Hi, everybody.
I'd like to present a small topic (I hope it'll be small enough) about some details of archival work in Russian military archives.
1. FOREIGNERS ARE NOT ALLOWED to work in military archives!
2. Information about axis POWs, most likely can be found in RGVA archive.
Although I can't be sure a request to be processed very quickly (about half a year is quite quickly) and to be processed at all (everything can be working in such a way). RGVA is famous for its slow work and poor indexing. Very specific conditions for work they have.
Also documetns about POWs can be concentrated in FSB (Intillegence) archive, access to which has also quite a specific features and request is to be reasoned very well. I can suppose info can be available only for personalities, if not secret.
3. Documents about pre-1941 events are also collected in RGVA archive.
4. TsAMO (Podolsk) archive contains much combat documents covering years 1941-45. The quality of that documents are quite different. From flood to treasure. They are stored "as it is" without any forms of e-copies, or electronic indexes.
It's impossible to get copies of:
a) maps (battle schemas are only a bit more available)
b) any forms of E-copies (scans, digital photos)
c) any tactic recon records and recon records as such.
d) some specific documents, which are secret, or stored in secret sections of archive. Reasons why this, or that record can be secret, in general are unpredictable.
What is possbile to get:
Combat journals, operative reports, combat reports, after-actions (or monthly) reports (if they exists), orders for given units.
Some other kinds of documetns which are not secret (some books of limited edition and research papers, for example)
Information about missed and/or lost relatives who served in the Soviet Army. Places of their burial (if exists), information about awards of your relatives.
All documents permitted for copying can be received in a form of black-white paper copies made by Xerox machine.
5. RGAKFD.
I can't say much about this archive containing photos and videos. I only browsed through their site for prices and I was shocked observed ~$2 per 1 second(!) of film.
6. Captured axis documents most likely are concentrated in RGVA archive and I suppose majority of them to be secret until now. As RGVA is quite a specific area (especially their speed of work) I can't say more about this subject just now.
7. A trend for more severe security regime can be observed just now in archives.
Plz, don't ask me questions "WHY". I can't answer....It's not me to set these rules, and not me to break them...
I can't promise to answer all your questions, because I'm not an expert in archival procedures, but if you have any of them, you can contact me. Again I'd like kindly to ask you not to involve me in long disputes...I posted this thread not for discussion, but for giving some information, because I observed foreigners much confused where to start search for their subject of interest. For many times they thought TsAMO to contain all the records they needed and it was not true...
Ok, hope this thread to help some of you...
Regards,
Alex
