminal case files of individuals subjected to political persecution in the city of Kharkiv and in Kharkiv Region. The website also offers online document ordering, electronic inventories of fonds, and online exhibitions devoted to the Holodomor, political persecution, and World War II.

One of Ukraine’s largest regional research libraries, it holds local history literature, periodicals, and archival collections relating to the history of Sloboda Ukraine and the Kharkiv region. The library also serves as a nationwide research and methodological center.

Its website (korolenko.kharkov.com) provides access to an electronic catalog and a local history portal (kray.korolenko.kharkov.com) containing digitized books, articles, and name indexes relating to the history of the region. Other resources include the digital archive of documents on the war, electronic collections and archival collections sections containing personal collections and manuscript materials, as well as virtual exhibitions and other online projects.

Founded in 1804, this is one of the oldest and largest libraries in Ukraine. Its rare book holdings include collections of incunabula (printed before 1500), paleotypes (1501-1550), Ukrainian and foreign early printed books from the 16th and 17th centuries, and a manuscript collection dating from the 12th-20th centuries. Highlights include a 14th-century Greek manuscript of Aratus’ Phaenomena, Turkish and Arabic manuscripts from the 16th-18th centuries, and a 15th-century Catholic prayer book. The rare book collection has held the status of a Ukrainian National Heritage site since 2013. The library maintains two key digital resources.

• eKhNUIR (ekhnuir.karazin.ua): the university’s repository of research, teaching, and methodological materials, containing more than 24,000 documents.
• eScriptorium (escriptorium.karazin.ua): a digital archive of rare publications and manuscripts for research and education. It provides full digital copies or excerpts of rare books and manuscripts from the holdings of the Central Scientific Library and partner libraries, with free full-text access.

Founded in 1829, this is the oldest public library in Ukraine and was the second public library established in the Russian Empire, after the Imperial Public Library in St. Petersburg. Its holdings comprise approximately five million items in more than 100 languages, including unique manuscripts – among them a 13th-century palm-leaf manuscript – an extensive collection of local history publications on Odesa and southern Ukraine in its Odesica department, as well as a number of personal book collections, including that of Mykhailo Komarov. The library’s official website is odnb.odessa.ua.

The archive specializes in documents on the history of Odesa and southern Ukraine from the 18th century onward. Its holdings include extensive collections from the prerevolutionary period, including records of the Kherson Ecclesiastical Consistory, as well as Soviet-era and postindependence materials and records of the former Communist Party archive. Personal papers and materials relating to Odesa’s multiethnic population, including its Greek and Jewish communities, deserve special attention.

The archive’s METRICS digital project, available at archive.od.gov.ua, provides open access to digitized parish and civil registers from Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, Armenian, Jewish, and Muslim communities dating from 1797-1944, together with consolidated catalogs and guides. This makes the archive one of the best resources for genealogical research on the region.

The archive holds documents on the history of Yekaterinoslav/Dnipropetrovsk from the 19th century onward, including records of prerevolutionary governorate, district, and uyezd institutions; records of Soviet government and administrative bodies; and substantial collections on the industrialization of the region, political persecution in the 1930s, and the famines of 1921-1923 and 1932-1933, including recollections of the Holodomor by residents of the region. Its holdings also include materials relating to wars and personal fonds.

The archive’s website, dp.archives.gov.ua, has an electronic archive section containing inventories of fonds, thematic publications, parish registers, and lists of participants in the 1921-1923 famine relief program.

the official portal of the State Archival Service of Ukraine. It provides information on Ukraine’s system of state archives, reference materials on the holdings of the National Archival Fund, inventories and guides to archival collections, information on access to documents and archival digitization, and updates on changes affecting archival institutions. It is a useful starting point for locating documents in Ukraine’s central and regional archives.

a government institution dedicated to researching, preserving, and promoting Ukrainian historical memory. Of particular importance for archival research is its Declassified Memory project, which is dedicated to opening access to formerly classified documents of Soviet organs of repression and materials relating to political persecution and the functioning of the security services. The institute also provides thematic digital projects and publications on the history of Ukraine in the 20th century.

a research center at Harvard University specializing in the study of Ukraine and Eastern Europe. The institute is engaged in digital humanities projects, online collections, and research initiatives relating to Ukrainian history, culture, and primary sources. Its resources are useful as an alternative means of accessing Ukraine-related materials from outside of the country.

the largest digital library of Ukrainian émigré and diaspora publications. Its collections include digitized books, journals, newspapers, memoirs, scholarly works, and political and social publications produced by Ukrainian communities abroad in the 19th and 20th centuries. Although it is technically a digital library rather than an archive, it can be a key resource for historians, genealogists, and researchers of Ukrainian emigration, particularly for materials that are often absent from Ukraine’s state collections.