Vilniaus miesto archyvas XIX-XX šimtmetyje

LTStraipsnyje nesiekiama nagrinėti ar bent jau apžvelgti viso Vilniaus miesto savavaldžių institucijų archyvų kaupimosi proceso. Juolab kad iki XVIII a. pabaigos formaliai nebuvo vieningo ar vientiso organizacine prasme Vilniaus miesto archyvo. Miesto archyvas kaip miesto valdymo institucijos padalinys atsirado tik XVIII-XIX amžių sandūroje, kai po valstybės likvidavimo Lietuvoje kūrėsi bei stiprėjo carų Rusijos valdymo institucijos. Aneksuotose vakarinėse gubernijose rusų administracija su paveldėtais senaisiais archyvais elgėsi daug dėmesingiau negu, pvz., Kazachstane ar Kryme bei kitose XVIII a. pabaigoje prie imperijos prijungtose vietovėse, jau nekalbant apie Kairiakrantę Ukrainą arba Mažarusiją. Vakarų gubernijose administracine prasme buvo sudaromos minimalios sąlygos išsaugoti rusų administracijos paveldėtus senuosius archyvus. Kas kita, ar valdininkai padarė tai, ką jie turėjo padaryti, kad tie senieji archyvai būtų išsaugoti. Neturime informacijos apie XVIII-XIX amžių sandūroje buvusius masinį ar tyčinį paveldėtų senųjų archyvų naikinimą. Senieji archyvai visose rusų administracijos institucijose po truputį nyko tik dėl valdininkų aplaidumo. Suprantama, tą aplaidumą galima įvairiai vertinti. Tik įsidėmėkime tai, kad dėl valdininkų aplaidumo ir dabar nyksta įstaigų (instituciniai ar žinybiniai) archyvai. Vieną kitą archyvą nusiaubė gaisras. Straipsnio objektas yra Vilniaus miesto archyvas, kurį rusų administracija pradėjo kurti XVIII-XIX amžių sandūroje ir kuris buvo likviduotas jau sovietmečiu XX a. antrosios pusės pradžioje. Bus aptariami tik bendrieji to archyvo formavimosi dalykai. [p. 42].

ENThe City Archive of Vilnius, as a separate unit of the city administration institution, appeared at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries when, after Lithuania’s annexation to the Russian Empire, institutions of the tsarist rule were created and strengthened. The first step in accumulating this archive could have been taken by the Russian administration in 1796-1797. The initial formation of the archive had to be completed in 1808, that is, when the Duma of the city of Vilnius was created. Books and documents of Vilnius magistracy and Vilnius Magdeburgian court formed the basis of the city archive being formed. Thus, it had to contain acts of the burgomaster-assessors and prefect’s courts. The City Archive was finally legalised in 1826. On 3 November 1853 those books of acts were given to the Vilnius Central Archive established by the tsarist administration. The City Archive of Vilnius was perhaps the only institution on the territory supervised by the Governor-General of Vilnius, which concealed a great number of the old acts and did not hand them over to the Central Archive of Vilnius, thus it did not fulfil the requirements of the tsar order. Transfer of the old documents to the Central Archive of Vilnius did not in essence change the chronological structure of the stocks of the City Archive of Vilnius, did not reduce its scope. The archive was constantly supplemented with new documents from the city administration institutions. In the eighth and ninth decades of the 19th century, when a partial administration reform was carried out in Russia the archive expanded greatly. Then number of institutions decreased, and the number of so-called old files within still functioning institutions, which these institutions and their branches wanted to get rid of, increased.Thus they were in a hurry to give them over to the City Archive. In 1920 this was the only institution of the Russian Empire in Vilnius that was taken over without any changes being made to it by the Polish administration and remained in the same condition. The number of files in the City Archive of Vilnius totalled over 300 000 in 1939. On 28 October 1939, when Lithuania regained Vilnius, Polish laws stopped being in effect on the territory of the Republic of Lithuania as a sovereign country, and Lithuanian laws came into effect. Due to this the activity of all Polish institutions in Vilnius and the regained eastern part of Lithuania was legally and practically terminated. This affected the magistracy of Vilnius too. A Lithuanian institution - the Municipality of Vilnius with all its autonomous branches was established in its place. The City Archive of Vilnius was the only institution that managed to remain unchanged in the course of that universal restructuring. The Lithuanian administration of Vilnius, under whose control such a large archive was placed (this was a third archive in size after the Central State Archive of Kaunas and the Vilnius State Archive) made no changes in it. It simply subordinated it to the Municipality of Vilnius. Sovietisation of all walks of life of Lithuania in 1940-1941 at first did not disturb the activity of the City Archive of Vilnius. Till 12 November 1940 municipalities of all levels were formally in existence. Their functions were sovietised gradually. Consequently, almost nothing was changed in the activity of the City Archive. In 1940-1941 essentially positive centralisation of archives was being implemented in Lithuania. At the beginning of 1941 the lowest chain of the state archives, that had been unknown in Lithuania before, was begun to be established - state archives of the counties.On that occasion the City Archive of Vilnius, which the soviet executive committee had inherited from the Municipality, was also nationalised. It was named the City State Archive of Vilnius. Following the soviet re-occupation, in the summer of 1941, the City Archive of Vilnius was included in the network of state archives and became the only archive in Lithuania of the lower chain with the stocks of a stable composition. There were 50 archive depositories at the City State Archive of Vilnius containing 383 542 files being preserved. Later the number of archive depositories increased, however, the number of files being preserved within them decreased because many of them were handed over to the Central State Archive of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Lithuania, especially in 1947 and 1948. When districts were created in Lithuania in 1950, it was planned to turn the City State Archive of Vilnius into the State Archive of Vilnius district. However, later the idea to establish state district archives was rejected. The Chrushtchiov period granted the soviet republics somewhat more rights in managing some affairs in their interior life. Moscow’s close supervision of archive management slackened. Finally Lithuania could separate the latest files from the documentary heritage of the 15th-19th centuries and create the archive of history. Since 1 January 1957 the network of the state archives of Lithuania has been significantly reorganised. The only former central state archive was divided into two archives, with the year 1918 taken as a dividing line in the archive stocks. The Central State Archive of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Lithuania and the Central State Archive of History of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Lithuania started functioning. From the beginning of 1957 the City State Archive of Vilnius was liquidated and its stocks were divided between the two central state archives.