At the heart of Professor Engelstein's talk was the assertion that archives have always been connected to states and that they are part of any state's structures of power. Russia, in the 20th century, has had two collapses of regime, one in 1917 and one in 1991. In her talk, Professor Engelstein compared these two moments of political transition in terms of their archival politics.

Archives figured prominently in the ideological program of the Bolsheviks. Some documents were destroyed for symbolic or political reasons, while others were appropriated and relabeled as the "people's legacy." The Bolsheviks publicized materials that had been kept secret in order to discredit the old regime, while at the same time classifying much of their own material. By the early 1930s, about a third of all material in Soviet archives was inaccessible to researchers. When, in the 1980s, Gorbachev initiated "Perestroika," scholars demanded greater access to these archives. It was not until 1991, when the Soviet Union fell, that the former state system of control over the archives was modified and declassification began.

The Russian Archive Administration is in charge of the official archives, which include the Russian Federation's Federal Archives. In addition to the Federal Archives, there are also state archives at the Republic, regional, and district levels. The political structure of the country is reflected in the organization of these archives, all of which are available for scholars, at least in theory. Other repositories within the system are not fully accessible. For example, many of the records of the Communist Party and the old Soviet state, which are theoretically open to scholars, are still confidential.

Technical problems also frustrate historians' efforts to gain access to archival materials. For example, most of the repositories related to Imperial Russian state institutions are housed in the Russian State Archive of History in St. Petersburg. Long in need of renovation, the archive was recently closed in preparation for its removal to new quarters. Thus, six and a half million files and a library containing four hundred thousand volumes are currently inaccessible. Until the move is complete, archive-based research on Imperial Russian history will be severely hampered.

In addition to these official, state-managed archives, there are numerous smaller archival collections in museums, libraries, and on the Internet. For example, "Memorial" is an organization founded in the Perestroika era by Russian intellectuals hoping to document the atrocities of the Stalin era. It has compiled an impressive archive of personal testimonies. Another unofficial archive, the "People's Archive," maintains a web site that welcomes the donation of family papers and documents related to everyday life. By allowing society to generate its own record both of these archives have given Russians in the post-Soviet era a forum in which to develop a civic consciousness.

Contemporary Russian archivists have worked hard to make their archives more accessible to researchers. These archivists have benefited from international collaboration in bringing greater organization and accessibility to their collections. Individual scholars and institutions have contributed financial support and expertise. Many collections are now on microfilm, in published volumes, or on the Internet and are thus available to scholars outside of Russia.

Laura Engelstein is the Henry S. McNeil Professor of Russian History at Yale University. She joined the history department in the fall of 2002 to pursue teaching and research in modern Russian and European history. She received her B.A. from the City College of New York and her Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1976. Before coming to Yale, Professor Engelstein taught at Cornell and at Princeton universities. Her research has focused on the social and cultural history of late imperial Russia, with attention to the role of law, medicine, and the arts in public life. She has also explored themes in the history of gender, sexuality, and religion.

Among her significant book publications are Moscow, 1905: Working-Class Organization and Political Conflict (1982); The Keys to Happiness: Sex and the Search for Modernity in Fin-de-Siècle Russia (1992); and Castration and the Heavenly Kingdom: A Russian Folktale (1999), as well as an essay collection edited with Stephanie Sandler: Self and Story in Russian History (2000).

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