The twentieth century in history turned out to be rich in wars and tragic events. This sad fate and documentary materials did not pass.
A huge amount of documents was lost forever.
It should be noted several periods in the history of the twentieth century, when the destruction of documents was massive.
- The first stage – occurred after the revolution of 1917.
- The second stage – the mass destruction of documents occurred during the Second World War.
In this regard, we can quote part of the letter of the Zolotonosha District Council dated August 1, 1942, which reads as follows: “In order to deprive citizens of the opportunity to prove their personal and property rights, the Bolsheviks destroyed all documents and archives, including backyard and family books in the villages…”
Destruction of documents can be classified into several types:
- Deliberate destruction of documents in order to conceal certain types of crimes or in order to destroy evidence of property rights or historical facts.
- Negligent handling of documents – took place throughout Soviet history, often documents in unsuitable storage rooms simply became unusable due to severe dampness, fires or spoiled by rodents or insects were written off with the wording “cannot be restored”.
- Shortage of paper – very often documents and certificates of the first post-war years due to the lack of blank sheets of paper were written on the back of older documents, while the latter were cut into pieces.
- Regulatory factor – according to the rules of document management, some types of documents have a limited storage period, such as personnel documents (under current law, the storage period is 75 years from the date the document was created) of organizations and enterprises.
And yet, some documents have survived to the present day – of course, this is a drop in the bucket, compared with what could have been preserved, but these materials need protection. Unfortunately, the state turns its attention to archives only at a time when it is already too late.
Source: beket.com.ua
Good luck in finding.
