A brief history of the Estonian Historical Archives

During the World War I the archives of the government of the Province of Livonia were evacuated from Riga to a former students' dormitory (built in 1904) in Tartu. Soon the archives of the university itself and archives re-evacuated from Soviet Russia according to the Tartu Peace Treaty were added. The new independent state needed a state system of archives.

Estonian State Central Archives, the predecessor of the present-day Estonian Historical Archives, started its activities on May 16, 1921. A month earlier the Estonian State Archives had been founded in Tallinn. The acquisition and preservation of state acts and documents, records of local governments, churches and individuals of historical value was assigned to the Central Archives. The first actual director of the Central Archives was Arno Rafael Cederberg who was succeeded by Friedrich Nineve, August Sildnik and Otto Liiv from October 1, 1929.

The 1920s and 1930s were marked by gathering archival materials to the Central Archives. Thus, the archives of the Governor Generals of Estonia and Livonia from the period of the Swedish Rule, Russian-time provincial governments and offices, archives of the Nobilities of Estonia and the island Saaremaa, South-Estonian parish records, archives of the Supreme Provincial Court of Estonia and other courts, i.e. materials invaluable from the viewpoint of Estonian history, were deposited into the Central Archives. Alongside with compiling and gathering the material, one started to systematize it according to the provenience principle and carry out scientific research. Six volumes of the Proceedings of the State Central Archives were published, dealing with the institution of the Governor General of Estonia under the Swedish Rule and records reflecting his activities, Polonica in Estonian archives, civil action at the Supreme Provincial Court etc. The contribution of several archivists of this period (Otto Liiv, Nigolas Treumuth/Loone, Adolf Perandi etc.) to the studying of Estonian history is remarkable.

In 1940 the former Central Archives was reorganized into Tartu Branch of the State Central Archives of the Estonian SSR. The new age set new tasks to the archives, thus one started to make preparations for a collection of documents concerning the bolshevist coup d'etat in October 1917. On the one hand the work at the archives was politicized, but on the other hand the size of the staff increased and, for the time being, not yet on behalf of immigrants. The war that followed did not cause any direct damage to the archival material, but documents of great value had to be evacuated from Tartu. According to the instructions of German military authorities quite a large number of boxes containing archival material were transported to Potsdam, Poznan, Czechoslovakia and other places.

In 1945 Voldemar Miller was appointed head of the archives. He remained on the post until 1949. His successor was Marianila Javkina who started to carry out an extensive waste paper campaign with other new archivists who had been sent to Estonia as "friendly aid". However, getting rid of the status of a branch has to be mentioned as an achievement. The archives was renamed as State Central Historical Archives of the Estonian SSR.

The present name Estonian Historical Archives dates back to 1990. The Estonian Historical Archives contains about 20 000 shelf-meters of records, organized into more than 3200 fonds. This includes records of administrative institutions in the territory of Estonia, courts, schools, local governments, societies, Baltic-German nobility as well as manors and personal fonds since the mid 13th century up till the year 1918. Our oldest document originates from 1240 given by the Danish king Valdemar Erik to his vassals in 4 counties in northern Estonia. Those interested can study above-mentioned materials in the reading room. Alphabetical and systematic library catalogues are also at the disposal of all visitors. The attending staff will mediate the ordering of photo- and Xerox copies needed.

Over the years the Estonian Historical Archives have, besides acquisition, arrangement, description and preservation archival records and rendering services to researchers, also aimed at the publication of archival material.