Searching the archives is a fascinating, laborious, and very time-consuming activity. It will require you to be precise, thorough, accurate and follow several important rules.
Instructions
Step 1
Try to determine in advance as accurately as possible what exactly you are looking for and in which archive. Sometimes materials related to one topic can be sorted into different archives. So, for example, the personal archive of F. I. Shalyapin is scattered among the funds of the Russian State Archive of Literature, LGTM, State Russian Museum, State Center for Contemporary Arts, and Torgsin's materials, in addition to the funds of the Russian State Archive of Economics (RGAE), can be found in the funds of a dozen regional archives.
But nevertheless, this is your first step - to find out which archives contain the documents you need.
Step 2
To avoid confusion and facilitate what is called navigation, then it is best for you to use the guidebooks and reference books on the archives (they are definitely in the reference rooms of the RAS libraries, large scientific libraries, as well as on the Archives of Russia portal). To help also electronic databases and search systems for funds, which are on the sites of archives.
Step 3
The sequence of archival search fits into a simple algorithm: fund - inventory - case - sheet. The fact is that the fund is the main storage unit of any archive. Simplifying somewhat, a fund is the entire set of documents related to a historical theme, historical character, organization, etc. The organization of the fund is thematic, and the temporary headings within it are presented in the inventories. Inventory refers you to a collection of physically separate storage units - cases. Each case is a separate document or a collection of documents placed in a separate folder or a separate cover. The case documents are numbered continuously by the number of sheets.
Step 4
First, you figure out in which funds the required documents are stored. Then, from the inventories of the funds, you will find out in what cases they may be. Finally, having already requested the necessary files in the archive, find the sheets of these documents you need.
