The issues of the French archival science during the 20th century in the light of the theoretical heritage of V.N. Avtokratov

Abstract

The article considers the possibilities of applying the general and specific theories of archive studies, created by V.N. Avtokratov, for analyzing the causes and ways of resolving the crisis in the archive studies in France. It shows the similarity of the crisis phenomena observations in the French archive studies made independently by V.N. Avtokratov and Ch. Kecskemeti, and substantiates the scientific significance of analyzing the causes of this crisis, which allows for the development of V.N. Avtokratov’s theoretical approach. The document boom of the second half of the 20th century posed a challenge to the entire archival science, but each archival school was to overcome it in a different way. A crisis that occurred in the French archive studies was caused by the departure from the principle of unity of the fund and manifested itself in the changes in the use of archival documents in France. The analysis of that crisis from the theoretical positions formulated by V.N. Avtokratov helped to demonstrate how a weak development of certain theoretical issues (the concept of a creator of a fond, the issues of intra-fund systematization, the notions of value and utility) affected the professional training of archivists and the archival activities in France in terms of acquisition and use, particularly in the field of fund management and the policy of creating archival finding aids. The strong and weak aspects of the French archival theory and practice are shown in the article, and recommendations for the professional training of archivists in Russia are formulated.