Archival Resources and Research of Victims of Soviet Terror

In my previous blog post I described how to search for information about Soviet repressed relatives online. I strongly advise to always start with online research, as it is the easier and faster method of research. You can then use the clues found online to deepen your research at the archives. If you have not found any information in the databases, you should still proceed with the archival research, as the databases are far from being complete.

Archival research tends to be more time- and effort-consuming than online search, but it is also more comprehensive. Archival research on the Soviet repressions can be confusing, so in this post I will provide an overview of the available resources, the general approaches to finding the records, as well as some practical tips on accessing them. I mainly focus on Russia and Ukraine that I am most familiar with, but similar logic applies to other ex-Soviet countries. I hope this will help you find out the destiny of a relative or a whole family who became victims of Soviet terror.

Define the Type of Repression

The materials on Soviet repressions cover the period of 1917/1918 (year of creating the Extraordinary Commission known as Cheka) till 1991 (the dissolution of the USSR). For simplification of the document search, categorize the case you are researching. The most common categories are: 

• Criminal cases: relate to those persons who were convicted and sentenced by a court of a similar institution to imprisonment, camps or death penalty; by now many of them can be rehabilitated, but some are non-rehabilitated;

• Administrative cases: various non-criminal repressions like forced settlements within the dekulakization in 1930s, deportations from border territories (see: Population exchange between Poland and Soviet Ukraine), "preventive" deportations of representatives of various ethnicities in 1940s (Germans, Crimean Tatars) etc.; 

• Filtration cases: relate to the former Soviet citizens, who were in the Nazi captivity in during WWII, including former Red Army prisoners of war, civil population of the occupied territories forcefully taken to German labour camps (Ostarbeiters), other displaced persons who returned to the Soviet Union after the war, and then placed in the so called filtration camps by the NKVD.

Where the records are located

The main difficulty lies in the dispersion of the KGB archival documents across countries and archives.

• Criminal cases: as a rule, all over the ex-Soviet countries these cases should be located at the central archives of of a respective security service (Central Archives of FSB in Russia, State archives of the SBU in Ukraine etc.) or its local department in the region where the trial took place. However, there can be exceptions.

• Administrative (non-criminal) cases: the documents are even more dispersed. In Russia they are most often held at the State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF) or at the respective regional department of Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of the region of arrest or birth of the repressed person. Some dekulakization and other administrative cases can be located at the state archives of the respective region. In Ukraine such cases are held by the state archives of the central or regional Archives of MIA of Ukraine. The lists of families forcefully re-settled from Poland to Ukraine after WWII are located at the State Archives of Lviv Region, independently of which region they were settled in.

• Filtration cases: In Russia they are mostly held by the Central archives of the Russian Ministry of Defense in Podolsk, Russia. Also, some cases can be found at GARF and Central archives of Federal Security Service of Russian Federation. In Ukraine some filtration cases were transferred to the state regional archives and the Central State Archive of Public Organizations of Ukraine (former Archives of the Communist Party of Ukraine).

How to find the right documents 

As demonstrated above, the distribution of cases is not always clear, but there are two main strategies you can follow to get started: 

Strategy 1. If you know the researched person’s place of arrest or residence at the time of repression, you should start with request to the departments of security service and MIA of that region in the respective successor country. If you do not know the place of arrest/residence, you can also address the above-mentioned authorities in the region of the person’s birth or punishment/serving sentence/deportation, if known. The key here is to make the best guess possible, but mistakes can happen. If you receive a negative response from these repositories, proceed with Strategy 2.

Strategy 2. If you do not know the place(s) of the person’s birth/residence/arrest/repression, you should send a request to the Main Information and Analytics Department of MIA of Russian Federation in Moscow, asking them to confirm the fact of repression and inform where the archival case is located. This institution has all the information about the persons who were convicted or repressed in some way in the former Soviet Union. In this case, you would still need to know the name, approximate date of birth and repression. You can also address the central archives of the security services and MIA of the successor state. After obtaining the answer about the location of the archival case you need, proceed with Strategy 1.

Of course, if you are willing to take the extra efforts and time, you can go ahead and apply all strategies at once.

How to access records

Who has the right to access the cases of the Soviet repressions? According to the current legislation in most ex-Soviet countries, it is the repressed persons themselves, their close relatives and heirs, their legal representatives or anyone after 75 years since the creation of the documents, with the consent of the repressed person or their legal heir/representatives.

There are three main ways to request records: by mail, by email and in person. There is also a possibility to work with the documents in person in the reading hall of the repository. This should be agreed upon in advance with the archives.

The requests can be completed in a free form, but make sure to include these elements:

• Name of the institution addressed and the addressee (head of the institution)
• Your full name, address and contact details 
• Your relationship to the researched person (supported with documents)
• The goal of the request (photocopies, archival certificate, other) 
• Full name of the researched person 
• Date and place of birth of the researched person (if not known, make the best guess)

You should also include any additional details about the person or repression, as it will help the search to be successful.

The requests should be submitted in the official languages of the respective country (Russian in Russia, Ukrainian in Ukraine etc.). If you cannot write in this language, I recommend you to prepare the request yourself and then have it translated by a friend/relative or a professional. Do not use googletranslate or other translating software for this purpose. Any misunderstanding or misinterpretation may affect the whole research.

Foreigners can also request information via International Red Cross organizations, but this would mean a longer waiting time, as it involves an intermediary. Addressing the right repository directly will yield the results in the fastest manner. Note that requesting time with most repositories is 30 days, which can be extended to 45 days, but it may vary in different archives.

Sources and further readings:

• Recommendations on the archival research on the repressed persons in Russia, a project of the Memorial Society (in Russian)
• Samples of various requests to get information on the repressed persons to Russian institutions (in Russian) 
• Online application to access information on the repressed persons at the Central Archives of FSB, Russia
  
• The Right to Truth, a guide published in 2012 on accessing information on repressed persons in Ukraine. The guide contains an annex with request samples for various institutions. (In Ukrainian)
• Downloadable forms for requesting information from the State Archives of the Security Service of Ukraine (in Ukrainian)
• A guide on the funds of the Central State Archives of the Archives of Public Organizations of Ukraine (In Ukrainian)
• Decree of the Ministry of Culture of Russian Federaration on the access to the criminal and administrative cases of the victims of Soviet repressions and filtration cases, 2006. (In Russian)
• Collection of Ukrainian legislation on access to the Soviet repression cases.
• Decree of the President of Ukraine On the declassification, disclosure and study of the archival documents related to the Ukrainian liberation movement, political repressions and Holodomors in Ukraine, 2009. (In Ukrainian)
• Law of Ukraine LAW OF UKRAINE: On access to Archives of Repressive Agencies of Totalitarian Communist Regime of 1917-1991, 2015 (available in English).