Germans from Russia Archives and Libraries

Archives collect and preserve original documents of organizations such as churches or governments. Libraries generally collect published sources such as books, maps, and microfilm. This section describes the major repositories of genealogical and historical records and sources for researching German-speaking people from Russia.

Although, the records you need may be in a foreign archive or library, the Family History Library may have a microfilm copy of them. Check the Family History Library Catalog before writing to or visiting archives in the Commonwealth of Independent States (hereafter CIS) or Germany.

If you plan to visit one of these repositories, contact the organization and ask for information about their collection, hours, services, fees, and whether they allow visitors. For further information about the collection try looking in the Family History Library Catalog Author/Title Search under the archive name for inventories and registers. You could also try the Family History Library Catalog Place Search under the place where the archive is located and the topic “Archives and Libraries.”

There are six major types of genealogical repositories for records about Germans from Russia:

State and National Archives (Commonwealth of Independent States [CIS])
Special German Archives
Other Archives Outside of the CIS
Historical and Genealogical Societies
Internet Sites
Village Coordinators

Many large collections of Germans from Russia records exist in Central Europe as well as the Commonwealth of Independent States. Soviet archives centralized vast holdings of church and vital records dating from 1722 to 1917. By so doing they have assisted in preserving records that might otherwise have been lost or destroyed.

State and National Archives (Commonwealth of Independent States)

Repositories of primary interest to genealogists are the Central State Archives [Центральный Государственный Архив = Tsentral’nyy Gosudarstvennyy Arkhiv] and the Central State Historical Archives [Центральный Государственный Исторический Архив = Tsentral’nyy Gosudarstvennyy Istoricheskyy Arkhiv] systems of the CIS, with over two hundred seventy central and branch repositories located throughout Russia, Ukraine, Belorussia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Azerbaidzhan, Moldova, Kirgizia, Tajikistan, Armenia and Turkmenistan. Included in these systems are traditional provincial and country archives.

Central States Archives in Russia do not normally have the funding to respond to correspondence. All church records have been sent to Central State Archives. Civil registration was begun in 1917 and records are available at ZOG??? A few questions may be answered by correspondence at Ukrainian archives. Most researchers either visit the archives in person, or hire an agent to do the research for them. For information about hiring professional researchers see page #???.

Repositories and significant collections of vital records for Russian-German research include:

Central State Historical Archives of Belorussia in Minsk contains church books of the Lutheran Bishopric of Minsk, vital records of the Mogilev Roman Catholic Consistory, and poll tax records for the Minsk province.

Central State Historical Archives of Moscow has vital records for the Moscow Evangelical-Lutheran Consistory, 1833-1917.

State Archives of the Saratov Region houses original church books for the Lutheran congregations of the Volga region, vital records of the Tiraspol Roman Catholic Consistory, and poll tax records for the Saratov province.

St. Petersburg Central State Historical Archives contains vital records for the St. Petersburg Evangelical-Lutheran Consistory, 1833-1885, and poll tax records for the Sanktpeterburg province.

«Please identify which collections or parts of collections from above that we have at the FHL. Please be specific—what years or areas do we have? What years or areas are missing?»

Contacting the Central State and Central State Historical Archives systems is both difficult and time consuming. All correspondence must be written and addressed in the native language using the Cyrillic alphabet. Do NOT send money through the mail. A guide listing both addresses and telephone numbers for these archives is:

International Directory of Archives = Annuaire international des archives / International Council on Archives. Archivum, vol. 38. München; London; New York; Paris: K. G. Saur, 1992. (FHL book 020.5 Ar25 v. 38). Commonwealth of Independent States archive addresses are listed state-by-state in English on pages 71-88, and in Russian on pages 88-121.

Arrangement of Russian Archive Records. Russian archive material is organized by fond [фонд], opis [опись], and delo [дело]. The records in a fond are simply the records of a specific organization, portion of an organization, or individual. An institution creates records for its own purpose and use. When the administrative or personal value of the records expires, they are transferred to an archive.

Archives may also create collections as opposed to fonds. These collections contain records of differing authorship and are filed together on some logical or thematic basis. In some archives, therefore, vital records may be found in collections rather than fonds. These collections, as in the Crimea for example, usually include records of more than one religious denomination.

Fonds and collections are often described in guides [путеводители = putevoditeli]. The individual item in a fond is a file or volume [дело = delo]. Each delo is given a title based on the record type and contents. Items are usually filed chronologically by the earliest year of information found in that item.

The inventory of files in a fond or collection is known as an opis [опись]. While fond is a statement of authorship, opis is a statement of content. It consists of the title assigned to each time listed in a sequential order. It also includes information on inclusive dates and number of pages. The opis is the key to finding records in a fond and is considered the most significant finding aid used by researchers. It is usually not available outside of the archive.

A fond may have more than one opis. These sometimes reflect different types of material or blocks of material accession by the archives. The decision as to what to include in an opis is in the hands of the archival cataloger, and will vary significantly from archive to archive.