Державний архів Миколаївської області

The history of State Archives in Mykolaiv oblast is closely connected with the history of Mykolaiv, which was the centre of shipbuilding in the south of the Russian Empire, the main port of the Black Sea fleet. First archives in Mykolaiv were set up in 1796 and were attached to the Black Sea Department Office. The archives were subordinated to the Naval Department and the records of the Black Sea Fleet Administration shipbuilding yards, stevedore offices of Mykolaiv, Kherson, Sevastopol and Taganrog were kept there. On May 3, 1844 the city archives of the town self government institutions and military units were set up by the order of admiral M.P. Lazarev, Black Sea Fleet Chief Commander. When in January 1920 the Soviet power was established all the archives were nationalized and in 1921 the state archives of Mykolaiv oblast were created. They have existed till this time and got the present name in 1940. From 1935 to 1992 there were the Communist Party archives in Mykolaiv but when the USSR Communist Party had cancelled the records that were preserved in the party archives, the building and other property were given to the state archives. In 1934 the biggest part of the records on the history of the Black Sea Fleet was taken out to St. Petersburg. During the World War II the Nazi took to Germany almost 6000 files on the history of German colonies. In 1992-1993 the Security Service of Ukraine transferred to the archives 27472 personal records of the “filtered” citizens who had been sent to forced labour in Germany during the World War II. In 1998 the archives started to accept criminal dossiers of the cases which hadn’t been brought into court from the former KGB (Committee for State Security). 

The oldest records date back to 1787-1789. There are unique “Records of Mykolaiv construction” (1787-1798) about foundation of Mykolaiv as a centre of shipbuilding in the south of Ukraine. The collection “Administration of admiral settlements in the Black Sea Region” (1800-1862) comprises valuable evidences about construction of shipyards at the mouth of the South Bug and the Ingul as well as the town Mykolaiv, the fortress Sevastopol, the Black Sea Fleet and admiral settlements. The collections “The Mykolaiv military governor chancery” (1805-1900) and “The Mykolaiv Mayor chancery” (1900-1919) are the main sources of information about the history of Mykolaiv. The records characterize the development of Mykolaiv in the ХIХ and beginning of the ХХ cc, viz: population, national structure, investment of foreign capital into the town industry, the establishing Jewish, German and Bulgarian colonies on the territory of the oblast. There is interesting information about construction of the sea-port, shipbuilding plants «Naval» and «Chernomorskiy», the agricultural machinery plant by brothers Donsky in the collections. The collection “The Mykolaiv military governor chancery” comprises the records about Crimean war (1853-1856), participation of Mykolaiv citizens in it, heroic siege of Sevastopol, outstanding naval commanders: I. I. de Traverse, O. C. Greyg, M. P. Butakov, B. O. Glazenap, N. A. Arkas and others. The records from the archives of the shipbuilding plant “Naval” (1895-1919) which was founded in 1895 by the Belgian joint-stock company of shipbuilding, machinery and foundry plants and from the archives of “Russud” (1911-1919), founded in 1919 by the Russian shipbuilding joint-stock company on the basis of the admiralty (1788) show the construction of the warships of the Black Sea Fleet, development of merchant shipbuilding, the shipyards equipment, participation in international and national exhibitions. The archives’ collection “Mykolaiv merchant port” (1866-1918) gives us notion of the construction and public service organisation in the port, making the port ready to accept foreign ships, the building of the elevator, development of the sea and river commerce, inland and foreign trade. Information on foreign relations can be found in the collections of Mykolaiv (1800-1862) and Ochakiv (1828-1917) custom posts, Ochakiv (1792-1806) and Mykolaiv (1850-1919) custom houses. They also contain interesting records about the embargo on grain export from the ports of Ekaterinoslav vicegerency (1794), about sequestration of English ships in Russian ports, the embargo on English goods (1800) the rules of foreign trade, about the deportation of French people who supported revolution in France, the embargo on French goods (1793) and arrest of the ships belonging to the countries at war with Russia (1914). The records of Mykolaiv statistics committee (1862-1917) contain valuable information about the population, archeologic excavations, old settlements and burial mounds on the territory of Mykolaiv oblast, statistics of factories and plants, register of farms in Kherson district. A lot of interesting information contain the records of Mykolaiv Admiral Cathedral (1796-1919) Ochakiv Military Cathedral (1806-1908), church archives of Odessa, Kherson, Elisavetgrad, districts of Kherson province and other religious institutions. The records of the soviet period after 1917 account for the major part of the archives (70%), they are preserved in the collections of the local governmental bodies, committees of poor farmers, enterprises of industry, agriculture, commerce, transport, communication, construction, finance, medical institutions, trade unions, party and Komsomol organizations. The records characterize complicated political, social and economic events of Mykolaiv since 1917. The records of numerous executive and revolutionary committees show the establishment of revolutionary regime in Mykolaiv oblast and restoration of economy destroyed during the Civil War. They characterize the economy and political situation in the towns and villages of Mykolaiv oblast. The information about famine in 1921 and assistance given to the starving people is presented in the collections of the oblast and district boards of assistance to the starving, oblast and district party organizations, in the collection of the representative of the international comission created by F. Nansen to fight famine and Mikolaiv district committee of American administration of giving assistance to the starving population. The period of German and Romanian occupation of Mykolaiv oblast in 1941-1944 is dealt with - in the archives of the occupation administration - general commissar of Mykolaiv, town council, rural district councils, district prefectures, oblast pretures, village primarias. The records of these collections describe the establishment of severe terroristic regime with the purpose to ransack destroy the oblast, mass killing of the population. The lists of ghetto prisoners in Akmechetka, Bohdanovka, Vradievka, Domanivka, Krive Ozero, Mostove, Slivino, Triduby and Pervomaisk have been partly preserved. The records of the collection’ Mykolaiv oblast in the great patriotic war contain information about people’s struggle against occupation. The history of underground and partizan movement is presented in the reports, certificates of the party and Soviet organizations, reports of the underground leaders on the activity of underground organizations “Mykolaiv centre” and “Partizanskaya Iskra”, partizan detachments, reconnaissance and sabotage groups. The archives preserve the records of Mykolaiv regional commission assisting to the state extraordinary committee for investigation of the crimes of the Nazi occupants. The records contain statements and statistics of the crimes and the damage done by the Nazi during the World War II in Mykolaiv oblast. The records of the post war period collections contain information about the restoration of the economy destroyed by the war and social economic development of the oblast. The records of gigantic shipbuilding plants “Chernomorskiy”, “61 Communars”, “Okean” present the history of shipbuilding. The archives contain information about construction of whaler ships, refrigerator ships, super traulers and fish cannery ships, scientific research ships, aircraft carriers. The records of the KGB administration in Mykolaiv oblast comprise files of “filtered” people and criminal cases. They contain information about mass deportation of people to Germany, mass repressions of Stalin regime. State archives have a rich collection of church registers of births, marriages and deaths from 1804 to 1919 and books of registrations up to 1925. The base of records about social, economic and cultural life of the country is compiled by the records from the archives of party and Komsomol organizations. 12 collections of records are preserved in the state archives. The oldest collection is “Collection of maps and draughts” (1800-1935). It contains town maps of Mykolaiv, Voznesensk, Ochakiv, Bereznehuvate, longitudinal schemes of streets and squares in Mykolaiv, working draughts of buildings, schemes of their construction and many other papers. The collection of reminiscences of the Soviet citizens who were deported to Germany in 1942 - 1944 is of great interest. The archives preserves 50 private collections. The most interesting are the archives of a Ukrainian historian and composer N. Arkas, the founder of “Prosvita” society in Mykolaiv, of S. I. Gaiduchenko – the chairman of the town museum commission, A. V. Golenichshev–Kutuzov – a member of Russian geographic society, V. V. Rumin – an engineer and technologist, propagandist of K. E. Tsiolkovsky’s ideas in the field of space exploration. Total Volume of Collections 6017 collections, 1122722 collection items (1787-2009) 3760 collection items of scientific and technical documentation (1936-1996) 33588 photo, phono, cinema and video documents (1960-2008)  

Archive holds collections of the documents from Mykolaiv and Black Sea Regions from the end of XVIII century until the present day.