ARCHIVES IN LITHUANIA

LITHUANIAN ARCHIVES - SHORT HISTORY

Lithuanian State History Archive

From the 14th century, city, church, and feudal collections of documents began to accumulate in Lithuania.In the second half of the 16th century, with the change of administrative-territorial designation, the establishment of the counties and the creation of new courts in them, the documents began to accumulate on the periphery. A lot of attention was paid to archives in the 3rd Lithuanian Statute issued in 1588.

After the third division of Poland and Lithuania in 1795, institutions, ecclesiastical and family archives remained largely in their original place.

In 1852, the Central Archive of Old Acts was established in Vilnius, where the books of the GDL institutions, formerly Vilnius, Kaunas, Grodno, Minsk, and later in Lublin, Vitebsk, and Mogilev, were collected. Documents became better protected from destruction or possible counterfeiting, as well as theft. A number of valuable documents with up to date scientific value have been published.

The General Archives of Vilnius Institutions collected the 19th-20th centuries. documents of the tsarists institutions operating in Vilnius province. The documents of the state institutions were preserved by the archive of the Muravyov Museum, established in 1898.

When the First World War began, some Lithuanian archives were evacuated to the depths of Russia. The remaining archive of old acts was sealed. It is not possible to say exactly what has been exported because no records have been retained. It is believed that the oldest documents, before the 18th century, were removed.

1919 At the beginning of the 19th century, when the Red Army occupied Vilnius, Lithuania's central archive of history was organized. There was not much to be done, since 1919-04-19 Vilnius was occupied by the Polish army. In the interwar period, Vilnius Archive continued its work as part of Poland.

In the year 1921 The Central State Archive was established in Kaunas. The documents of the tsarists institutions of Kaunas Gubernia, part of the judicial books of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, were accumulated there. manuscripts of writers and public figures, "Ausra", "Varpas", "Ūkininkas" redactions.

In the year 1940 according to the example of the USSR, the archives were transferred to the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Interior.

In the year 1941 The Central State Archive of the Lithuanian SSR became operational in Vilnius, but the organizational and creative work was interrupted by the war and the occupation of Hitler. During the war, the Vilnius Archives remained intact thanks to the work of Director Historian Joseph Statkauskas. The state archive was restored immediately after the liberation of Vilnius.

1957 The network of state archives of the Lithuanian SSR was reorganized. It was decided to establish the State Historical Archive of the Lithuanian SSR.

 1960 The subordination of the archive to the Ministry of the Interior was abolished. The archive became more open to the public, scientists from Lithuania and abroad. Improved conditions for research of Lithuanian history, publication of documents, creation and improvement of document search systems of various funds, organization of document restoration and microfilming for preservation and development of educational activities.

            1963 completed construction of a new archive building. (then Gerosios Vilties str. 10, Vilnius, now – Mindaugo str. 8).

            The archive acquired microfilms of important sources of Lithuanian history from Russian archives (among them Lithuanian Metric - Chancellery of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania), Latvia, Belarus, Ukraine, Poland. Declassifying former secret funds since 1989 all archival documents became available to the public. 1989 At the end of the year there were 1262880 security in the archive. pcs. (852 funds).

During the Soviet occupation, the archive was led by Polina Nikitina (1957 - 1961), Domas Butėnas (1961 - 1987), Jonas Baravykas (1987 - 1992).

            Under difficult conditions it was built, installed and installed in 1990. started using the archive extension. The archive has received many documents that have been stored for a long time in the inoperable St. The Assumption of the Virgin Mary at the Heavenly Church in Vilnius (Trakų str. 9/1). Improved storage conditions.

            Restoration of Independence of the Republic of Lithuania in 1990 March 11 has opened up new opportunities for archive activity. Since 1993 May 28 The name of the archive has changed - it has become the archive of Lithuanian state history. His employees were given access to archives and activities of Canada, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Poland, USA and other countries.

            Archival documents have become important and have been used intensively to meet not only the needs of Lithuanian, but also of many foreign institutions and citizens. The number of social legal and genealogical inquiries has increased dramatically. 1992 get 34448 social, 284 genealogical inquiries. 2005 - 2010 about 94 thousand issue of documents confirming legal facts.

            Readership work has grown considerably. 1998 the second is a microfilm reading room. Number of readers from 200 people in 1990 increased to 1012 - 2010 During 2005 - 2010 alone 6135 researchers were served in reading rooms, and their number of visits was about 76400. Submission of documents to readers during 2005-2010. growing

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Sources:

https://www.archyvai.lt/lt/lvia_apie-mus/lvia_istorija.html  

„Lietuvos centrinio valstybinio istorijos archyvo fondų žinynas“ (1990)