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ArcheoBiblioBase: Archives in Russia: C-8Last update of repository: 14 March 2020Tsentral'nyi arkhiv Ministerstva vnutrennikh del RF (Tretii otdel Tsentra reabilitatsii zhertv politicheskikh repressii i arkhivnoi informatsii Glavnogo informatsionno-analiticheskogo tsentra MVD RF) (TsA MVD Rossii)Previous names
The Ministry of Internal Affairs is the successor to the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) of the RSFSR, which existed already in 1917 as the central organ for public order and internal administration. The NKVD operated independently of the Cheka—the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for the Struggle against Counterrevolution, Speculation, and Sabotage (Vserossiiskaia chrezvychainaia komissiia po bor'be s kontrrevoliutsiei, spekuliatsiei i sabotazhem pri SNK RSFSR—VChK) until 1922. (Cf. the historical account for C–6). State security operations, first operating under the Cheka, and later under the State Political Administration (often translated as Directorate) (GPU) operated within the NKVD during the years 1922–1923, but they were separated during the period of the Consolidated State Political Administration (or Directorate) (OGPU) from 1923 to 1934. However, as the centralized organ responsible for public order, the NKVD also has its own direct role in security and penal agencies. In 1934 the reorganized security agency, the Main Administration (or Chief Directorate) of State Security (GUGB) was again incorporated within the NKVD, and continued to operate under the NKVD during the periods July 1934 to February 1941 and again from July 1941 to October 1947. Security operations were again combined with the successor Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) from March 1953 until March 1954, when the KGB became a separate agency. At that time a separate Operational Archive of the KGB was formed, taking over many of the earlier MVD records relating to security functions. Many of the archives of the KGB and its predecessors, however, were already being retained separately (see C–6 and C–7), although some became intermingled with those of the Ministry. The all-union MVD SSSR was abolished in 1960, but was reestablished as the Ministry for the Protection of Public Order (Ministerstvo okhrany obshchestvennogo poriadka—MOOP SSSR) in 1966, and then again resumed its historical name of the MVD SSSR in 1968. The Central Archive was formed in 1955 within the structure of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the RSFSR (MVD RSFSR), after its separation from the Archive of the KGB SSSR (see C–6). In 1960, in connection with the abolition of the all-union MVD, the Ministry was reorganized as the MVD RSFSR, and an internal Archival Administration was established, absorbing those parts of the Central Archive of the MVD that remained under agency jurisdiction. At that time, many of the records of the NKVD–MVD SSSR were transferred to state archival custody, predominantly to TsGAOR SSSR (now GA RF—B–1), including records of the MVD Secretariat and those relating to labor camps and parts of the penal system (GULAG). The records of the Main Administration for Affairs of Prisoners of War and Internees (Glavnoe upravlenie po delam voennoplennykh i internirovannykh—GUPVI), which operated operated prisoners-of-war, displaced persons, and detention camps during and after World War II, were transferred to the Central State Special Archive (TsGOA, now part of RGVA—B–8). Records of some more economic-related administrations were transferred to TsGANKh SSSR (now RGAE—B–6), while most of the pre-1955 records of the Internal and Convoy Troops (vnutrennie i konvoinye voiska) under the NKVD–MVD SSSR had already been transferred to the Central State Archive of the Soviet Army (TsGASA, now RGVA—B–8). The internal MVD Archival Administration changed its name in connection with the reorganization and renaming of the Ministry itself in 1966 and 1968. The present name of the archive dates from 1991. As of 1998, the Central Archive (Third Division) is now subordinated to the MVD Main Information Center (Glavnyi informatsionnyi tsentr—GITs). Under that Center, the MVD also now operates a Center for Archival Information and Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repression (Tsentr arkhivnoi informatsii i reabilitatsii zhertv politicheskikh repressii—TsAIiRZhPR), which was formed in 1992. From the beginning its purpose has been to organize and implement the rehabilitation of repressed individuals, and to furnish information about victims of repression to institutions, organizations, and individuals. The MVD operates a separate Administration for Information, Regional, and Public Relations for inquiries from mass media (see below). Related centers are operative on lower administrative levels throughout the Russian Federation. For Moscow, there is an Information Center under the Main Administration for Internal Affairs for the city of Moscow (GUVD g. Moskvy) and the Moscow Oblast (GUVD Moskovskoi oblasti), and a combined center operates for St. Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast (ITs Sankt-Peterburga i Leningradskoi oblasti). N.B. The MVD also administers a separate archive for the post-1951 records of the Internal and Convoy Troops (see C–9). |
