Moscow Special Archives
The Moscow Special Archive (also known as the “Center for the Preservation of Historical Documentary Collections” ) is a state-owned Russian institution for the preservation of documents of non-Russian, especially German origin (“booty files” from the Second World War ) in Moscow . It was originally independent and is now assigned to the Russian State Military Archives (RGWA), but still has an autonomous status with its own reading room, its own staff, its own collections and its own access rules.
history
The archive was founded in 1945 as a repository for archival material brought to Moscow from Berlin and various relocation sites in Silesia and Bohemia after the occupation of Eastern Poland by the Red Army in 1939 and at the end of the Second World War . The archive was under the control of the NKVD (later KGB ). Initially, it was only known and accessible to members of the secret service and the public prosecutor's office. The archive officially supported Soviet authorities in locating and convicting war criminals . At the same time, however, it also served the secret service work abroad and the search for " enemies of the people " and " traitors ".
The holdings requisitioned in 1945 comprised files from the state of German provenance as well as archival material that had been confiscated by German organs in Germany and in foreign countries occupied by German troops between 1933 and 1945, including files from Jewish, Masonic, politically left-wing and liberal organizations, institutions and personalities .
In the 1950s and 1960s in particular, there were extensive donations of files to the GDR , and to a lesser extent there were also donations to and takeovers from other Soviet archives.
In 1960, files from the Soviet Interior Ministry on prisoners of war and internees and on their repatriation from 1945–1953 were taken over as a completely new inventory group.
In February 1989 the public first learned of the archive's existence through an article in the Soviet daily Izvestia . In 1992 it was fully and permanently opened, and in the same year it was renamed the Center for the Preservation of Historical-Documentary Collections (Центр сохранения историко-документальных коллекций ЦХИДК). In 1999 the archive was administratively attached to the neighboring Russian State Military Archive (RGWA). However, it continued to work autonomously, in its own building and with its own access conditions. In the 1990s and 2000s, large parts of the stocks originally confiscated by the Germans in the occupied states were returned to the countries of origin, including France , Norway , Luxembourg , Belgium and Austria . Today the special archive still holds mainly German and Polish files. In 2015, the special archive had to hand over its own building specially built for this archive in Wyborger Straße to the Archive for Literature and Art (RGALI) and move to the nearby building of the military archive.
Restitution of the German holdings
In the years after the archive was opened in 1990, Germany had the chance to buy back the German holdings from Moscow, but the German side did not use this. In 1998 the adoption of the so-called trophy art law by the Duma , in addition to art works, all in 1945 in the Soviet Union spent German documents still in Russia were declared to Russian state property. From a Russian perspective, a restitution of the German files of state provenance in the special archive is therefore excluded for the time being.
Structure of the German holdings
The special archive stores three types of holdings:
a) Traditions from state authorities and institutions at the Reich, Länder and local levels (including the Foreign Office , Reich Ministries of the Interior , Justice , Economics , Finance , War , Church Affairs , Labor , Public Enlightenment and Propaganda , for Imperial Aviation and for the Occupied Eastern Territories ; RSHA , Police Headquarters Berlin , General Building Inspector, etc.)
b) personal holdings (partial estates) and holdings of organizations ( Jews , Freemasons , political opponents, etc., including files of the Centralverein and the Berlin Jewish Community ) confiscated by the German security forces and
c) Mixed collections (e.g. judicial institutions in Germany , documentary material on different people , illustration material ).
Most of the documents date from the period between 1918 and 1945. There are also documents from the 19th century, and in some cases even from the early modern period.
use
- The archive is located in the north of Moscow at the address ул. Адмирала Макарова 29, 125212 Москва. The nearest metro station, М Водный стадион, is a 10-15 minute walk away.
- The holdings of the special archive are completely open to scientific research. A letter of support from a scientific institution stating the research topic is required.
- A user receives only five files per day for inspection, which are made available two days after ordering. The archive is closed in July and August.
- The finding aids are only available in Russian.
- Copies can only be ordered, paid for and picked up on site.
- The use of laptops is possible without any problems.
literature
- Документы по истории и культуре евреев в трофейных коллекциях Российского государстуре евреев в трофейных коллекциях Российского государственного documents on the history of the archaeological archives of the Russian state and the archaeological archives of the Russian state and archaeological archives in 2005.
- Panwitz, Sebastian: The history of the “Moscow Special Archives”, in: Bulletin of the Moscow Historical Institute 2 (2008) (PDF; 1.1 MB), pp. 11–20.
- Panwitz, Sebastian: The Judaica in the "Special Archive Moscow"; in: Medaon 3 | 2008, pp. 1-9.
- Указатель фондов иностранного происхождения и Главного управления по делам военнопленных и интернированных НКВД-МВД СССР Росскийского государственного военного архива (list of stocks of foreign origin and the Central Prisoners of War and Internees of the NKVD of the Interior Ministry of the USSR in the Russian State Military Archive), Moscow 2001 (official holdings directory ).
- Gerhard Jagschitz , Stefan Karner : "Loot files from Austria". The Austrian holdings in the Russian “Special Archive” Moscow (= publications by the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Research on the Consequences of War, Vol. 2). Graz-Vienna 1996.
Web links
Remarks
- ↑ The full title of the law is Federal Law on Cultural Treasures Moved to the USSR as a result of the Second World War and located on the territory of the Russian Federation .