Paradoxical as it may seem, during the pandemic, some of the most-read online content (apart from “COVID-19 statistics,” of course) has been articles with headlines like “What to Read During Quarantine.” These might be lists (5/10/20) of all-time bestsellers, life-affirming books, or titles that’ll keep you from getting bored, help you navigate and make sense of these strange new times, take a break from reality, and so on. However, the bottom line is this: reading really does help us take our minds off quarantine right now and prevents us from developing information overload. And let’s not forget that quarantine isn’t just a necessary measure—it’s also a great opportunity for self-improvement and to try things you’ve never done before. For example, learning about your family’s past or deepening your knowledge of the history of your native region and Ukraine. So when asked, “What should I read right now?” my answer is always the same: “Documents.”
And there are two pieces of “good news” for you:
- All Ukrainian archives have websites.
- For many of them—including during the quarantine—more and more digital copies are becoming available online.
So today I decided to give a brief overview of these resources, explaining where they’re located and what topics they cover. So, let’s start with the most important resource—the official website of the “State Archival Service of Ukraine.” At first glance, there’s nothing remarkable about it; it looks like a very standard government agency website. However, appearances can be deceiving. After all, the “Activities” section hides a real treasure trove: 435 digital copies of unique documents from the national archival collection dating from the 12th to the 20th centuries.
Just over half of them (272) date from the 15th century, about which we know very little. The section itself is exceptionally user-friendly. For example, you can select a specific year, century, or language, or simply enter a keyword. The topics covered by the documents are extremely diverse:
- charters issued by Polish kings granting privileges to the city of Lviv;
- documents related to Uzhhorod and Mukachevo;
- manuscripts and personal letters by Taras Shevchenko, Dmytro Yavornytsky, and Ivan Franko;
- antique maps, plans, and photo albums.
All of this is in very high quality and available for both streaming and downloading. All in all, if you have some time to spare or don’t know what to do with your evening, this site is just the thing. You can easily spend a long time reading there.
If that isn’t enough, I would highly recommend visiting the website of the Central State Historical Archive of Ukraine. Everything there is straightforward and easy to find, so you don’t have to search for anything. In the “Archive Cetera” section, you can find a vast number of biographies of prominent Ukrainians. And the “E-Archive/Documents Online” section is being updated quite frequently with digitized copies and currently looks like this.
I am particularly pleased with its “Collection of Antique Books,” which contains digital copies of the 1581 “Ostrog Bible” and four large illustrated geographical atlases from 1714–1800.
Among the regional archives, the State Archive of the Sumy Region likely offers the greatest variety of publicly accessible records. The materials available there in the “Documents Online” section are organized as follows:
As a result, they can reach a fairly wide readership.
In line with the Sumy Archives, the State Archives of the Kyiv Region also offers a diverse range of collections. As soon as you enter the website, the “E-Archive” section immediately catches your eye. There, you can choose one of two time periods (before 1917 or after). After that, by accessing the collections marked with numbers in the “Digital Photocopies” (ЦФК) section, you can read the archival files or download them.
However, the Kirovohrad Regional Archive—again, in my personal opinion—is a leader in Ukraine in terms of the scale of its document digitization efforts. First, in the “Central Ukraine Records” section, you can access a large number of documents from Orthodox churches and synagogues from the 19th and early 20th centuries that were located at that time in the Kherson and Kyiv governorates. Second, the website features a separate section, organized alphabetically, (as of the time of writing, April 15) approximately 1,830 personal security files from the collection of the “Office of the State Security Committee under the Council of Ministers of the USSR for the Kirovograd Region.” This section is being updated frequently, and currently contains only documents for people whose last names begin with the letters A and B. Most importantly, all of this can be both viewed and downloaded in PDF format. So, if your ancestors were from that region, you can learn a great deal about your family’s past.
There aren’t many documents yet that you can view from home on your computer on the official website of the Kharkiv Regional Archives. Specifically:
- Genealogical Register of the Hereditary Nobility of the Kharkiv Governorate;
- A census report on freed peasants classified as townspeople of Kharkiv (1858);
- 18 criminal cases from the archive of cases involving victims of repression.
However, in my opinion, the most valuable part of the resource isn’t the documents themselves, but rather the database of dispossessed citizens from the 1920s–1930s, which contains 46,824 surnames. You can download it in ZIP format by clicking here. And I think quite a few residents of Kharkiv and the surrounding region will find their relatives listed there. The main thing is to be mentally prepared for this…
In addition, there are many digitized documents of a purely genealogical nature, available for viewing and downloading, on the websites of regional archives:
- Mykolaiv Oblast (the “Metric Books” section, containing approximately 200 files on Orthodox parishes in the former Kherson Governorate).
- Odesa Oblast (the “Metrika” project—numerous documents from Orthodox churches, the Lutheran Church, the Odesa City Rabbinate, and the Armenian Apostolic Church).
- Kherson Oblast (City Rabbi’s Fund).
- The metric books of Orthodox parishes from the collections of the Donetsk Regional State Archives have been posted on the website of the Central State Electronic Archives of Ukraine.
Of course, this is by no means everything, since on the websites of other regions, the digitized copies are either still in a test phase or are just starting to appear. And yes, finally, I’d like to draw your attention to one more thing.
- At present, Ukraine is the only country in the former CIS where not a single archival building has been constructed since 1991.
- The city of Kyiv is the only European capital where the city archives are located on the first floor and in the basement of a residential building.
- Last year, a whopping 174,829.2 hryvnias were allocated from Ukraine’s state budget to fund the archives.
For this reason, every digitized and published case on the archive’s website represents—for me—a small but significant breakthrough and victory for our country. Thanks to this, Ukraine’s past can be explored from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. You have to admit, it’s great and convenient when, in order to work on material for a research paper or gather information about your family history, you don’t have to spend time and money traveling to another city—you can simply visit a website, such as that of the Odesa Archives.
We also recommend reading the second part of this article.
