Admiralty Board Archives (Russian State Navy Archives) established

January 17 (28), 1724 on the oral order of Peter I was founded one of the oldest archives of Russia (now the Russian State Archive of the Navy (RGAVMF)) which collected and preserved the documents of the Admiralty board, its missions and offices.

Admiralty Board Archives collected the documents of the Board itself as well as of its subordinate agencies and organizations. In the early years cases were delivered to the archives in connection with the liquidation of an institution, the death or dismissal of the head.

From 1764 the archives had been developed systematically. The institutions of the Navy Department were ordered to hand the cases over to records as they came to the end in proceedings.

In 1827, in connection with the abolition of the Admiralty Board its archive was integrated to the General Archives of Naval Forces Ministry. In August 1917 the Archive of the Naval Ministry was renamed into the Central Archives of the Fleet and the Navy Department. On June 1, 1918 it was transferred to the Unified State Archive Fund, and until 1925 had been its naval section; from 1925 to 1934 – it had been the naval section of the Leningrad branch of the Central Historical Archives. Then it became known as the Central State Archive of the Navy (TSGAVMF).

Due to the collapse of the USSR, the archives came under the jurisdiction of Russia. 24 June 1992 the Central State Archive of the Navy of the USSR was renamed into the Russian State Archive of the Navy (RGAVMF) and was integrated into the network of federal archives in Russia.

During its nearly three-century history the archive has more than once changed the storage location of its documents. Among them - the facilities of the Twelve Collegia on Vasilevsky Island, the Molchanov house near the Palace Square, the Main Admiralty and the New Holland, as well as one of the facilitiess of the Senate. Since 1926 the archive has been housed in the former Archives of the State Council at Millionnaya Str. 36. At the beginning of 20th century the archive received the second building, at Serebristiy Boulevard, 24.

Currently RGAVMF contains more than 1.5 million cases of institutions of the central administration of the navy, fleet authorities, naval schools and research institutions, military ports, shipbuilding and other enterprises, hydrographic and scientific expeditions . Many of these materials - unique and extremely valuable documents, which are the monuments of history and culture.

The archives stores drawings of sailing and armored fleet, collections of the watch and the ship's logs of ships, atlases, maps, and biographical documents. In the archive there are documents of naval commanders such as F. F. Ushakov, D. N. Senyavin, P. S. Nakhimov, S. O. Makarov, sailors Vitus Bering, I. F. Kruzenstern, Yu. F. Lisyansky, V. M. Golovnin, O. E. Kotzebu, sailors-Decembrists, participants of the revolutionary movement and the Civil War.

Scientific reference library of the archive numbers over 54 000 volumes - the works on marine legislation, naval art, shipbuilding, on the history of the Naval Ministry, the Sea Cadet Corps and other agencies, ships and parts of the fleet, the life and work of famous naval commanders; on uniform, insignia, flags, signals, etc., as well as studies that used documents from the archives.

The official website of RGAVMF: http://www.rgavmf.ru/.

Lit.: Мазур Т. П. Аннотированный реестр описей фондов (1696-1917) / РГАВМФ. СПб., 1996; То же [Электронный ресурс] URL: https://rgavmf.ru/books/spravochnaya-literatura/mazur-tp-annotirovannyy-reestr-opisey-fondov-1696-1917.