The Central State Archive of St. Petersburg is the largest in the country, however, it is not enough to process and store all the necessary data.
Documentary materials - photos, videos, audio, stored on paper, of course, were in the repositories and directories of more than one archive. There are only seven central state archival institutions with various thematic profiles in St. Petersburg, not to mention the many smaller units.
The structure of the state archives of St. Petersburg
Archival institutions of the Northern capital keep documentary evidence of not only its history. Material sources of knowledge about different spheres of life of some neighboring regions and the country as a whole are cherished here. There are two levels of federal institutions in the city, to which two archives of St. Petersburg belong - the Russian State Historical and Navy, as well as seven, which store data on the subject of the Russian Federation, which is part of the subordinate network of the Archival Committee of St. Petersburg. The information in their catalogs differs in chronology, field of knowledge, types of material information carriers. The document security laboratory belongs to the same system.
Departmental archives (of which there are 41 in the city on the Neva) belong to specific organizations and store information about their activities. Among them, 14 relate to institutions that have the state status of executive authorities.
It should also be noted the division into state and commercial archives. The last few in St. Petersburg. They exist in the form of open or closed joint-stock companies and are engaged in the storage of documents of some non-governmental organizations, and issue certificates to the population on them. These archives are not supervised or sent by state control bodies of this sphere of activity.
Archival Committee of St. Petersburg
The organization is included in the system of executive authorities of the country.
The main goals of its existence are to ensure the storage, systematization, registration and operation of documents of the state archives of St. Petersburg, the provision of data on the basis of existing documentation, the creation and maintenance of functioning of information retrieval mechanisms.
Central Expert Verification Methodological Commission
CEPMK - advisory body to the Archival Committee of St. Petersburg. It operates on an ongoing basis.
Its purpose is to solve scientific and methodological issues related to assessing the importance and value of documents, their inclusion in the Archival Fund of St. Petersburg. The Commission analyzes the basic directions and results of the scientific and methodological practice of state archives, the creation, implementation and improvement of ways to conduct this activity.
The responsibilities of the CEPMC include the scientific and methodological guidance and management of the work of expert inspection commissions of state archives and expert commissions of organizations.
Central State Archives of St. Petersburg
Currently, the seven central state archives of St. Petersburg are a concentration of more than 11.5 million unique paper documents, in excess of half a million units of photographic materials relating to more than two centuries of the city’s history. Each of them officially bears the title of "central" and "state" in St. Petersburg.
The Historical Archive (TsGIA SPb) is a place of concentration of data on the city and province from the seventies of the 18th century to 1917. Almost two million documents have important local history, historical significance.
The archive of historical and political documents (TsGAIPD SPb) contains almost five million cases for the years 1917-1991. It included the funds of the communist party organizations of the city and region, the Komsomol.
Archive of scientific and technical documentation (TSGANTD SPb). The institution has concentrated design, engineering, research documents, cartographic data from 1917 to 1990. Among them are evidence of the labor activity of famous scientists, the luminaries of science - V. M. Bekhterev, N. I. and S. I. Vavilov, V. I. Vernadsky and many others.
The Archive of Literature and Art (TsGALI SPb) stores information on the cultural activities of specialized organizations from 1917 to the present day. It also contains personal funds of eminent St. Petersburg figures of art and culture.
The archive of film and photo documents (TsGAKFFD SPb) contains photos and photographs testifying to the life of the city from 1860 to 1991.
The archive of documents on the personnel of liquidated enterprises, institutions, organizations (TsGALS SPb) was established in the last year of the twentieth century. Documents of both the largest enterprises and small organizations of various statuses, the former Notary Archive, and the Office of Commerce are stored here.
The Central Archive (TsGA SPb), which does not have a designated specialization, deserves special mention.
