Touches to the History of the Bulgarian Archives in the Totalitarian Period (According to Data from Special File No. 6431/87)

Abstract

The study presents newly discovered documentary evidence about the history and organization of the Bulgarian archives during the totalitarian period. The object of the study is special file No. 6431/87 of the Main Directorate of Archives at the Council of Ministers of the People's Republic of Bulgaria, currently stored in the Аrchive of the Committee for Disclosing the Documents and Announcing Affiliation of Bulgarian Citizens to the State Security and the Intelligence Services of the Bulgarian National Army. The documents contained in the case have been analyzed and presented in a source-oriented aspect, namely: the guiding materials (part I), the operational materials (part II) and the informational and other materials (parts III and IV). The mentioned documentary information supplements, to a certain extent, the information about the processes of integrating the state archives into the institutional structure of the totalitarian state. More specifically, according to data from the special file, the questions about: the status, tasks and functions of the security and regime officer in the Main Directorate of Archives are affected; the protection of the state and official secret in the state archives; the acquisition of personal papers in a archive, and the seizure of archival documents kept by citizens; the access of foreigners to archival documents; the search for Bulgarian documents abroad; the ideologization and politicization of archives, etc.