ArcheoBiblioBase: Archives in Russia: C 6

Tsentral'nyi arkhiv Federal'noi sluzhby bezopasnosti RF (TsA FSB Rossii)

[Central Archive of the Federal Security Service]

Agency: Federal'naia sluzhba bezopasnosti RF (FSB Rossii)
[Federal Security Service]
Upravlenie registratsii i arkhivnykh fondov
[Directorate of Registration and Archival Fonds]

Address: 101000, Moscow, ul. Bol'shaia Lubianka, 2 (reception); RdngRm: ul. Kuznetskii most, 22
Telephone: (495) 924-31-58 (reception), 914-60-26 (Directorate of Registration and Archival Fonds); Fax: (495) 975-24-70
FSB Public Relations Center: tel. 914-39-08; e-mail: press@fsb.ru
Website: http://www.fsb.ru/contact/arhiv_fsb.html
Chief of the Directorate: Vasilii Stepanovich Khristoforov
Chief of the Archive: Aleksandr Tikhonovich Zhadobin

Previous Names

1994-1995 - Tsentral'nyi arkhiv Federal'noi sluzhby kontrrazvedki RF (TsA FSK RF)
[Central Archive of the Federal Counter-Intelligence Service]
I.1992-XII.1993 - Tsentral'nyi arkhiv Ministerstva bezopasnosti RF(TsA MB RF)
[Central Archive of the Ministry of Security]
1954-1991 - Tsentral'nyi arkhiv Komiteta gosudarstvennoibezopasnosti SSSR (TsA KGB SSSR)
[Central Archive of the KGB]

About TsA FSB Rossii

The present archive is a direct heir to the central archives of the successive state security agencies, namely the All-Russian Cheka, the State Political Administration (GPU), the Consolidated State Political Administration (OGPU), the People's Commissariat (and subsequent Ministry) of State Security (NVKD/MVD), the Committee on State Security of the USSR (KGB), and related or subservient predecessor organs. In addition to the Central Archive, numerous branch archives are located outside of Moscow, holding records of regional KGB organs.

According to the August 1991 presidential decree, agency archives of the KGB were to be transferred to the jurisdiction of the state archival system (to the authority of Rosarkhiv). Such transfers are beginning at the present time, but are still only minimal. Reliable information is not available about the extent to which NKVD and KGB archives have been preserved intact.

The archive retains the records produced from all sectors, forms and methods of activities of the KGB central organs, and their predecessor agencies with various categories of records. Among these are the fond of secret operations; the so-called operational fond, the archival-investigatory files; the so-called infiltration fonds; and, finally, the personnel records of agents and other employees associated with the central organs of the KGB and its predecessor agencies.

Access

For repressed individuals or their families, access to related files is guaranteed by law. Otherwise, as of 2003, research access remains extremely limited. Some types of files of the Cheka (1917-1923) have been declassified, as have files relating to collectivization and deportation of the population (to 1940), and also some special normative documents relating to repression (decrees, minutes of sessions of extra-judicial organs, such as the Special Sessions of the MGB).

Researchers are very occasionally admitted for special requests within limited categories of declassified files and joint publication projects. Requests for research access should be submitted in writing to the reception address above (Lubianka, 2) with precise reference to the subject and aim of research. Requests from foreigners should normally be made through a sponsoring Russian institution. Requests for information by journalists should be made to the Public Relations Center.

Working Conditions

A reading room (Kuznetskii most, 22), operates principally to service requests for documents from repressed individuals or their family. Researchers are occasionally admitted with advance approval. Opisi are not available to researchers, as the archivists themselves choose highly selected documents for researchers according to the subject of request.

Recent General Guides

There is no published guide for the records in the archive.

Upravlenie registratsii i arkhivnykh fondov FSB Rossii: 1918–2003. 85 let istorii. Compiled by V. K. Vinogradov, V. A. Kokhnenko, O. K. Matveev, N. M. Promyshlennikov, I. I. Pykhtin, A. M. Seleznev. Moscow, 2003. 40 p.

Roginskii, Arsenii Borisovich, and Okhotin, Nikita Glebovich. "Die KGB Archive ein Jahr nach dem Putsch von August 1991." In Russland heute: von innen gesehen. Politik, Recht, Kultur, edited by A. B. Roginskii, pp. 93-116. Bremen, 1993. (Lib: MH)
The most extensive available report on the KGB archives as they were organized in 1992, with revealing details about their history and contents. The original Russian version "Arkhivy KGB: god posle putcha" (1992) printed only in a presentation copy for the University of Bremen is available in typescript at the Memorial center in Moscow.

Petrov, Nikita Vasil'evich. "'Politika rukovodstva KGB v otnoshenii arkhivnogo dela byla prestupnoi ...'." Karta: Nezavisimyi istoricheskii zhurnal (Riazan), 1993, no. 1, pp.4-5. (Lib: MH)
A short, concise, but nonetheless detailed report on the organization and specific categories of holdings of the former KGB archives as of the fall of 1992, with reference to the Central Archive in Moscow and its branches, as well as the archive of the KGB Administration for Moscow Oblast. Notes earlier regulations for the retention and "cleansing" of KGB records, including the instructions issued by V. A. Kriuchkov in the 1980s for the destruction of records of agents. Appended is the 1992 report of the presidential commission on the transfer of KGB and CPSU records to state repositories, signed by General D. A. Volkogonov (pp. 6-7), and a summary of types of records and locations of KGB branch archives.

Nikulina, Natal'ia. "Tainy Lubianki." (interview with the Chief of the FSB Directorate of Registration and Archival Fonds Iakov F. Pogonii). Vek, 1997, no. 13(23), p. 12. (Lib: MH)
Condensed version in Dos'e na tsensuru/Index on Censorship 1:1 (1997): 94-100, together with reply by Iakov Pogonii, "Dlia chitatelei zhurnala 'Dos'e na tsensuru'," and introductory remarks by Nikulina, "Kak ia vizirovala material o spetskhrane" (pp. 91-93).
The Chief of the FSB archival administration answers questions about access, retention-destruction, and declassification policies and procedures, and other current issues regarding the FSB archive and rehabilitation proceedings.

Administrative History

*Lubianka: organy VChK-OGPU-NKVD-NKGB-MGB- MVD-KGB: 1917-1991: Spravochnik. Compiled by N. V. Petrov and A. I. Kokurin. Moscow: Mezhdunarodnyi fond "Demokratiia," 2003. 766 p. Series: "Rossiia. XX vek: Dokumenty." (Also listed under B-1). (Lib: DLC; MH)

Lubianka: VChK-OGPU-NKVD-NKGB-MGB-MVD- KGB: 1917-1960: Spravochnik. Compiled by N. V. Petrov and A. I. Kokurin. Edited by R. G. Pikhoia. Moscow: Mezhdunarodnyi fond "Demokratiia," 1997. 348 p. Series: "Rossiia. XX vek: Dokumenty," edited by A. N. Iakovlev. (Lib: DLC; MH)
A detailed guide to the agency structure and evolution of the successive secret police and penal agencies of the USSR (1917-1960) with a list and dates of institutional changes (pp. 125-42). Appendices provide biographical data on successive ministers and deputies, 1924-1960 (pp. 143-58). Half of the volume (pp. 159-330) constitutes texts of 33 normative documents and instructions regarding the agencies, many of which are publicly available for the first time from agency records.

VChK-GPU: Dokumenty i materialy. Compiled and edited by Iurii Fel'shtinskii. Moscow: Izd-vo Gumanitarnoi lit-ry, 1995. 270 p. (Lib: MH)
U.S. Edition:VChK-GPU. Compiled by Iurii Fel'shtinskii. Benson, VT: "Chalidze Publications," 1989. 216 p. (Lib: DLC; MH)
A collection of normative documents decrees, protocols, instructions, and regulations regarding the structure and operation of the Cheka (1918-1921) and the State Political Directorate (GPU) (mid-1920s), published from original documents in the Boris Nikolaevskii Collection at the Hoover Institution.

Istoriia sovetskikh organov gosudarstvennoi bezopasnosti: Uchebnik. Compiled by V. V. Doroshenko et al. Edited by V. M. Chebrikov et al. Moscow, 1977. 639 p. Xerox copy available at the Davis Center for Russian Studies, Harvard University. [Vyshaia krasnoznamennaia shkola KGB im. F. E. Dzerzhinskogo pri SM SSSR] (Lib: MH)
ELECTRONIC VERSION: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws/KGBhistory.htm.
A textbook prepared by the KGB for its internal training program in 1977. Includes detailed structural charts of the agency, a chronological guide, and citations to regulations and other documents in the KGB Central Archive. A copy of the still top-secret publication has recently become available in the West, although it has still not been declassified in Russia.