… Belarus
- The Archives of Belarus-website contains information on central, regional and local state archives and institutions, plus their services.
- The National Archives of The Republic of Belarus (NARB) is the major archive institution in Belarus and holds documents, primarily for the years after 1917, of Belarusian state organs, the Communist Party of Soviet Belarus and associations like trade unions. [read more on our site]
- The National Historical Archives of Belarus (NHAB) holds
original documents and records of the National Documentary Fond of the Republic of Belarus over a period from the late 14th century to 1917.
… Bulgaria
- The National Archival Portal by the Archives State Agency of the Republic of Bulgaria provides a general overview of the country’s military and territorial archive departments.
… Croatia
- The Croatian State Archives keeps over 29,000 shelf meters or archival records, from 10th century till today, arranged in more than 2,150 archival fonds and collections. Fonds and collections contain the records created by the activity of central bodies of government administration and administration of justice, educational, cultural, health and military institutions, records created by distinguished individuals and families, and of Croatian immigrants.
… Czech Republic
- Czech Archival Society is a voluntary association of archivists, professors and students in Prague. They would be a great starting resource.
- Národní Archiv v Praze / National Archives is the central archive in Prague [read more on our site]
- Masarzk Institute and Archives of the CAS, v.v.i is another excellent archival center in Prague.
- The Czechoslovak Documentation Centre is a non-governmental research and documentation institution concerned with the history of the anti-totalitarian resistance in Czechoslovakia and abroad during the Communist era, 1948–89. [read more on our site]
- The Moravský zemský archiv v Brně / Moravian Provincial Archive in Brno holds documents of the Moravian land and municipal authorities from the Middle Ages to the present. [read more on our site]
- The Vědecká knihovna v Olomouci / Research Library in Olomouc holds a unique collection of historical prints, manuscripts, books, newspapers and maps. [read more on our site]
… Estonia
- Rahvusarhiiv National Archives provides an overview of services at their sites in Tallinn, Tartu, Rakvere and Valga.
… Germany
- Archiv des Instituts für deutsche Kultur und Geschichte Südosteuropas / Archive of the Institute for German Culture and History in Southeastern Europe documents the work of numerous writers, journalists and scientists from Central and Southeastern Europe, especially from Romania, Hungary and, of course, Germany. The archive’s focus is on the 20th and 21st century. [read more on our site]
- Archives of the International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen contains over 30 million documents with information on the fates of victims of Nazi persecution: incarceration, forced labour and post-war Allied assistance to Displaced Persons. [read more on our site]
… Hungary
- National Archives of Hungary in Budapest is an excellent online resource where you can explore huge collections, services, including tours, and download helpful documents listing their archives.
- Artpool Art Research Center is a unique archival center in Budapest specific to artistic activities [read more on our site]
- Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives is another special archival center that actively collects, preserves and offers documents relating to recent history and, particularly, human rights. [read more on our site]
… Kazakhstan
- The Central State Archives of the Republic of Kayakhstan is only available in Russian and Kazakh. It contains guides to holdings collections, archival history, publications, exhibits, news items and more.
… Latvia
- National Archives of Latvia website contains an overview of their fifteen state archives.
… Lithuania
- The Department of Archives in Lithuania website includes a search interface for their entire national database as well as important links to specific archive locations.
… Macedonia
- Macedonian State Archives is an extensive overview of its policies and procedures.
… Moldova
- Issuing information from the National Archives and from the Archives of the Social-Political Organizations of the Republic of Moldova. There is little information available online for the National Archives in the Republic of Moldova, but this state website can possibly answer questions. Additionally, there is an online pdf Guide of Archives in the Republic of Moldova (in Romanian) listing archives and services throughout the country.
… Poland
- The Head Office of the State Archives is a useful search tool for finding descriptions of all state archival materials.
- The National Archives in Krakow is one of the main archives in Poland [read more on our site]
- Digital Archives of National Commission of Solidarity Trade Union collects, develops, stores and publishes online archival materials of the Independent Self-governing Labour Union “Solidarity”, primarily from the 1976-1990 period. The original Archives are located at the National Commission of “Solidarity” head office and serve the purpose of documenting the social phenomenon of democratic opposition in Poland, in particular in the 1980s. Apart from documents, it holds audio and video recordings, photographs and other precious items. The Archives continuously add and digitise new, both private and institutional, collections from various parts of Poland. [read more on our site]
… Romania
- Arhivele Naționale ale României / The National Archives of Romania is an overview of the national archives and 42 regional branches, headquartered in Bucharest [read more on our site]
… Russia
- The Archives of Russia is an extensive portal and excellent starting point.
- The Russian State Historical Archive (RGIA) is the largest archive in Europe and one of the largest in the world, a priority for UNESCO [read more on our site]
- The State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF) stores documents that have been issued by the highest legislative, executive and judicial organs since about 1800, but it owns documents of other origins as well. Among them are personal archives (of emperors and empresses, other members of the dynasty, nobles, important bureaucrats) and sources about the history of the so-called White Movement and Emigration. GARF’s collection comprises not only documents but also various types of printed publications and audio-visual material. [read more on our site]
- The Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts (RGADA) houses the biggest collection of sources prior to 1800 in the Russian Federation. The oldest documents date from the 12th century, the youngest ones from the late 19th. [read more on our site]
- The Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences is an impressive archives containing Russian history of science and history of humanities since the 16th century, located both in Moscow [read more on our site] and St. Petersburg. [read more on our site]
- The Russian State Archive for Scientific-technical Documentation is another impressive archives containing materials on the history of science and technology, especially space activities, rockets, defense, scientific-technical complex etc. for the period from the 1930s to the present, also located in Moscow. [read more on our site]
- The Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI) holds material from three thematic fields: documents on the social and political history of Western Europe (17th – beginning of the 20th century), documents on the political and social history of Russia and the Soviet Union (end of the 19th – beginning of the 21st century) as well as documents on the history of the international socialist and communist labor movement (1860s – end of the 1980s). [read more on our site]
- The Государственный фонд кинофильмов Российской Федерации or Госфильмофонд России (ГФФ) / The Russian State Film Foundation or The Gosfil’mofond of Russia (GFF) is the largest film archive in Russia. It specializes in motion pictures, both Russian (including Soviet) and foreign, but its vast collection contains non-fiction films and newsreels as well. There is also a paper archive where film accompanying documents are kept. [read more on our site]
- Digital archive “Prozhito” collects and publishes diaries from a wide range of people from the 18th to the 21st century. The diaries are mostly in Russian and Ukrainian. The archive is managed by a group of volunteers who publish diaries from archives, online sources and personal diaries given to “Prozhito”. So far the archive contains over 2700 diaries. The website is available in Russian and English. All entries are in Russian or Ukrainian though. [read more on our site]
… Serbia
- The Serbian Archive Network lists the impressive number of archival centers available.
- The Archives of Yugoslavia is in charge of collecting, keeping, organizing, processing and making available for use archival holdings created in the work of institutions of the Yugoslav state (since its foundation in 1918 until its breakup in 2006) and some persons.
Its Photo Archive is dedicated to acknowledging Yugoslavia as a heritage through preservation [read more on our site]
… Slovakia
- The Ministry of the Interior of the Slovak Republic List of Archival Collections has a search interface and includes links to the various archival centers.
- The Czechoslovak Documentation Centre is a non-governmental research and documentation institution concerned with the history of the anti-totalitarian resistance in Czechoslovakia and abroad during the Communist era, 1948–89 [read more on our site]
… Slovenia
- The Republic of Slovenia Ministry of Culture Archives of the Reublic of Slovenia includes guides for all the archives in the country.
… Turkey
- T.C. Cumhurbaşkanlığı Devlet Arşivleri Başkanlığı – Cumhuriyet Arşivi / Turkish Presidency State Archives of the Republic of Turkey – Republic Archives has a department dedicated to the Ottoman Empire [read more on our site] and another dedicated to the Turkish Republic [read more on our site]
… Ukraine
- Archives of Ukraine is a basic website containing state, central and regional archive listings.
- The Sectoral State Archive of the Security Services of Ukraine (HDA SBU) in Kyiv holds rich materials from security and intelligence institutions in Ukraine from the Soviet times. [read more on our site]
- Digital archive “Prozhito” collects and publishes diaries from a wide range of people from the 18th to the 21st century. The diaries are mostly in Russian and Ukrainian. The archive is managed by a group of volunteers who publish diaries from archives, online sources and personal diaries given to “Prozhito”. So far the archive contains over 2700 diaries. The website is available in Russian and English. All entries are in Russian or Ukrainian though. [read more on our site]
… the United States of America
- Hoover Institution Library & Archives at Stanford University is dedicated to documenting war, revolution and peace in the 20th and 21st centuries [read more on our site]
- Squat Theatre Archives at UC Davis Library – Special Collections (Peter J. Shields Library) holds audio/visual materials, correspondence, ephemera, financial records, legal documents, photographs, programs, promotional materials and scripts, providing an extensive historical record of the expatriate Hungarian theatre troupe from the time of its inception in Budapest in 1969 to its activities in the avant-garde theatre scene in New York City during the 1980s [read more on our site]
… Other Online Archives
- USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive is an online portal that allows users to search through and view 55,000 audiovisual testimonies of survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides that have been catalogued and indexed at the Institute. These testimonies were conducted in 64 countries and in 42 languages [read more on our site]

Photo: Documents at the IPN HQ at 28 Towarowa Street in Warsaw – by Adrian Grycuk (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 pl], via Wikimedia Commons