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The Microfilmed Collections of Russian Archival Materials in the Danish and Swedish National Archives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Hugh Ragsdale
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Extract

The national archives of Denmark and Sweden have engaged Soviet archives in extensive and probably unique exchanges of copied materials. These two archives consequently hold substantial quantities of Soviet archival records, records sometimes of extraordinary value, which in some cases are scarcely accessible in any other part of the world, including the Soviet Union. Approximately 40 percent of the holdings of Soviet documents in the Danish National Archive come from the Arkhiv vneshnei politiki Rossii. The fact that it is very difficult to gain access to this institution considerably enhances their importance. The Swedish holdings are similar.

The Russian documents in both archives were acquired in two phases, and phase one was common to both. In 1928, archivists and historians from Denmark, Norway, and Sweden formed a joint Scandinavian committee for the exploration of the Russian state archives (Den Nordiske Faelleskomite for Udforskning af de russiske Statsarkiver).

Type
Notes and Comment
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 43 , Issue 2 , Summer 1984 , pp. 270 - 275
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1984

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References

I would like to thank Sigurd Rambusch and Ebba Waaben of the Danish Rigsarkiv, Ole Feldbaek, Hans Bagger, and Knud Rasmussen of the University of Copenhagen, Berndt Fredriksson of the Swedish National Archive, and Wilhelm Carlgren of the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs for advice and assistance in preparing this article. I am indebted to the American Council of Learned Societies for financial support of this and related research.

1. Basic information on location, conditions of access, and working conditions, as well as on the collections and finding aids for these archives is found in Thomas, Daniel H. and M. Case, Lynn, eds., New Guide to the Diplomatic Archives of Western Europe (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1975), pp. 43–55 and pp. 314–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

It should be noted that the Swedish National Archives also hold a large collection of administrative and judicial documents from the years of Swedish occupation of the territory of Novgorod (1609–1617). This entire collection is available on microfilm at the library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Descriptions of the collection can be found in the following articles: Birnbaum, Henrik, “Novgorodiana Stockholmiensia,” Scando-Slavica, 10 (1964): 154–73Google Scholar; Cherepnin, L. V., “Obzor fonda novgorodskikh dokumentov khraniashchikhsia v gosudarstvennom arkhive Shvetsii, v Stokgol'me,” Problemy istochnikovedeniia, 9 (1961): 221–57Google Scholar; and Kalnins, I., “Ockupationsarkivet från Novgorod 1611–1617,” Meddelanden från Svenska Riksarkivet för åren 1976–1977 (Stockholm,1980), pp. 136–43.Google Scholar

2. This is the Norwegian name of the committee. It was the name most commonly used.

3. Ambetsarkiv, Riksarkivets, Forteckning, Folio J: “Kommitt6n for ryska arkiv.” Broch, Olaf, Arkivstudier i Russland, Mai-Juni 1828 (Oslo: Jacob Dybwad, 1928)Google Scholar.

4. This file and the following two are housed separately in the military history archive (Krigshistoriska arkiv).