Fonds RU-AVPRI/161 - Saint Petersburg Main Archive

Identity area

Reference code

RU-AVPRI/161

Title

Saint Petersburg Main Archive

Date(s)

  • 1800-01-01-1905-12-31 (Creation)

Level of description

Fonds

Extent and medium

Global extent: 91 686 units; 18 selected and described items from 4 files

Context area

Name of creator

(1819-1917)

Administrative history

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs included three departments. The Asian Department was the only one created on a geographical basis. It focused on the Oriental Russian policy, on the Russian subjects business in the East, and on the training of translators and dragomans for Russian missions in the area. The Asian Department (renamed after the First Department in 1897) consisted in two sections: the Far East and the Middle East. In the Middle Eastern section, an office called the Political Table was in charge of enciphering and deciphering telegrams, and also the Slavic, Greek, and Turkish Tables (later, the Persian, and other tables were formed. At each table worked two or three persons.
The ministry supervised the activity of Russian presence in the world, among them the Russian Embassy in Constantinople and the Russian Consulate in Jerusalem (founded in 1858).
Until the Crimean War, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem was taking care of the Russian pilgrims in accordance with Russian authorities. In exchange, the Russian Embassy in Constantinople provided diplomatic and political support for the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem. In fact, since 1820, the only Russian diplomatic mission in Palestine had been the vice-consulate in Jaffa. From 1838, Jerusalem was under the jurisdiction of the Russian Consulate General in Beirut, which was responsible for the entire Palestine. In 1847, Saint Petersburg sent to the Holy City the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission (REM) to control Russian pilgrims, and to become a direct channel of ecclesiastic communication between the Russian Synod and the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem. The REM suspended its activities during the Crimean war; and, in 1857, it revived under the guidance of Bishop Cyril Naumov (1857-1863) who replaced Archimandrite Porphyry Ouspensky (1847-1854).
The objective of the REM under Bishop Cyril, according to a project of the minister of foreign affairs Alexander Mikhailovich Gorchakov (1856-1882), was to serve Russia’s ecclesiastic and diplomatic interests in Palestine, which, in practice, meant that the mission had a political role to play. Since there was still no consulate in Jerusalem, Bishop Cyril was receiving instructions and tasks from three different sources: a) the Minister of Foreign Affairs, b) the Director of the Asian Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and c) the Russian Ambassador in Constantinople. The head of the REM was sending his reports to these three different structures, whereas the Consul General in Beirut was instructed to provide him regular support and assistance. The mission, as an ecclesiastic institution, was subordinate to the Synod of the Russian Church, but, from 1857 till 1862, it was under the control of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

During the nineteenth century, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs held three different archives: the St Petersburg Main Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the State Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Saint Petersburg, and also the Moscow Main Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MGAMID). In the oldest Moscow Archive (it was founded on the base of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs in 1724) the main documents on the Russian history till the early-nineteenth century were kept; later, the collections passed to the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts (RGADA). In the Saint Petersburg State archive (also called the State Archive of the Russian Empire, founded from documents of non-diplomatic character on the base of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1834), they kept materials on the tsar family, notorious criminal trials, industry, culture, and history of peoples of Russia. In 1864, the State Archive of the Russian Empire was united with the Saint Petersburg Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; later, its collections passed to the RGADA.
But the main documents on the current activity of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including those on the activity of the Consulate in Jerusalem, were kept in the Saint Petersburg Main Archive, materials of which passed to the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire. Its collections were shaped according the principle of the provenance of documents, and their topics.

Archival history

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Content and structure area

Scope and content

This is a huge fonds, including more than 90000 units and described by 173 inventories. A number of sections deal with Republic of Turkey and Near East, including topics such as trade, archaeology, water supply and sewer system.

The fonds contains materials of the former State Main, and of St. Petersburg Main Archives : the gathered documents result from the activity of structural institutions of the central apparatus of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs, and of consular and diplomatic offices abroad; most part of them date back to 1800-1885.
The collection is divided into five artificial ranks, which are divided into families. Documents are then organised according topics.
In the first rank (a significant part of it is closed for researchers) a great number of documents are connected with Jerusalem, including:
I-1 catalogue 12. All-respectful reports on the affairs in Turkey, Greece, Egypt, Serbia (1822-1879).
I-1 catalogue 19. Highly confirmed projects of messages on issues in the Middle East (1816-1855).
I-9 catalogue 8. Materials on commissioning diplomatic envoys (in Turkey, as well), information on the events in Turkey, materials on the clergy, and ecclesiastic affairs. Notes, and memos. Materials on construction of the railways, and telegraph (1774-1905).
I-10 catalogue 28. Printed copies of agreements, conventions, treaties (especially with Turkey).
Many documents on Palestine are kept in the Second Rank (1763-1900), including:
II-3 catalogue 34. Russian trade exchanges with countries of the Middle East, reports of consulates, and the general situation in the consulates (1783-1869).
II-3 catalogue 35. Russian trade exchanges with countries of the Middle East, reports of consulates, and the general situation in the consulates (1869-1896).
II-9 catalogue 46. Spiritual affairs, monastic properties, Russian pilgrims in Palestine.
II-9 catalogue 83. Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem.
II-10 catalogue 49. Trip of Prof. Pomialovsky to Palestine (1864-1891).
IV-10 catalogue 129. Private messages of administrator of the Consulate in Jerusalem, on the situation in Jerusalem (1801-1879).
IV-16 catalogue 134. On the protection of rights of Orthodox clergy at the East by the Russian government.
IV-18 catalogue 137. A project of arranging the water-supply system in Jerusalem.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling

Accruals

The fonds is closed.

System of arrangement

Conditions of access and use area

Conditions governing access

Subject to the authorization of the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire (AVPRI), Moscow.
A significant part of First Rank documents are not available to researchers.

Conditions governing reproduction

Language of material

    Script of material

      Language and script notes

      Physical characteristics and technical requirements

      Finding aids

      This fonds is described into 173 catalogues. The 4 items selected have been picked up from inventory n°46 (1840), inventory n°46 (1857), inventory n°129 and inventory n°119 (1858).
      Sometimes, there is no details available for dates or the number of units in series..

      Allied materials area

      Existence and location of originals

      Existence and location of copies

      Related units of description

      Notes area

      Alternative identifier(s)

      Access points

      Subject access points

      Place access points

      Name access points

      Genre access points

      Description control area

      Description identifier

      Institution identifier

      Rules and/or conventions used

      ISAD(G), Second Edition, Ottawa 2000.

      Status

      Level of detail

      Dates of creation revision deletion

      Catalogue prepared on December 2016

      Language(s)

        Script(s)

          Sources

          Cyril Vakh, Irina Mironenko-Marenkova, “An Institution, Its People and Its Documents: The Russian Consulate in Jerusalem through the Foreign Policy Archive of the Russian Empire (1858-1914)”, in XXXX, forthcoming.

          Archivist's note

          Inventory of 18 items from the Saint Petersburg Main Archive (fonds n°161 - 1858-1870) held by the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire (AVPRI), Moscow, made by Irina Mironenko-Marenkova and Kirill Vakh, 2016.

          Accession area