THE CONCEPTS OF "ARCHIVAL DOCUMENT" AND "ARCHIVE"

Archive document. Let's remember what is meant by the word document. A document is the result of fixing information about the objects of objective reality and about the mental activity of a person through writing, graphics, photography or other methods on any media. This definition is taken from the Dictionary of Modern Archival Terminology of Socialist Countries.

There are other interpretations of the concept of a document, for example, in GOST R 7.0.8-2013 "A document is information recorded on a carrier with details that allow it to be identified."The peculiarity of this interpretation of the concept is that in this case, a document is understood as a material object specially created for the transmission of information. 

For example, a white wall is not a document. But as soon as the inscription "Vasya was here" appears on it, this is already a document designed to carry the name of Vasya through the centuries. Historians know many cases when wall or even rock inscriptions have become a valuable source on the history of peoples' culture. An archival document is a valuable material carrier of information that is preserved or subject to preservation due to its significance for society or the owner. The whole question is for whom it is valuable: if for society as a whole as a monument of history, culture, scientific thought, then it is stored in a historical archive, if only for a person, then it is stored in a personal, family archive.

The word archive (from the Greek. archeion and Lat. arhivum) means a place of business. An archive is understood as a set of archival documents, as well as an archival institution or a structural subdivision of an institution, organization or enterprise that receives and stores archival documents in the interests of users.

In the archival literature, the term archive is used in different meanings. The words archive and archivist penetrated into the Russian language along with other foreign concepts and customs in the era of Peter I. In any case, they have been used in Russian legislation since the first quarter of the XVIII century, for example, in the General Regulations of 1720: "Books, documents, deeds committed by the registry, when they were in the office and in the office for three years, then they are given to the archivist in the archive with a receipt." In the XVIII century, the word archive (zh.r. – archive) meant both a collection of documents of a person, a kind, and a structural subdivision of an institution engaged in the storage of documents. In the first half of the XVIII century, special institutions storing "old files" began to be called archives. In the XIX century, the term archive began to be used to refer to publications of historical documents: "Prince Vorontsov Archive"; "Archive of Counts Mordvinov"; "Russian Archive". In addition, according to Dahl's dictionary, an archive was understood as a building, a room where documents are stored, i.e. an archive. In the Dictionary of Modern Archival Terminology of Socialist Countries, an attempt was made to do away with the ambiguity of the term archive. The archive was proposed to be considered only an institution or a structural unit that stores documents in order to use them optimally. The concept of archive was closely related to state storage. However, now the historically established ambiguity of the term archive is again enshrined in law.

Thus, in the modern interpretation, the archive is not only multi–storey storages with dozens of employees and kilometers of shelves. An archive can be called a modest pile of notes stored in your desk. Archives, depending on their functions and subordination, can be divided into two groups: state and departmental. State archives are institutions that collect, store and organize archival documents for the purpose of their comprehensive use. State archives keep the most valuable archival documents permanently (i.e. forever). The main task of the state archives is to serve historical science. Therefore, state archives are sometimes called historical. Departmental archives are structural divisions of institutions or departments that store documents of these departments and organize their use for information support of their work. The most valuable part of the archive documents after the expiration of the storage period in the department are transferred for permanent storage to the state archive.

All archival documents of the country form the Archival Fund of the Russian Federation.