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institutions accused of supporting the mili- assets and holdings.9 valuable function for foreign scholars lack-
tary takeover. Reasoning that the CPSU The scale of the takeover was massive ing Russian language skills or resources to
was part of the state apparatus, Yeltsin and simply taking inventory of the hold- visit Moscow, their reliability and capabili-
issued on August 24 decrees placing the ings of the Soviet state and Communist ties remain to be tested. Two groups solic-
archives of the Soviet Communist Party and Party has proven to be a time-consuming iting inquiries are the Russian Scientific
the KGB under the authority of the Russian and complicated task. Pikhoia reported re- Foundation,13 created in the summer of
government s Committee for Archival Af- cently that the number of files under the 1991 by scholars of the USA/Canada insti-
fairs (Roskomarkiv), and local police and control of the Russian Government jumped tute, and the Social-Scientific Center for
prosecutors impounded records belonging from 100 million files at the beginning of Humanitarian Problems
to both in search of incriminating evidence.5 1991 to over 204 million files a year later, [Obschchestvennyi Nauchnyi Tsentr
Rudolph G. Pikhoia, an historian of including 70 million files of the defunct Gumanitarnykh Problem] at Moscow State
prerevolutionary Russia from Yeltsin s po- Communist party, 4 million files belonging University.)14
litical base of Sverdlovsk (now to the KGB, and 20 million files previously The status and fate of the archives have
Yekatarinaburg), chairs the Russian Com- under the control of Glavarkhiv.10 As the also been clouded by the legal and constitu-
mittee on Archival Affairs, with Anatolii USSR officially lapsed, moreover, the pres- tional vacuum opened up by the lapsing of
Stefanovich Prokopenko, Vladimir ervation and organization of the archives of Soviet authority and the rough transition to
Alekseevich Tiuneev, and Valerii Ivanovich 72 Soviet ministries that had gone out of Russian rule, and by the uncertainty loom-
Abramov as deputies.6 existence suddenly became the responsibil- ing over the Commonwealth of Independent
Pikhoia s commission was given broad ity of the financially-strapped Russian Gov- States. As of last fall, the all-union USSR
authority to chart the new direction of Rus- ernment, Pikhoia said.11 Congress of People s Deputies was consid-
sian archival management, although of Although most of the documentary col- ering competing draft laws on archives, but
course in conformity with Yeltsin s own lections appear to be well-preserved (with that debate was mooted when the Congress
wishes and in consultation with the Russian the exception of potentially-incriminating went out of existence and decision-making
parliament, which created its own commis- records destroyed as last August s coup went power passed to the Russian government. In
sion on archival matters, headed by military down to defeat), Russian archival officials the Russian parliament, a draft law on ar-
historian Dmitrii Volkogonov. Pikhoia also universally bemoan shortages of technical chives has been under consideration since
has considered a number of Western initia- equipment needed to process, declassify, last fall; scholars say it contains some am-
tives, including an effort by the Library of and handle the expected flood of requests biguous language but generally favors the
Congress to begin exchanges of archivists, for, documents. When speaking to archive principle of equal scholarly access (for Rus-
documents, scholars, and exhibitions, and a officials, it was common to hear pleas for sians and foreigners alike) to materials more
technically ambitious plan put forward by photocopiers, paper, microfilm readers and than thirty years old and enjoins state agen-
the American Enterprise Institute, the Hoover cameras, and fax machines, as well as for cies from destroying records. As of late
Institution on War, Peace, and Revolution, money to pay trained staff. Besides the April 1992, no final action had been taken on
and Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe to general economic collapse, contributing fac- the bill. When and if it passes, however, the
begin putting the Russian archives in desk- tors to the sad state of affairs include the archives law must also be meshed with new
top-accessible computer storage.7 Accord- devaluation of the ruble, which has left many legislation on secrecy that is expected to
ing to a recent interview with Pikhoia, an- archivists and scholars receiving monthly establish criteria for deciding what sort of
other memorandum of intention envisions salaries of 500 or so rubles (about $5), and materials can finally be released.15 On 14
microfilm copies of materials from both the termination or drastic curtailment of January 1992, Yeltsin issued a decree On
Hoover and Russian state archives to be state subsidies as the archives system and the protection of state secrets that report-
deposited at the Hoover Institution and the the Academy of Sciences institutes network edly barred the release of minutes of the
Library of Congress in the United States, shifted from Soviet to Russian control.12 Secretariat of the Central Committee of the
and at Roskomarkhiv and the Lenin Library (Nevertheless, the Academy of Sciences CPSU less than ten years old, to all KGB and
in Moscow. The British publishing firm institutes continue to be important centers of GRU (Central Intelligence Department)
14 COLD WAR INTERNATIONAL HISTORY PROJECT BULLETIN
documents, and to materials related to CPSU in the turbulent atmosphere of post-revolu- politically, as was shown in two recent inci-
foreign policy for the period 1961-1981.16 tionary Moscow. There is, to start with, a dents that drew much comment in Moscow.
However, as of late April, a detailed law on large percentage of archive workers who Historians scavenging the Comintern ar-
secrecy still awaited parliamentary approval. were trained as apparatchiks under the com- chives reported locating a 1943 letter from
Until the legal situation is clarified, munist regime, when archives dealing with the Italian Communist party leader express-
U.S. and Russian scholars say, the potential sensitive political, military, and foreign policy ing indifference to the fate of tens of thou-
is increased for mercenary exploitation and topics were designed to serve the party and sands of Mussolini s troops held in Soviet
abuses since individual Russian archivists state, not independent researchers. In this prison camps. The discovery elicited pained
and officials, under intense economic pres- context, even the routine provision of finding protests from communists and an official
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