Acquisition, registration, storage and use of documents in the zemstvos archives

The paper considers the history of formation and the main directions of the provincial archives' activities of the second half of XIX - early XX centuries; the role of the archives in preservation of documentary heritage of the Rus­sian Zemstvos and popularization of historical study of regions in pre-revolutionary period. The author analyzes the formation of documentary archives of the Zemstvos, established rules of reception, storage, disposal and use of ar­chival documents of local self-government, material and technical conditions of the provincial archives' functioning, wages of archivists and the activities of the heads of departments. The documents of the institutions of local self-government have been perfectly preserved due to the fact that they were intended for publication and dissemination just at creation time. Furthermore, the participation of the Zemstvo archivists in the work of archival commissions, publications of collections of papers, their careful attitude to the archives improved the archive work in Russia in general. The archives of the Zemstvo self-government became the basis for the development of local museums and societies of the researchers of regional history.