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Contact information • History • Holdings • Access & Facilities • Bibliography
ArcheoBiblioBase: Archives in Russia: B-8Last update of repository: 2 December 2020Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi voennyi arkhiv (RGVA)Previous names
The present archive was first established in 1920 as the Archive of the Red Army (Arkhiv Krasnoi Armii) under the Military History Commission of the All-Russian General Staff (Vseroglavshtab) as a special agency archive. In January 1921 the Archive of the Red Army, together with other military archives in the RSFSR, came under the authority of the Military and Naval Section of the Consolidated State Archival Fond (EGAF). In 1925 the archive became an independent central state archival repository. In April 1933 it was reorganized as the Central Archive of the Red Army (TsAKA), and in March 1941 renamed the Central State Archive of the Red Army (TsGAKA). With the reorganization of the Red Army as the Soviet Army in 1958, TsGAKA was again renamed as the Central State Archive of the Soviet Army (TsGASA). In 1992 TsGASA became the Russian State Military Archive (RGVA). The so-called Special Archive (Osobyi arkhiv—TsGOA) was officially established in March 1946 to house archival materials of foreign origin that were captured by the Soviet Army at the end of World War II in Germany and Eastern Europe and brought back to Moscow. In addition to captured Nazi and earlier German records, there were archival materials from many different European countries that had earlier been seized by Nazi authorities. Later the archive also acquired records of Soviet agencies dealing with prisoners of war and displaced persons, under the Main Administration for Prisoners of War and Internees (GUPVI) under the Ministry of Internal Affiars (NKVD–MVD SSSR). The previously top-secret repository was first mentioned in the official Soviet press in February 1990 (see b–359). In July 1992 the Central State Special Archive (TsGOA SSSR) was reorganized and renamed the Center for Preservation of Historico-Documentary Collections (TsKhIDK), and opened for public research. With the 1999 Rosarkhiv reorganization, TsKhIDK was abolished as a separate archive, and its holdings became part of RGVA. Continuing from the 1990s, more displaced records of provenance in European countries were returned to their countries of provenance. Before 2015, records from the Special Archive all remained in the original TsGOA building (ul. Vyborgskaia 3, korp. 1), but by the summer of 2015, they were all transferred to the main RGVA building (ul. Admirala Makakova, 29), and were consolidated with other RGVA records. A separate reading room for those fonds is no longer operated. |
