Державний архів Харківської області

The history of the State Archives of Kharkiv Oblast began from 1880, the date of foundation of the Kharkiv Historical Archives by the members of the Historical and Philological Association of Kharkiv University. In 1920 it was changed into the Central Historical Archives attached to Kharkiv guberniya national educational committee; for the first time the Archives has got the position of state archive. In November, 1926 was created the Kharkiv Territorial Historical Archives, in 1932 it was renamed the Kharkiv Oblast Historical Archives, and in 1941 it obtained the name of the State Archives of Kharkiv Oblast. During the World War II the archival holdings were evacuated to the town of Zlatoust. In 1958 the archives were again renamed the Kharkiv Oblast State Archives, and since 1980 it bears the name of the State Archives of Kharkiv Oblast. Since 1988, the State Archives of Kharkiv Oblast submits to the Kharkiv local administration and the State Archival Service of Ukraine. According to the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of Ukraine from August 27, 1991, the Archive of the Kharkiv Oblast Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine was liquidated and its holdings constituted a section of the State Archive.  

The archive possesses 4708 collections making 2 340 727 archival units, dating from the years 1739-2012. It has also 912 units of film documents, 35 722 photographs and 1372 units of sound recordings. Documents on the history of the region by 1917 were collected in the funds of Chancery of Kharkiv Governor, the Province Administrative Board, the Kharkiv Municipal Council, guberniya and county boards etc. The period of history of the XX century is reflected in the documents of the epoch of the Ukrainian Revolution (1917-1921), the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945), documents, that characterize the development of leading sectors of economy; that reveal the condition of agriculture (the nationalization of the land, coercive collectivization, consolidation of collective farms, development of cattle breeding, horticulture etc.) The moments of the Great Patriotic War have wide representation in the documents of the archive. The documents describe the participation of citizens of Kharkiv in the War, their help to the front, the holding of evacuation and mobilization of population to the army, formation of the Party and Komsomol underground. The period of German occupation of the territory of Kharkiv oblast (1941-1943) is represented by documents of administrative units: oblast and district land councils, district and village councils, labour boards, where documents about arrangement of local control, collection of taxes from the population by occupation power, have been preserved. The documents about organization and activity of industrial and trade enterprises, theatres, educational establishments are concentrated in the collection of the Kharkiv Municipal Council. There are the data about lists of census of population, prisoners of the War. The collection of labour board in Kharkiv and Kharkiv Region has the information about organization of enumeration of specialists and population on the whole for coercive move to Germany. The considerable part of the documents of the Archives constitutes the documents of the former Party Archives of the Kharkiv Oblast Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine (1919-1991). The Archives keeps criminal cases on repressed citizens of Kharkiv Oblast, which were given by the Administration of the Security Service of Ukraine in the 1990s. Also there are filtration cases of citizens of the Oblast, which stayed in Germany during 1941-1945.