Sieć archiwów państwowych w Polsce po 1989 roku
State Archive Network in Poland after 1989

Author(s): Hubert Mazur
Subject(s): 19th Century, Pre-WW I & WW I (1900 -1919), Interwar Period (1920 - 1939), WW II and following years (1940 - 1949), Post-War period (1950 - 1989), Transformation Period (1990 - 2010)
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: state archives; archival network
Summary/Abstract: The network of state archives in Poland started to form in 1919, although first historical archives in Polish lands had been established as early as the 19th century. The organisation of state archives in Poland after World War II was influenced by pertinent legislation, the strategy of increasing the density of the archival network, and administrative reforms introduced in the country. As a result, the turn of the 1960s saw the state archive network comprising the largest number of units in history. After 1989, the network of state archives did not undergo any major transformations. There were only sporadic cases of changing the names of some units. Several state archives lost their autonomous status and became branches, while other underwent the opposite changes. The most significant trend has been the liquidation of remote branches of state archives and their agencies, which has resulted in a gradual decrease in network density. Certain branches were dissolved due to financial hardships and resulting difficulty in securing premises to house them. A certain role was also played by staffing and organisational issues. The dissolution of remote branches was an attempt to improve the efficiency of the management of archives in economic, spatial, and personal terms. Following the liquidation of remote branches and agencies, their archival resources were transferred and assembled in a single place. For the local communities of towns and counties, this resulted in limited access to archival materials. There were some attempts to combat the trend of remote archive branches closing down, taken by local municipal governments, regional bodies of state administration, deputies to the Sejm, media, and cultural and scientific organisations. Unfortunately, the state archive network in the Third Republic of Poland was not developed according to a conscious, planned, and consistent strategy of the Chief Directors of State Archives or in line with any well-thought-out conceptual framework. The state archive network in Poland has been effectively shaped exclusively by the ongoing economic and spatial conditions of these institutions.

• Details
• Contents