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ArcheoBiblioBase: Archives in Russia: D-11

Last update of repository: 7 December 2020

Arkhiv Upravleniia Federal'noi sluzhby besopasnosti po g. Moskve i Moskovskoi oblasti (Arkhiv UFSB po g. Moskve i Moskovskoi oblasti)


Holdings

Total: complete statistics not available, 1918–1991
secret administrative fond—19,375; trophy files—10,000; filtration files—55,000 units; archival-investigatory files—ca. 100,000 units; operational files—9,400 units; personnel and pension files—18,000

The archive holds administrative and other records of the FSB Administration for Moscow City and Oblast and its predecessor security organs dating back to 1918 (ChK; VChK; OGPU; NKVD; MVD; MOOP; KGB; MB). These include investigative and criminal files, materials on political trials of citizens repressed during the Soviet period, and other local records. Documentation can be divided into several groups.
        First are files relating to criminal proceedings, i.e. investigatory files on citizens who were incarcerated or otherwise repressed during the period 1918–August 1991, including those accused of political offenses, such as counterrevolutionary or other anti-Soviet activities. A large basic part of these records constitute the so-called discontinued fond—files on which rehabilitation decisions were based or on persons against whom accusations and/or prosecution were dropped.
        A second group of materials constitutes so-called “filtration” files involving repatriation or verification proceedings for Soviet citizens in enemy-occupied territories, especially those who were incarcerated by the Nazis and/or transported to Germany for forced labor, or later, those returned to the Soviet Union (often forcibly) by the WesternAllies or found in displaced-person camps. This group also includes related “trophy” Nazi files from concentration camps that were recovered by the Soviet Army, or other captured Nazi records that were subject to analysis in connection with the repatriation program and suppression of ethnic Germans (the so-called Volksdeutsche) and others accused of having been Nazi sympathizers during the war.
        A third group consists of secret KGB administration records, including correspondence, regulatory documentation, plans and reports of the local administration, and related files. These also include records of city and raion KGB organs.
        Another separate group of documents consists of personnel and other agent records of former KGB staff.
        A final group of materials consists of operational files. These include files of operational reports, control, verification, investigations, operational and recruitment files, and personal files of informants.

N.B. Starting in 1996, under agreement with Rosarkhiv, “filtration”and archival investigatory files on repressed persons are being transferred to GA RF (B–1). All files in these categories created more than fifteen years ago are scheduled for transfer, particularly files relating to rehabilitation proceedings, or to individuals given amnesty or pardon. Verification “filtration” files are to be transferred in their entirety without regard to the date of their creation.
        It is important to note that the KGB and other predecessor security agencies always had the right not to retain all their records permanently, thus explaining the fact that many categories of local Moscow records have significant gaps. Nevertheless, personnel files on KGB agents and other informers were to be retained permanently.


ABB ArcheoBiblioBase Archeo Biblio Base Patricia Kennedy Grimsted