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[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] confident assumptions about what could be ber 1979 were well aware of the potential nearly 2,200 other state archives in Russia gleaned from open sources have not been difficulties that Soviet troops might encoun- including 47 republican archives, 170 borne out by the new documentary evidence ter, but were convinced that all those prob- regional sites, and 1,981 provincial and local in Moscow. On the contrary, we can now see lems could be overcome relatively easily.28 repositories also came under the new from the Russian archives that the diver- As more documents are declassified in agency s indirect control, though they were gence between the public record and what the future, our understanding of many other accorded much greater autonomy than they was actually happening in Soviet foreign issues is also bound to improve. Materials ever were permitted when they had to report policy was, if anything, even wider than one from the Presidential Archive, the military to Glavarkhiv.29 As of late 1992, the 17fed- might have expected.24 archives, and the KGB archives, which are eral archives under Roskomarkhiv s direct Thus, for scholars who hope to be more not yet freely available, should be especially control housed some 65.3 million files, com- knowledgeable and more accurate about the valuable in helping to clarify some of the prising many billions of pages of docu- topics they are exploring, access to declassi- most mysterious and controversial topics. ments. The other state archives in Russia fied Soviet documents will be of great ben- To be sure, scholars will have to be cautious at the republic, regional, and provincial lev- efit. The potential value of the new archival about what they find in the archives, and will els accounted for another 138.7 million sources is apparent from the way the earlier have to resist some of the methodological files, with billions more pages of documents. release of American and West European pitfalls discussed below. Also, it is worth In early 1993, Roskomarkhiv was reor- documents enriched our understanding of stressing again that new evidence, no matter ganized and renamed the State Archival Stalin s foreign policy. In the late 1970s and how important, cannot guarantee a scholarly Service of Russia (Rosarkhiv), in accor- early 1980s, when post-revisionist schol- consensus. The room for legitimate dis- dance with a governmental decree signed in ars began reexamining the Soviet Union s agreement may narrow considerably, but late December 1992.30 The change of name role in the early Cold War years, they were differences over the best way to interpret and restructuring of the agency were in- able to exploit newly declassified Western complex events will inevitably remain. Yet, tended to place Rosarkhiv on a par, both materials to bridge at least part of the gap despite all these caveats, it is clear that the symbolically and substantively, with other between the public record and what was opening of the ex-Soviet archives has pro- federal agencies such as the Russian Exter- actually happening. 25 The opportunity to vided immense opportunities for scholars. nal Intelligence Service (RSVR). The cur- take advantage of this evidence helped en- rent director of Rosarkhiv is Rudolf Pikhoya, sure that the post-revisionist works surpassed New Archival Collections who was formerly the prorector of the uni- all previous studies in the field, both in versity in Sverdlovsk (now called nuance and in scope. Needless to say, the Until late 1991, the central state ar- Ekaterinburg), where he became acquainted likelihood of further advances is even greater chives of the Soviet Union were adminis- with the then-first secretary of the Sverd- now that declassified documents will be tered by the Main Archival Directorate lovsk branch of the CPSU, Boris Yeltsin. It available not only from Western countries (Glavarkhiv) of the Soviet Council of Min- was also in Sverdlovsk that Pikhoya got to but from Moscow as well. isters. Glavarkhiv also supervised several know a faculty member, Gennadii Burbulis, Already, in fact, new evidence from the thousand regional and local archives in the who later became a top aide to Yeltsin. ex-Soviet archives has shed a good deal of USSR. The CPSU archives, however, were Thus, it is not surprising that Yeltsin would light on key topics in Soviet domestic affairs managed separately by the party itself. The have chosen Pikhoya to supervise Russia s and foreign policy. For example, recently Institute of Marxism-Leninism was respon- archives, a post that is far more politically declassified materials confirm that Stalin sible for the Central Party Archive, while the sensitive than it would be in most countries. played a direct and expansive role in the Central Committee apparatus supervised its Nor is it surprising that as the head of mass repressions of the 1930s, 1940s, and own 140 archives as well as those of the Rosarkhiv, Pikhoya has been unusually at- 1950s, contrary to what some Western re- Secretariat. Documents from the Politburo, tentive to the political interests of Yeltsin, visionist historians had been arguing.26 The as noted below, were stored in a special not only by releasing documents that are new evidence also undercuts the revision- archive in the Kremlin, under the direct embarrassing to Yeltsin s opponents (espe- ists claims that the scale of the Stalinist control of the CPSU General Secretary. cially Mikhail Gorbachev), but also by serv- repressions was much smaller than earlier Following the aborted coup in August ing as a presidential envoy when materials Western estimates had suggested. It turns 1991 and the dissolution of the USSR four have been turned over to foreign countries.31 out that the earlier estimates, far from being months later, the archives in Moscow were Although Pikhoya is the leading archi- too high, may in some cases have signifi- extensively reorganized. Glavarkhiv was val official in Russia, his agency does not yet cantly understated the actual number of vic- abolished, and almost all of its vast staff and have jurisdiction over some of the most tims.27 With regard to foreign policy, de- bureaucratic apparatus, including its spe- important archival collections, including the classified materials have helped clarify such cialized archival research institute, were CPSU Politburo s records. Rosarkhiv does, important issues as the Sino-Soviet split, the transferred intact to the newly created Rus- however, have control over the rest of the Soviet role in the Korean and Vietnam wars, sian State Committee on Archival Affairs former CPSU archives in Moscow, which and Moscow s decision to invade Afghani- (Roskomarkhiv). The 15 central state ar- are now divided between two major sites: stan. On this last topic, for example, many chives in Russia that had been administered the Russian Center for the Storage and Study hundreds of pages of newly released docu- by Glavarkhiv were placed under the direct of Documents of Recent History ments indicate that Soviet leaders in Decem- jurisdiction of Roskomarkhiv. Most of the (RTsKhIDNI), which includes the former 22 COLD WAR INTERNATIONAL HISTORY PROJECT BULLETIN Central Party Archive and other CPSU hold- Rosarkhiv s jurisdiction and thus have oper- terials closely (or not so closely) related to ings through October 1952; and the much ated along somewhat different lines. In ac- the researcher s project, which the archivist larger Center for Storage of Contemporary cordance with the liberal and pro-Western may not realize would be of interest. Al- Documentation (TsKhSD), which includes orientation of Russian foreign minister Andrei though officials in charge of the Foreign all CPSU Central Commi tee holdings from Kozyrev, the AVPRF was the first of the Ministry archives are aware of the problems [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |