State Print Archive: On the History of Organizational and Functional Development (1917—1967)

Abstract

The purpose of the presented investigation is to actualize the problem of the archive of printed publications of Ukraine and the main task in the study of the hitherto unexplored departmental institution of the Book Chamber of Ukraine named after I. Fedorov.

The investigation is written under the requirements of modern methodology, based on the principles of historicism, comprehensiveness, and objectivity; it uses general scientific (description, analysis, synthesis, generalization, classification) and special (periodization, historical-comparative, content analysis) research methods.

The scientific novelty of the presented work is proved by the facts of the significant amount of unprocessed materials of the internal departmental archive concerning the funds of printed publications of the Book Chamber of Ukraine named after I. Fedorov and the lack of comprehensive investigations into the history of the State Archive of the Book Chamber of Ukraine.

The result of the study was to establish the stages of development of the archive of printed publications of Ukraine, the peculiarities of its structural compilation, the formation of principles of activity (receipt, systematization, perpetual storage, withdrawal for research) and fundraising, and the personification of these processes. Unused or fragmentarily cited documents and materials were introduced into scientific circulation, in particular, materials of inspections of the Book Chamber of Ukraine by republican authorities (People’s Commissariat of Education of the USSR 1934—1935), All-Union Book Chamber (Report on business trip to the Ukrainian Book Chamber signed by All-Union Book Chamber of Ye. Shamurin in 1935), constituent documents that contributed to the institutional formation of the State Archives of the Press (Statute of the State Bibliographic Institute of the USSR “Ukrainian Book Chamber” (1934), Regulations on the State Archives of the Book Chamber of the Ukrainian SSR of October 30, 1950, Regulations on the Press Archive of the Book Chamber of Ukraine of January 4, 1968, etc.). The authors consider the writing of a large monographic work, which would reflect the entire historical path of the State Archives of the Press as part of the Book Chamber of Ukraine, to be a prospect for further studies. The practical significance of the results already obtained is the possibility of their application in future exploration.