Development, Formation and Organization of the Archives of the Kyiv Metropolis as Part of Documentary and Informational Resources

The purpose of the article is to reveal the process of formation of document and information resources of the Kyiv Metropolis of the Synodal period (1721–1917), which are currently part of the system of archives in Ukraine, to consider the state of archives at different times of their existence and the influence of the existing state-political regime on it. The methodology of the research is the principles of logic and objectivity. And at the same time, the author applied the comparative method, as well as the method of generalization classification, structural and functional analysis, statistical and historical-comparative methods. The article draws attention to the specifics and peculiarities of the formation of archives of the Kyiv Metropolis, the influence of state authorities on this process, and attempts to improve the system of their preservation and improvement. At the same time, the archives performed various functions — political, informational, etc. The inconsistency of the arrangement of the archives is noted. The state of the archives was also affected by the political situation. Some of the archives were destroyed during the change of political power. However, the seizure of archives during the Soviet period, an attack on church structures, also created the possibility of their preservation. If in the imperial period the functioning of the archives depended primarily on the founders themselves, later it depended exclusively on the organization of the state archival service. The perspective direction of further scientific research in the specified issue is outlined. The scientific novelty consists in an attempt to comprehensively consider the development, formation and organization of the archives of the Kyiv Metropolis. It was concluded that the development, formation and organization of the archives of the Kyiv Metropolis took place in two main stages. At the first stage, during the existence of this church structure itself, archives were accumulated and formed within the framework of individual institutions within it. During this period, certain rules were developed regarding the maintenance of archives, but they did not have a systematic nature. Similarly, there was no practical component in the supervision of the condition of the archives, their maintenance and improvement. In the second stage, which began after the fall of the Russian Empire and the beginning of the process of separation of the church from the state, and then with the liquidation of church structures, the metropolitan archives became part of the new archival system. However, in the Soviet period, they were not widely available and were practically not studied. The search for documents and the analysis of information regarding the organization of the church archives of the Kyiv Metropolis and their preservation under the conditions of the functioning of various political systems can be considered a promising point of research in the outlined direction.