Agency: Ministerstvo kul'tury i massovykh kommunikatsii Rossiiskoi Federatsii
[Ministry of Culture and Mass Communication of the Russian Federation]
Federal'noe agentstvo po pechati i massovym kommunikatsiiam
[Federal Agency on Publications and Mass Communications]
Gosudarstvennyi arkhiv pechati (GAP)
[State Archive of Publications]
Address: 127018, Moscow, ul. Okt'iabrskaia, 4; (Division of National Holding, formerly
Mozhaisk Branch): 143200, Mozhaisk, ul. 20-go ianvaria, 20
Telephone: (495) 288-90-83; Fax: (495) 288-96-75; RdngRm: (Mozhaisk): (238)
21-892
E-mail:
Nauchno-bibliograficheskii arkhiv
(NBA)
[Scientific Bibliographic Archive]
Address: 127018, Moscow, ul. Okt'iabrskaia, 4 (entrance from ul. Sovetskoi Armii)
Telephone: (495) 288-14-27
E-mail: chamber@aha.ru
Hours: by arrangement
Head: Rimma Pavlovna Vlasova (tel. 288-14-27)
The Russian Book Chamber was originally established in St. Petersburg in May 1917 as a specialized agency in the realm of bibliography. During the Soviet period, its functions were ultimately transferred to the All-Union Book Chamber (VKP). In 1992, it reverted back to its original name.
The State Archive of Publications by law retains an obligatory depository control copy of every book published in the former USSR (and now in the Russian Federation) from 1 January 1917 to the present, as well as joint publications with foreign publishers. Since 1991, however, despite the new Russian law on depository copies, with privatization and the breakdown of centralized controls, GAP has been receiving only a small percentage of the required depository copies, particularly from smaller publishers and from joint editions with publishers abroad.
N.B. The GAP holdings have some lacunae resulting from a bomb that hit the Book Chamber building and a July 1941 fire, as well as from various withdrawals and eliminations ordered by the censorship agency, Glavlit.
The Scientific Bibliographic Archive (NBA) serves as a repository for a significant volume of documentation, including the administrative records of VKP itself, and papers of a number of important bibliographers, who were associated with VKP. The administrative-operational records of RKP/VKP that are designated for permanent preservation for the period 1917-1950 are arranged in a separate fond. A separate fond devoted to "Personalia" preserves significant personal papers of well-known Russian bibliographers, librarians, and bookmen.
Access to GAP or use of archival materials in NBA requires an official letter of application, preferably from the researcher's sponsoring organization, to the General Director or the Deputy Director for Bibliography, indicating the aim and purpose of research.
There is no comprehensive guide to the RKP holdings.
State Archive of Publications (GAP)
The published Russian National Bibliography serves as an approximate register of holdings
in GAP in terms of the archive of depository copies, although, as mentioned above, there
are some gaps in the actual holdings. RKP/VKP regularly and systematically publishes the
official national bibliography for imprints in the USSR since 1918, and for the Russian
Federation since 1991.