[Carl-Fredrik Geust]

I would really like to know when Erik Pilawski visited a Russian archive most recently - I was in RGVA (Russian State Military Archive) in Moscow one month ago, and did really not see much of what he tells about...

True, they have now a very good-looking web-page, with a ready-made email reply form to fill in with your request for files etc. However, when I arrived at RGVA it turned out that no one in the reading room was aware of my request (I was informed that all correspondence, including emails and faxes goes to an office in another building, where no one apparently checks incoming correspondence...).

Thus I lost two full working days; however the first day I had anyway to spend in order to get the necessary permission to use my portable computer in the reading room (my emailled request had likewise gone unnoticedly...).

For uninformed readers: use of a portable computer in a Russian archive is granted only by the Archive director after written application. After the application (must be written in Russian) was granted by the RGVA director I had to pay the corrsponding fee for the permission (about 150 roubles, or 5 dollars) - however no payments can not be made at the archive (!), but must be made in a Saving´s bank, nearest office some 1 km away.

A positive thing was after all that since my last visit some three years ago several hundreds of files relating to the Winter war 1939-1940 had be declassified (there is however still classified files from this period).

Only five files per day (against earlier ten!) can be ordered, and no immediate xerox copying is available. Scanning of documents can be ordered, but to ridiculous prices for foriegners. There are still no computerised finding aids, only the type-written (and worn-out) "opisis", all of which are not necessarily available when needed!

It should be observed that RGVA and its Naval sister archive in St.Peterburg RGVMF are both subordinated to the State Archive Administration, and thus relatively "open" to bona fide reseachers, but still keep documents UP TO 1941 ONLY.

ALL post-1941 documents are thus still keept in TsAMO (Central Archive of Ministry of Defence) in Podolsk (some 70 km south of Moscow) and correspondingly for the navy in TsAVMF in Gatchina (south-west of St.Peterburg, with a side-branch in Tushino, Moscow). As both TsAMO and TsAVMF are subordinated to the Ministry of Defence (ia. NOT the above mentioned State Archive Administration) there are very serious implications for researchers:

- the archives are located on military territory, which can be visited by forigners only after explicite permission by the Russian General Staff

- NO finding aids whatsoever are available to foreigners, but files are delivered only at the consideration of the archive staff, based on the researcher´s original application and the subsequent decision of the General Staff.

Thus I think we are still very far from speaking of "free access" to documents of say the 1941-1945 period (not to speak about later periods, like the Korean war, Cold war etc). I am however aware that certain documents and series of files have been available to foreign researchers in some Cold war-projects, and would be very interested to get more information about possible experiences.

Carl