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Contact information • History • Holdings • Access & Facilities • Bibliography
ArcheoBiblioBase: Archives in Russia: C-2Last update of repository: 14 March 2020Arkhiv vneshnei politiki Rossiiskoi Federatsii (AVP RF)Previous names
The archive was first established as a structural subdivision within the chancellery of the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs (Narkomat inostrannykh del—NKID) as its subdivision, and initially remained as the current archive of the ministerial secretariat then under G.V. Chicherin—as the Current Political Archive of the Secretariat. A separate General Archive of the NKID was established in 1920, and in 1926 the Current Political Archive was brought under its jurisdiction. For political reasons, it long remained the internal agency archive for the official records of the NKID and (after 1946) MID SSSR, including the records of Soviet embassies, consulates, and special missions. During that period the archive was housed in the building of the ministerial headquarters in Kuznetskii most. According to evacuation orders of 7 July 1941, the most important secret documentation was evacuated during the war to Kuibyshev Oblast, and returned to Moscow in February 1944. However, given the lack of containers and transportation facilities for evacuation, a large part of the archive, “not having operational and scientific-historical significance,” was destroyed. In 1946 the archive was reorganized and renamed the Archive of Foreign Policy as a subdivision of the Archival Administration of the Commissariat (after 1946—Ministry) of Foreign Affairs (AVP NKID; AVP MID). In 1958 the Archive of Foreign Policy was moved to the new MID building in Smolensk Square (equipped with fireproof safes for the most valuable documents), and the Archival Administration was renamed the Historico-Diplomatic Administration of MID (1958–1992, in 1992–1993—Historico-Documentary Administration, since 1993—Department). In 1992, the Archive of Foreign Policy of the USSR (AVP SSSR) was renamed AVP RF, and since 1993 operates as a division of IDD MID (see C–02). |
