Архивное дело в Азербайджанской Республике: этап модернизации. 1999–2021 гг.

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the development of archiving in Azerbaijan in the period after the adoption in 1999 of the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan "On the National Archival Fund,” which marked the transition to a consistent renewal of the state policy of Azerbaijan in the archival sphere, and up to the present. The purpose of the article is to review the most important aspects of archival construction in modern Azerbaijan, including the modernization of the regulatory base and material and technical base for the work of archives, increasing their importance in the system of public administration and social development. The authors note that, having gone through a difficult initial stage of reforms in the 1990s, the archival system of the Republic of Azerbaijan has retained its institutional structure that had developed during the Soviet period and the basis of qualified archivists personnel. The 1999 law created a legal platform for organizing orderly acquisition, accounting, storage, and use of documents of the National Archival Fund of Azerbaijan, and also served as an incentive to update the scientific and methodological foundations of archiving. The Decree of the first President of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev "On the improvement of archives in the Republic of Azerbaijan" issued in 2002 confirmed the intension of the leadership of Azerbaijan to increase the role of the archival service in the system of state institutions and public life of the country, which was reflected in a number of practical measures highlighted in the article. Among the achievements of archival construction in Azerbaijan in the 21st century are expansion and modernization of storage facilities, transition to planned acquisition, introduction of electronic forms of accounting and of scientific reference apparatus. Currently, Azerbaijan is implementing the “State Program for the Development of Archival Work in the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2020-2025,” which involves further modernization of regulatory and technological foundations of archiving, including digitization of the NAF, as well increasing the archives’ role in the scientific and cultural life of the country. The data of the sources allows us to conclude that archiving in Azerbaijan in the 21st century is going through a successful stage of modernization. The archival service of Azerbaijan has the potential to effectively resolve current problems existing in the industry: need for new premises and to replenish the state archives with personnel with special archival education, etc. The paper provides information on the development of archiving and the training of archivists in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan in the 2010s.