The Central Archive of Nizhny Novgorod Region (TsANO) is a state archival institution that preserves the documentary heritage of the region. According to available information, its holdings concentrate materials from the pre-revolutionary and Soviet periods, including documents of organizations, institutions, and private individuals connected with the history of Nizhny Novgorod Governorate and Region. The Archive was established in 1919 as the Nizhny Novgorod Guberniya Archive on the basis of documentary collections assembled by the Nizhny Novgorod Guberniya Learned Archival Commission (NGUAK) between 1887 and 1918[3]; among the original holdings are acts from the 16th–18th centuries from the Pechersky and Makaryev Monasteries, manuscript and early-printed books, and acts of the Nizhny Novgorod, Arzamas, Alatyr, and Balakhna prikaz offices.

The TsANO Reference and Information Fund (SIF) holds more than 58,000 books from the late 18th to the early 21st century, over 2,000 annual runs of newspapers (including pre-revolutionary ones), and approximately 3,000 annual runs of journals on archival affairs, history, and local studies.[4] During the 1920s–1930s the archive was divided into two independent units: the Historical Archive ("IstArkh," covering documents up to 1917) and the Archive of the October Revolution and Socialist Construction ("AOR," covering documents after 1917); in 1941 both units were merged under the name "State Archive of Gorky Region" (GAGO), with the NKVD directorate's photo archive incorporated into it, and since 1990 the institution has borne its present name.

The archive holds approximately 4,000 record groups and 1,800,000 storage units; among the most significant holdings are the record group of the Krasnoye Sormovo Plant (river shipbuilding) and the record group of the Gorky Automobile Plant, built in 1932 with the participation of American specialists.[1] Since 1959 the archive has been housed in a purpose-built building at 15 Studencheskaya Street, and in 2011 it received the status of a state казённое institution (GKU TsANO). The TsANO reading room receives thousands of visitors annually: according to data for one of the most recently recorded years, 7,871 visits were logged.[4] The archive has a staff of 66 employees; the document preservation department alone carries out more than 70 types of work.[4] Twenty TsANO documents have been included in the State Register of Unique Documents of the Russian Federation; among them is the correspondence of Peter I with the Nizhny Novgorod Bishop Pitirim on matters relating to Old Believers.[4] According to the official portal of the regional archival service, the archive holds 4,656 record groups and more than 2.07 million files covering the period from the second third of the 15th century to the early 21st century.[3]

Holdings

TsANO preserves architectural drawings of Nizhny Novgorod buildings: in particular, copies of drawings for the Bugrov apartment building with a branch of the Volzhsko-Kamsky Bank, designed by Vladimir Tseidler.

The archive holds the personal record group of philologist Fyodor Vyacheslavovich Rzhiga, transferred there by his heirs. The record group comprises approximately 400 paper-based documents — predominantly manuscripts — and 32 photographic prints dating from 1871 to 1930. A notable feature of the collection is the significant number of materials in foreign languages: German, Czech, Serbian, Ancient Greek, and Latin. Within the NGUAK collection there are preserved original charters of the papal curia and Catholic parishes in Latin and Polish (16th–17th centuries), documents from the Napoleonic Wars period in French, as well as a collection of autographs of Russian emperors from Peter I to the last Romanovs and of several foreign figures.[1] The earliest identified document is a certificate in German, dated 12 April 1871, issued to Franz Rzhiga.

Among the personal-origin record groups, materials of noble families stand out: those of the Counts Panin, the Sheremetevs, the Princes Lieven, as well as the family of the shipbuilder Admiral Krylov and the Chaadaev family — including several original documents of the philosopher P. Ya. Chaadaev. The personal-origin record groups in TsANO comprise 324 record groups spanning the 18th to the early 21st century and include materials of prominent Nizhny Novgorod residents — scholars and cultural figures, local historians, and collectors.[4][1]

Part of the documents of the Arzamas Yekaterininsky Women's Gymnasium — 15 storage units covering 1886–1914 — are also held at TsANO; the main body of the gymnasium's materials (1,852 storage units covering 1868–1932) is kept at the State Archive of Nizhny Novgorod Region in Arzamas.

Links

Sources

  1. opentextnn.ru — The TsANO Reference and Information Fund (SIF) holds more than 58,000 books from the late 18th to the early 21st century, over 2,000 annual runs of newspapers (including pre-revolutionary (archive)
  1. opentextnn.ru — After 1991, TsANO received archival criminal investigation files from the record group of the KGB Directorate for Gorky Region (f. 2209): filtration files of prisoners of war (archive)
  1. opentextnn.ru — TsANO was established in 1919 as the Nizhny Novgorod Guberniya Archive on the basis of documentary collections assembled by the Nizhny Novgorod Guberniya Learned Archival Commission (archive)
  2. archiv.nobl.ru — Central Archive of Nizhny Novgorod Region (GKU TsANO): page on the official portal of the Committee for Archival Affairs of Nizhny Novgorod Region (archive)
Materials from articles used (3)

Bugrov Income House with Volga-Kama Bank Branch, Fyodor Rzhiga, Yekaterina Women's Gymnasium (Arzamas)