Historical and documentary heritage of the Great Patriotic War. Towards the history of the documents collecting

Basing on the archival sources of the GARF and RGAE, the article analyses the stages of collection and usage of the documentary heritage of the Great Patriotic War. It was at the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War that the decision was made to collect the war-time records. It is noted that various institutions and organizations were involved in the process of accumulating such documentary heritage including the Commission on History of the Great Patriotic War at the Academy of Sciences of the USSR which developed into the methodological centre coordinating the work of local commissions. Under war-time conditions, the state archives acquisition techniques and methods made it necessary to introduce significant changes into the collecting procedures of the State Archival Fund. The paper discusses the initiatives and measures taken by the State Archives Administration for the acquisition of archives with the war-time documents. The article analyses the reports and speeches of the delegates of the All-Russia Conference of Historians and Archivists, held in June 1943, at which the issue of collecting various types and kinds of the documentary evidence of the Great Patriotic War was raised, and among that evidence – the documents of personal origin: the letters, diaries, memoirs of ordinary participants in the events. Proposals were put forward and the resolution was adopted concerning the foundation of the Central State Archives of the Great Patriotic War, what, however, was not implemented. The idea of establishing a special Archives, promoted by the Conference, was revived in the 1970s by Konstantin Simonov, the writer, whose actions still did not result in the creation of the institution. Using archival sources, the article considers the work of the staff members of the state archives and museums, and also of the academic staff and the students of the Moscow Institute for History and Archives referring to their activities such as the collection and preservation of the documentary heritage of the Great Patriotic War.

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