Challenges of Wartime: The Work of the Central State Archive of Science and Technology (TsDNTA) of Ukraine during the Russian Invasion

Abstract

The article focuses on the activities of the Central State Archive of Science and Technology (TsDNTA) of Ukraine from the start of the full-scale Russian invasion on February 24, 2022 and until October 2022. The author gives an overview of the types of scientific and technical documentation and composition and contents of the archive’s holdings and considers the principal areas of the archive’s work, aimed at enriching the National Archive Fund with socially valuable materials, ensuring the preservation of documents, popularizing archival resources, and promoting their wider use. Particular attention is paid to important cooperation with legal entities that serve as key sources of documentation for the National Archive Fund, as well as to the provision of practical and methodological assistance to employees of state archival institutions. Implementing the Strategy for the Development of Archives until 2025 and maintaining the priority of ensuring unhindered access to information and satisfying people’s information needs by providing equal access to archival resources, the TsDNTA of Ukraine elicits feedback from users, services requests, issues electronic copies of documents, offers online consultations, etc. Despite the difficult wartime conditions and remote work, the archivists of the TsDNTA of Ukraine continue to pursue large-scale undertakings launched earlier, particularly the creation of a search system for the electronic identification of objects of preservation (TOPAZ) and development of a comprehensive 3D tour of all the premises of the archive. These endeavors not only significantly expand the nomenclature of remote services the archive provides, but also have given rise to new projects introducing innovative technologies into archival work, in particular the development of an object-geographical catalog integrated into an interactive map. These measures are aimed at adapting the TsDNTA of Ukraine to wartime conditions and preserving the country’s scientific and cultural heritage. Since the Russian armed aggression is still ongoing and archival institutions are functioning under the constant threat of destruction and seizure by the invaders, the article is far from the last word in the study of the efforts by the archivists of the TsDNTA of Ukraine to safeguard the nation’s cultural treasures. The subject has a lot of potential for further research.