Crimea on the 1914 Congress of the Representatives of the Governorate Scholarly Archival Commissions

The governorate public archival societies (commissions) established in Russia from 1884 on possessed an uncertain status and problematic financial situation, which lead to further “archival disorder” and the loss of documents important for the history of Russian provinces. Russia several times attempted to make an archival reform by subordinating provincial archives to central institutions. The next stage in the implementation of this idea was the transfer of methodological guidance over public provincial archivists from the St Petersburg Archaeological Institute to the Russian Historical Society (1912). On May 1914, the latter organized the congress of the representatives of the scholarly archival commissions and the corresponding institutions to attract the representatives of 31 academic archival institution from the most regions of the Russian Empire. For the first time, this forum made those who participated in the creation of provincial archives to discuss the questions challenged by the local scholarly societies and to offer particular measures capable of improving the situation. A. I. Markevich as the chair of the Taurida Scholarly Archival Commission represented the Taurida governorate. The author of the article has introduced into the scholarship two previously unknown papers by the leader of Crimean regional studies addressing the state of archival affairs in the peninsula. They are extraordinary important as an historical source on the Taurida Scholarly Archival Commission and on the acquisition to the governorate’s historical archive in Simferopol. The persistence of the local archival activists resulted in the significant increase of state subsidies and the granting of one-time allowances for the organization of archival services in governorate centres. The First World War prevented the realization of the further plans for archival reform.