The article reviews creation of the departmental archive of the National Commissariat of the Navy (1937) and its functioning to this day. ‘The Statute of the Branch of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (Archive of Navy)’ was adopted on February 20, 2013. According to this document the Archive of Navy became a subdivision of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense, deployed separately and functioning independently. The departmental archive began its acquisition in September 1940. Satisfactory execution of functions by Archive was impeded by multiple changes in the structure of the Directorate of the Peoples’ Commissariat of the Navy, which complicated processing of documents entering the storage. Tasks of the Archive were reduced to the following: to control files condition and document destruction; to compile lists of documents with terms of their storage; to inspect the state of archiving in the Navy; to advise archives and records management offices of central directorates (departments) of the Peoples’ Commissariat of the Navy on formation and registration of files and their transfer to archive; to enter documents of the central directorates (departments) on storage; to track and safeguard documents. On the eve the Great Patriotic War transfer of document from fleet, flotillas, and naval bases was in its initial stage. The first months of the Great Patriotic War prompted evacuation of archival fonds from Moscow to Ulyanovsk (August 1941). By January 1945 these numbered 26550 files and 1234 bags of unsorted documents. At the end of war the Archive was relocated from Ulyanovsk to Leningrad, and then to Kronstadt (1947). In 1950s the Archive continued moving to new places — to Pushkin, to Leningrad, to Gatchina (1961). The fonds of the Archive store unique documents of the Peoples’ Commissariat and Ministry of the Navy, governing bodies under the Commander-In-Chief of the Navy, research establishments, Navy schools, river flotillas, materials on ships and submarines, air force, marines, coastal and anti-aircraft defense, rear, hydrographic, medical and sanitary, and other services. Of great interest for researchers are documents of the General Staff of the Navy.
Archive of the Navy — Branch of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation: Stages of History
