Централен държавен архив

  • Tsentralen durzhaven arhiv
  • Central State Archives of Bulgaria
  • Държавна агенция "Архиви"
  • Archives State Agency

Address

Archives State Agency
5 Moskovska st.
Sofia
1000
Bulgaria

Phone

+359 2 9400179 [director]
+359 2 9400153 ["Ivan Dujchev" reading room]
+359 2 9400140 [microfilm reading room]

Fax

+359 2 980 14 43

Email




Web

http://www.archives.government.bg/

History

The creation of the Archive is connected with the Decree 515 of the Presidium of the National Assembly dated 10 October 1951 and the Council of Minister’s Decree 344, dated 18 April 1952. On this basis two central archives were founded in 1952: the Central State Historical Archives (CSHA) and the Central State Archives of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria (CSA PRB) with a demarcation date of their fonds – the 9 September 1944. Two decades later on 2 January 1974 the Central State Technical Archives was created by order of the minister of information and communications, with the main objective to collect, process, preserve and organise the use of the valuable technical documents. In 1979, the CSHA became a national repository of copies of records relative to the Bulgarian history, kept in foreign archival centres.

By Council of Ministers’ Decree dated 30 December 1992, the archival system was reorganised and the three central archives merged into a sole Central State Archives (CSA) under the General Department of Archives. The offices, reading rooms, labs and repositories, which were dispersed before the unification, were assembled in 1992 in the building at 5 Moskovska Str. After a subsequent reconstruction and adaptation period, new repositories were equipped for the most valuable and frequently used records. On the basis of the contract signed in 1993 with the Supreme Council of BSP, the Archive accepted the documents of the former Central Party Archive. To avoid any duplication in the archival references, a range of letters were added to the numbers of the fonds: for the fonds of the former CSHA – K; for the fonds of the former CSTA – A; and for the fonds of the former CPA – Б. In 1999, the archive acquired the documents of the former “Bulgarian photography” EAD, which fulfilled the role of public photo archive.

Administrative Structure

According to its principal functions the archive is structured into the following departments: New Archives, Processing of Archival Fonds, BCP’s Fonds, Private Fonds, Foreign Fonds, Accounting and Preservation of Archival Fonds, and Use of Archival Fonds and a Services to the Readers section.

Archival and Other Holdings

As of 1 January 2012, the amount of archival material held by the archive totals 20,100.89 linear meters, or 4,041 record groups with 1,739,277 archival units.

Among others, it holds restitution and/or compensation-related materials.

Finding Aids, Guides, and Publication

The Series Archival Finding Aids includes guides, inventories, catalogs, etc. of help to archival information users.

Volume 1. Guide on the Bulgarian Communist Party Fonds, preserved in Central State Archives. S. 2000

http://www.archives.government.bg/guides/12_P_BKP1.pdf

Volume 2. Guide on State Archive - Smolian. (1615-1944)
Second supplemented edition. S.2000. Represents the documentary riches of the State Archive of Smolian before 1944.

http://www.archives.government.bg/guides/33_P_K.pdf

Volume 3. Inventories. Fonds 70 K. Town Municipal Administrations - Burgas (1878-1944)
Fonds 436K. Burgas Prelatic Vicarage (1879-1957). S.2001. Useful Finding aid addressed not only to specialists but also to a wider circle of users.

http://www.archives.government.bg/uploaded_files/AS_3-2001%281%29.pdf

Volume 4. Guide on the State Archives - Varna (1944-1995)

http://www.archives.government.bg/guides/16_P_C.pdf

Volume 5. Glossary of Settlement Names and Denominations of Administrative Territorial Units in the Bulgarian Lands within 15th - 19th centuries
The finding aid's serves to help specialists identify and locate approximately 4,200 settlements.

Volume 6. Guide on the Memoir Documents for Bulgarian Communist Party, preserved in Central State Archives
4,000 memoir documents, collected over 40 years by the former Central Party Archives are represented. By 1989, part of them were confidential. Now they are available at the Central State Archives.

http://www.archives.government.bg/guides/12_P_BKP2.pdf

Volume 7. Guide on the Sofia State Archive (1944-2000)
Memoirs and documents of the Town and Regional committees of the Bulgarian Communist Party and Dimitrov's Communist Youth Union are not included in the Guide.

http://www.archives.government.bg/guides/13_P_C.pdf

Volume 8. Guide on the Central State Archive. Office archival fonds (till 1944) Part I. Authority and Administrative Bodies
The guide covers the archival fonds of the supreme state institutions of the legislative, executive, legal and church powers in Bulgaria and their subordinate organisations.

http://www.archives.government.bg/guides/12_P_K1.pdf

Volume 9. Macedonian and Odrin Volunteer Forces 1912-1913
Personnel. Documents of the Central Military Archive.

http://www.archives.government.bg/uploaded_files//sprav_09_all.pdf

Volume 10. Inventory of the Archival Collections and Books in Greek Language in Varna
The volume was completed with the help of the General Department of Archives at the Council of Ministers and the Institute for Mediterranean Researches in Retimno, the island of Crete and includes descriptions in Bulgarian and Greek of documents preserved in the Greek municipality and Greek bishopric in Varna, as well as lists of Greek language books held by the Museum of Revival, the Library "P. Slaveikov" and private collections during the XIXth- XXth centuries.

http://www.archives.government.bg/uploaded_files//AS_greek_1.pdf

Volume 11. Guide of the Central State Archives. Office archival fonds (till 1944). Part II. Economic, cultural, political and public organizations and bodies
The guide includes the archival fonds from the period 1908-1944 of non-government economic, political, public, professional, scientific, cultural, educational, etc. organisations and offices, their branches in newly joined territories and of Bulgarian public organisations in Istanbul during the Revival period and after the Liberation.

http://www.archives.government.bg/guides/12_P_K2.pdf

Volume 12. Jewish Working Groups in Labor Service (1941-1945). Bulgarian servicemen perished and buried in Macedonia during the wars 1912-1945
Includes 1,531 annotations of documents preserved in State Military Historical Archives in Veliko Tarnovo, including lists of those killed, their place of birth, as well as the location of their graves.

Volume 13. Guide on the Archival Fonds of Territorial State Archive Vratza (1789-1944)
The publication familiarises the researchers and the general public with the documentary testimonies for the period up to 1944. The Guide contains information about 556 archival fonds chronologically covering documents from 1789 to 1944. The publication is preceded by the "Guide on the archival materials, preserved in State Archive - Vratza (1878-1944). Part I."

Volume 14. A Finding Aid Based on the Documentation Located in the Archival Fonds of the Urban Municipal Government - Gabrovo in the Territorial State Archive - Gabrovo and in the Regional Historic Museum - Gabrovo (1877-1959)
The Fonds of the Urban Municipal Government is one of the most frequently accessed in the two institutions, the documents are subject to frequent scholarly research and studies and form a part of the Security Fonds of the Archive.

Volume 15. Guide on the State Archives – Blagoevgrad fonds (1944 – 2009). Sofia, 2010
This publication is preceded by the Guide of archival fonds 1944 – 1976, part ΙΙ. In 2009 State Archives – Blagoevgrad held 1,910 fonds, of which 1,540 fonds date from 1944 to the present day, 1,149 memoirs and 777 partial accessions. In this volume, an appendix with a list of the fonds received from the Regional Archive of the Bulgarian Communist Party is included.

Volume 16. Guide on the State Archives – Sofia fonds (1645 – 1944). Sofia, 2012
This Guide is intended to help those who are interested in documents, created up to 1944. In 2011 State Archives – Sofia preserved 1,265 fonds. This edition is preceded by two Guides – The Documentary Wealth of Sofia and its region (1878–1944), 1964, and Guide on the fonds of State Archives – Sofia (1944 – 2000), 2003.

Volume 17. Guide on the State Archives – fonds with personal documents, preserved in the Central State Archives. Part I А – Й. S., 2012.
This Guide marks the beginning of publication of a complete archival reference book on personal documents in three parts. It gives a brief information about the huge documentary heritage of some of the most prominent Bulgarians in all spheres of the social, political, economical and cultural life from the period of the Bulgarian National Revival to the present day.

Volume 18. The Politics of the Bulgarian Communist Party to the Ethnic and Immigrant Groups in Bulgaria (1944–1989) (according to the documents of the BCP funds preserved in the Central State Archives). S. 2015
This publication presents the documents preserved in the former Central Party Archives, which outline the ethnic policy of the Bulgarian Communist Party during this period of time.

Volume 19. Guide on the State Archives – fonds with personal documents, preserved in the Central State Archives. Part II К – Р. S., 2017
This Guide is the second part of the complete archival reference book on personal documents. It is intended to respond to the increased public and scientific interest in the preserved documentary wealth of prominent persons in the historical development of Bulgaria.

Volume 20. Guide on the State Archives – Silistra fonds (1944–2016). Second supplemented edition. S., 2018
This edition is preceded by the "Guide to Archival Fonds 1944-1980", published in 1986. This edition is needed because of the enrichment of the volume of the archive with new accessions. Partial accessions and memoirs are not included.

In addition to the aforementioned guides, the series "Archives are speaking" represents highlights sources related to Bulgarian history that are held by Bulgarian and foreign archival depositories.

http://www.archives.government.bg/280-Archives_are_speaking

The periodical Izvestia na darzhavnite arhivi (Journal of the State Archives) is the scientific journal of CSA that has been in print since 1957. Four issues are published yearly.

http://www.archives.government.bg/281-Journal_of_the_state_archives

The periodical Arhiven pregled (Archival review) is a magazine with current information about the archival work in Bulgaria and all over the world. Established in 1954, four issues are published yearly.

http://www.archives.government.bg/282-Arhival_review

For other CSA publications:

http://www.archives.government.bg/283-Other_publications

Opening Times

Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Sources

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