The Russian State Documentary Film & Photo Archive

About

The Russian State Documentary Film and Photo Archive (RGAKFD), also known as the Krasnogorsk Archive, was founded in 1926 in accordance with the decrees of the Soviet government, which transferred the production, accounting and use of film and photographic materials to the state, as the whole industry was nationalized.

Construction began in 1928 in Moscow on the territory of the former Lefortovo estate, the "Moscow Versailles". In 1934, the Central Photo and Film Archive, as it was then called, was merged with the Central Sound Archive to form the Central Photo, Phono, and Film Archive (CPPFA). In 1953, the archive moved to another building in the city of Krasnogorsk near Moscow, where it is located today. In 1992 it was renamed the Russian State Documentary Film and Photo Archive.

The modern RGAKFD has a very progressive preservation plan. The vast collection of materials is stored in a humidity and temperature-controlled environment. Preventive treatment and restoration of many materials has been carried out. The 52,000 nitrate films have already been duplicated and preservation work continues to this day.

Photography

An extensive collection of more than 1 million photographs and negatives in the vaults of the archive documents events from more than a century ago to the present. Many early photographs are arranged in large albums by subject. These include the unique 300 personal albums of the Russian monarchs. Although mostly documentary in nature, the archive also includes the work of many famous Russian still photographers.

Early photographs include the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, urban and rural landscapes, portraits of military officers, and the personal lives of the tsar's family. The events of the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, World War I, and the Civil War of 1918-1921. More than 85,000 photographs document the Soviet-German front during World War II. Soviet leaders, economic initiatives, and propaganda in the postwar USSR are also represented in the archive.

Audio

Within the structure of RGAKFD operates the Russian State Archive of Sound Documents, founded in 1932, which is the largest collection of sound documents in Russia.

More than 220,000 storage units contain events of Russian and world history, works of literature and art of all genres and trends from the time of the invention of sound recording at the end of the 19th century to the present. All existing sound carriers, from the first prototypes to gramophone records, magnetic tapes and the most modern laser disks, are represented in the holdings of the archive.