Державний архів Херсонської області
- State Archives of Kherson Oblast
- Derzhavnyi arkhiv Khersons'koi oblasti
Address
Phone
Fax
History
The history of the State Archives of Kherson region dates back to April 2, 1921, when Kherson District Special Archive Commission was founded that was under subordination of Mykolaiv Gubernial Archives Commission, since 1922 - under Odessa Gubernial Archives Administration. In November 1925 was founded Kherson District Archives Administration which was reorganized in the Municipal Archive Administration in October 1, 1930. On February 26, 1932 the Archives Administration was reorganized in Kherson State Historical Archives, which since March 5, 1938 had been subordinated to Mykolaiv Oblast Archives Administration attached to the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs.
Upon foundation of Kherson oblast in March, 1944, Kherson branch of Mykolaiv Oblast State Archives was reorganized in State Archives of Kherson Oblast and on October 4, 1958 it was renamed to Kherson Oblast State Archives. According to the order of the Central Archives Administration attached to the Council of Ministers of the USSR from August 7, 1980 No.67 Kherson Oblast State Archives were renamed to State Archives of Kherson Oblast.
Archival and Other Holdings
The oldest documents are preserved in the fund of the Voskresenska Church of the town of Beryslav in manuscript books which contain copies of tsar orders of the tsar, the Holy Synod, and the archbishop of Kyiv, Halych and Malorussia for the period 1721 to 1734.
In the funds of the secretariat of the governor of Kherson there are lectures, reports, correspondence of governors with provision department, Kherson and Odessa landowners, merchants, and with skippers about the preparation and transportation of bread and forage during the war of the year 1812.
In the fund of Kherson Guberniya Administration there are orders, reports and correspondence about organization of commission for claims adjustment of the Georgian settlers to the local authorities (1808-1810), and about land regulation for Jewish settlers (1850-1851).
The fund of the Kherson (Novorussia) Guberniya drawing office is of great scholarly interest for the study of the history of colonization of Southern Ukraine. The fund also contains copies of orders of the emperors, the Senate, and the Novorussian Guberniya secretariat; warrants for the granting and division of land to the dignitaries Bezborodko, Kochubei, Trubetsky, Bagration, and Hannibal, and to landowners, foreign colonists, and former Zaporizhzhian Cossacks (1756-1886); documents concerning the lands of the Crimean peninsula (1798—1804), the foundation of the cities of Hryhoropillia (1792), Balta (1797-1798), Yelisavethrad (1752), fund of the settlements of Kherson guberniya (1777-1860), the first book about boundaries of Kherson (1782), information about the construction of the monument to the English philanthropist John Howard in Kherson (1822-1828); autographs of the governor-general of Novorussia duke de Richelieu (1815).
Correspondence between the Ukrainian historian D. Yavornytsky and social worker O. Rusov (1886) is preserved in the fund of Kherson government district council.
Financial institutions are represented in the fund of Kherson guberniya chamber, where decrees, resolutions, orders concerning the conduction of the population census, the revision of state property; of the Kherson guberniya, and auditorial registers of the state, monastic, peasants, serfs, craftsmen, merchants, colonists, and townsfolk are preserved. The greater portion of the documents of the Oblast state archives is comprised of documents of the modern era (1917-2004). Of special note among the documents of the Ukrainian Revolutionary Period (1917-1920) is the fund of Kherson guberniya executive Committee of working class, village and soldier deputies, which contains information about the support of an autonomous Ukraine and the recognition of the Kherson guberniya as an integral part of the Ukrainian People's Republic.
The funds of district, volost, city, land village revolution committees, of executive committees attached to the working class, of village and Red Army soldiers' deputies committees and their subdivisions reflect the process of formation of the Soviet government in Kherson region. The resolutions, commands, Protocols of special authorities throw light upon struggle against Austrian-German occupants, the armies of Denikin and Wrangel, the actions of insurgent armies of Makhno, Tiutiunnyk, and Angel, the organization of agricultural communes and artels and the transfer of confiscated lands and property to them, of the struggles against peasant movements, and the confiscation of church valuables. In the fund of Dniprovskiy county revolutionary committee are documents signed by M.Kulish, a Ukrainian writer who was the head of the Oleshky town council (1918).
The funds of the committees of poor peasants reveal the carrying out of compulsory collectivization and its consequences, and the liquidation of private village properties.
Information about famines in the Kherson region in 1921-1923, 1932-1933, 1946-1947 is contained in the documents of the funds of Soviet and party institutions, all leves of the Communist Party of Ukraine, and committees and commissions for aiding the starving.
In the funds of oblast executive committee and city executive committees are documents that reflect the administrative and territorial changes in the Kherson region, the restoration of the national economy after the war, the construction of Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Station (1951-1955), and the Kherson Cotton Plant, the largest in Europe (1952-1962); of ship production at Kherson Shipbuilding Plant; the activities of Azov-Syvasky nature reserve; the construction of the Verkhnoinhulets and Krasnoznamiansk irrigation systems.
Among the declassified funds of institutions from the time of Nazi occupation which are of special note is the fund of the Kherson district commissariat, which contains documents about the fight against the partisan movement, of the resettlement of the "Volksdeutsche", questionnaires, and lists of citizens forcibly sent to Germany.
A unique collection of maps and plans contains almost 2500 items, among them maps of such cities as Bobrynets, Yelisavethrad, Nikopol, Odessa, Oleksandria, Kherson.
A special group of documents is preserved in the collection of private funds covering the period 1884 to 2005, among which are documents of scientists, local historians and writers as well as the family funds of the founders of the nature reserve Askania Nova the Falz-Fein.
The photo documents collections consist of reproductions showing general view of the city of Kherson, the launching of the first torpedo-boat destroyer, the emblem of Oleshky (1844, 1893), of a group of Spanish children at the home for children in Kherson (1935), of the construction of the Kherson Cotton Plant, the Oil-Processing Plant, and Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Station; the flora and fauna of the nature reserve "Askania-Nova"; a drama dedicated to the 200th anniversary of Kherson (1978), the opening of the International Festival "Tavriyski Igry" in Kakhovka (1997-1999), of a meeting of the writer O. Honchar with the citizens of Kherson, and of an international literature and arts festival dedicated to Т. Shevchenko entitled "In the new, free family".
The archives' sound recordings and video documents preserve the records of meetings and gatherings dedicated to the 50th anniversary of liberation of Kherson from Nazi occupants (1994), the anniversary of Independence Day in Ukraine (1992), the 500th anniversary of the Ukrainian Cossacks in the Kherson region (1992), the 50th anniversary of the deportation of the Crimean Tatars (1994); recordings of the reminiscences of citizens of Kherson about the Holodomor of 1932-1933, life during Nazi occupation and compulsory resettlement of people for work in Germany, the Rakhrnaninov All-Ukrainian show-competition of young pianists, etc.
Finding Aids, Guides, and Publication
Державний архів Херсонської області: Путівник / Держкомархів України. Держархів Херсонської області; Автори-упоряд.: А. Карпова (відп. ред.) та ін.; Редколегія: Г. Боряк (голова) та ін. - Київ, 2003. - 740 с. [State Archives of Kherson Region: Guide. Kyiv, 2003. 740 p.] Available online at: http://www.archives.gov.ua/Publicat/Guidebooks/Herson_rozdil_III.pdf
Державний архів Херсонської області. Фонди періоду після 1917 року: анотований реєстр описів. Том 1: Фонди Р-1 – Р-1250 / редкол.: В. Ф. Боровик (голова) та ін.; Державна архівна служба України; Державний архів Херсонської області. – Херсон : Айлант, 2013. – 532 с. [State Archives of Kherson Region. Collections after 1917: Annotated list of inventories. Vol. 1: Fonds from P-1 to P-1250. Kherson, 2013. 532 p.] Available online at: http://kherson.archives.gov.ua/Annot1.pdf
Sources
YV/ClaimsCon'06/online search http://kherson.archives.gov.ua/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=85&Itemid=76