Druzin Mikhail V.,
Candidate of Historical Sciences, independent researcher, St. Petersburg (Russia), e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Russian Archives and Their Users: Communication Problems at the Beginning of the 21st Century
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2018-2-13
The article analyzes retrospectively the practice of interaction and relationships between Russian archives and researchers over the past two decades. The author highlights the problems of communication of archivists and researchers due to the lack of jobs in the reading rooms of archives, inflated prices for services that archives provide to users, and the general lack of working tools and methods of mutual communication. A considerable part of current problems, at least those in the regional archives, is explained as a consequence of growing people’s interest to private genealogical search. Demand for archival documents of the genealogical character has been growing steadily over the last 10–12 years. This results in the problem of the reading rooms’ overload (not enough working places) as well as the stuff overload (asked for consultations by people deprived of basic professional knowledge of historian). The issue of copying archival documents turned to be one more stumbling-block in relations between the Russian archives and the researchers. The author tells the story of the researchers’ struggle for the right of free photocopy, of discussions at conferences and social networking sites on this issue. The existing forms of interaction are characterized: official appeals of citizens, public councils, social networks, volunteer organizations.
Publishing: 19/12/2018
How to cite: Druzin M.V. Russian Archives and Their Users: Communication Problems at the Beginning of the 21st Century // Historical Courier, 2018, # 2. Article 13. [Available online:] http://istkurier.ru/data/2018/ISTKURIER-2018-2-13.pdf
Links: Issue 2 2018
Keywords: Russian archives; reading rooms; users; communication problems; document copying; social networks