About

STATE HISTORICAL ARCHIVE OF THE GERMAN VOLGA (GIANP)

Probably taken in 1928

http://oldsaratov.ru/photo/gubernia/19931

It is  the place where the main body of documents on the history of the Germans in the Volga region is kept from the time of their settlement in 1764-67 and before eviction in 1941. Location - Engels, Saratov region. Units of storage (for 2010): 1080 funds, including 223433 cases, together with the fund of a photographic deposit - 225445 cases.

It was created on August 20, 1923 in Pokrovsk (since 1931 - Engels) as the archival bureau of the Region of the Germans of the Volga region, which in January 1924 was reorganized into the Central Archive Administration of the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of the Volga Germans. Since October 13, 1941 - Engels branch of the State Archives of the Saratov region. Since 2005 - the State Historical Archive of the Germans of the Volga region. 

The first head of the archive - M.F. Piskunov, a graduate of the Kharkov University, previously worked in the Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Justice and the Main Military Staff to compile the history of the Don Army. The first time the archive was located in the building of the Central Executive Committee of the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of Uzbekistan. Already in the first year of its validity, M.F. Piskunov collected about 57 thousand cases, which are documents of rural gatherings and volost boards of the territories that were inhabited by foreigners in the Manifesto of the Empress. Catherine II of 1762 and 1763.

Since February 1927 the head of the archive - I.P. Prince (an employee of the same archive). 

By 1930, under the archive was allocated a building of a bread barn built in 1902, located on the central square of Pokrovsk. After repeated reconstruction, the archive is located in the same building and up to the present. 

As of January 1, 1941, 1475 funds were concentrated in the archive for 320195 cases.

During the Great Patriotic War, the funds were evacuated to Perm. Re-evacuation was carried out from 1946. During the evacuation and re-evacuation, some of the cases were lost, some were damaged by moisture and mold. As a result of the division of the territory of the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (see the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of September 7, 1941) and the transfer of the southern regions of the republic to the Stalingrad region, since 1953 the funds of 7 cantons (Gmelin, Pallas, Staro-Poltava, Ilovatsky, Dobrinsky, Erlenbach and Fransky) on storage in the State Archives of the Volgograd Region (funds were transferred in 1950-56, over 350 funds were transferred for 17 thousand units of storage). 

In particular, documents of volost boards and village assemblies were given to GAVO Seewald, Neu-Dönhof, Kolb, Neu-Bauer, Joshepstal, Hussenbach, Dittel, and others; funds of enterprises and organizations of the Soviet period - kantispolkoms, Volispolkoms, village Soviets, military commissariats, trade unions, MTS, state farms and artels of cantons included in the Stalingrad region; documents of the period of the entry of the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic into the Lower Volga Region (1928-34). 

The foundations of the Party organizations of the cantons included in the Stalingrad Region were transferred to the Party Archive of the Stalingrad Region (now the Center for the Storage of Documents on the Recent History of the Volgograd Region). In addition, the documents of the churches of the villages of Walter, Hussenbach, Kraft, Kano, Markel, Stefan and others were transferred to the Kamyshinsky branch of the GAVO. Metric books were transferred to the registrar offices, and a number of archival funds were transferred to the SASO (Office of Guardianship of Foreign Settlers for 1,096 cases).

After 1941 many years the archive was closed. The archive could not be mentioned and used by its funds until 1941. Access to them was open to researchers only in the early 1990s. 

For many years (1966-2006) the archive was headed by Honored Worker of Culture of the Russian Federation, Honorary Citizen of Engels, E.M. Erina. Since 2009, the director of the archive is I.N. Komarov, previously worked in the government of the Saratov region. 

Google translated .: The Germans of Russia. Encyclopedia. M., 1999, vol. 1, p. 80-81.