1921
5 February – With the decision of Military-Revolutionary committee People’s Commissariat of enlightenment of ASSR was ordered to reorganize the net of cultural-educational institutions of Echmiadzin (matenadaran, museum, printing house, etc) and to found a scientific cultural-historical institute in Echmiadzin.
8 June -The ASSR People’s Council decided to found museum of the Armenian revolution attached to People’s Commissariat of enlightening which would be responsible for the rescue of memoirs of Revolutionary movements and turn them into a means of Revolutionary education of the masses. According to the 2nd article of the decision the museum was to collect and concentrate not only memoirs and documents concerning the history of the Armenian people within the republic (and outside its borders) but also Revolutionary brochures, books, periodicals, appeals, fleetings, as well as unpublished works, letters, records of meetings and congresses, formulae etc, which, in this or that way, refer to Revolutionary movements, parties, different public currents and political persons connected with them in Armenia.
All the soviet institutions and organizations as well as private persons had to hand to the museum archive documents and exhibits of historical and museum value.
1922
7 January – The governmental circular was published in the newspaper ‘’Soviet Armenia’’ which strictly forbade illegal destruction of archive materials. The periodical informed all the institutions of the republic that with the decision of presidency of ASSR People’s Council all the archive materials were handed to People’s Commissariat of enlightening and that nobody had the right to express self-willed approach to the archives without the knowledge of the last.
6 March – President of People’s Council of Armenia A. Myasnikyan signed the mandate of People’s Commissar P. Makintsyan where all the institutions of SFSRR were asked to assist in all possible ways and in a short period of time to transfer to Yerevan archive documents and museum articles which belonged to Soviet Armenia.
22 December – Archive department manager of the ASSR state museum Kh. Sargsyan mentioned in his report that the archive department should be given such rights and obligations like those of main board of archive keeping of Soviet Russia. Being well-informed of clauses of SFSRR order concerning archive keeping, Kh. Sargsyan also planned the project of legislative act of Armenian archives.
The following are the main points:
1. All the archives of state institutions are abolished and documents and dossiers maintained there are handed to the newly founded central archive fund.
2. Archive fund remains in the structure of state museum of Armenia, as one of its components.
3. State institutions are obliged to hand in a month those dossiers and business correspondence of the archive fund which were completed by 2 December, 1920.
4. All the dossiers and business correspondence which now take place in state institutions remain there for 5 years and afterwards all the complete dossiers are handed to archive fund.
5. State institutions have no right to destroy any dossier, business correspondence or a separate paper.
1923
26 September – Chair of the ASSR Central executive committee decided to found the state central archive (Archives) attached to the Central executive committee.
The elected committee – Ashot Hovhannisyan (chairman), Askanaz Mravyan and Artashes Karinyan – were to develop the state central archive legislation and to present for the chair approval within a week.
1924
21 February – With the decision of the ASSR Central executive committee the ASSR state central archive legislation was published. Due to its first paragraph all the archive of institutions in the republic formed the ASSR central archive (Archives) which submitted to the competence of the ASSR Central executive committee. Documents under the maintenance of institutions and legal or natural persons formed the united state archive fund which, according to its contents, was separated into a) political, b) economic, c) judicial, d) historical – cultural and e) military sections.
Thereupon, the legislation defined that the manager of central archive was to be assigned by the Chair of the Central executive committee which also governed the current business correspondence of state institutions, apart from archives.
The board of state central archive was given the right of developing the legislations, rules, instructions of scientific and to present for the Central executive committee approval.
According to the legislation, each popular commissariat or institution was to have its own archive. Their documents were to be handed to the state central archive submitted to the competence of the Central executive committee.
17 March – With the order of secretary ship of the ASSR Central executive Committee, manager of the ASSR central state archive was assigned Prof. Khachik Samvelyan.
24 March – The ASSR Central executive committee applied to all regional executive committees with a special circular in order to send the state central archive information about the existence and state of archives of the former tsarist and RA governing local bodies.
22 April – Chair of the ASSR Central executive committee decided to pass N1 block of flats in Alaverdyan Street, Yerevan, to the central state archive, vacating a part of the block from the dwellers.
1 October – The official opening of the ASSR state central archive based on only four archive funds.
6 December – Chair of the ASSR Central executive committee, with the object of organizing the supplementation of state archive documents, decided:
a) to take measures to discover archive funds in the ASSR territory and to concentrate them in the state central archive.
b) to find it necessary to send one co-worker of state archive to Tiflis for 15 days to clear up the materials concerning the ASSR Record office.
c) to collect information concerning the ASSR Record office materials by written inquiries in the ASSR other regions.
1925
April – Instruction of archives of state institutions compiled by the ASSR Central state archive was delivered to all important institutions with the permission of the ASSR Central executive committee chair.
Provisional rules of order of current business correspondence about archive keeping were developed which were sent to the regional executive committees, People’s Commissariats, and institutions, after being affirmed by the Chair of the ASSR Central executive committees.
1926
8 December – The ASSR state central archive applied to all regional executive committees of the republic with a special circular – inquiry, with the object of institutions archive registration. The circular inquiry was to be filled in and returned to the state archive.
1928
25 December – The ASSR central executive committee adopted the decision of collecting archive paper waste. On the same day the ASSR state central archive developed the ‘’Instruction of archive dossiers filtration and paper waste’’ and delivered it to all important institutions and organizations of the republic.
1929
16 March – The Chair of the ASSR Central executive committee and the Council of People’s Commissars affirmed the new legislation of state central archive of Armenia.
According to the new legislation, in the contents of the ASSR united state archive fund there were archive materials of all the state, social, cooperative, handicraft, trade-productive institutions of pre-soviet period. It was mentioned for the first time that without the permission of the state central archive it was forbidden to take archive materials out of the borders of the republic. The 7th paragraph of the new legislation stressed that ‘’natural persons were obliged to file the manuscript material collections of cultural-historical or political character they owned, to the state central archive and that they were responsible for the safety and inviolability of those materials’’. Thereupon, natural persons were requested to hand their own archive materials of different state-social institutions to the state maintenance.
Institutions and organizations were obliged to maintain their archive materials for 5 years under control of a special official very carefully and in an inviolable state before handing them to state archive.
The institutions and organizations were strictly forbidden to destroy their documents of no scientific and business sense without the permission of archive bodies.
The 10th paragraph of the legislation again announced that ‘’people who violate the rules defined by the legislation will be held to answer according to the criminal code.
In the following paragraphs of the legislation the problems and rights of the state central archive which hadn’t been clearly explained in the previous legislation were listed.
10 April – The USSR Central executive committee and Council of People’s commissariat decided to found the USSR central archive board.
24 June – Central executive committee of Transcaucasian Federation adopted a decision of organizing an archive council of Transcaucasian Federation attached to the Transcaucasian central executive committee, with the management of a special attorney of Transcaucasian central executive committee – S. Sef. The personnel were central archive managers of Transcaucasian republics and a representative of Transcaucasian state civil board.
25 November – The ASSR state planning committee chair decided to affirm the five – year long-term plan of the state central archive and file it for the ASSR Central executive committee affirmation.
1930
15 July – The ASSR state central archive manager Kh. Samvelyan raised a question before the ASSR central executive committee chair of creating a state archive publication and of publishing a chronicler entitled ‘’Red Archive’’. There was written: ‘’We consider of great importance the publication of historical and political valuable documents as well as their interpretations. Doing this we shall have accomplished one of the problems of state central archive on one hand (see point ‘’D’’ of Paragraph 12 of our legislation) and on the other hand we shall be able to assist the scientific studying of archive materials.
19 July – The ASSR state university asked the ASSR central state archive administration to urgently compile 1 year plan of archive keeping courses with the aim of adding archive keeping courses in pedagogical institute in the academic year of 1930/31.
30 July – Manager of the state central archive filed to the pedagogical institute plan of archive teaching with attached explanations.
1 September – ASSR Central executive committee obliged the regional executive committees of the republic to liquidate regional central institutions and to hand to state archive documents of abolished regional executive committees connected with passing to a new regional system and of other central bodies. According to that circular the regional executive committees were to maintain their archive materials. Archives of village councils would also be concentrated in regional state archives but for units of business sense, after being maintained in village councils for one year.
The regional executive committees were offered to dispose their archives with special dry and light rooms, safe from robberies, fire and other dangers, which would be under control of a co-worker assigned by the regional executive committee office.
8 November – Productive discussion of state central archive decided to separate funds concentrated in the archive into 2 main sections-historical-cultural (pre-Revolutionary) and of October Revolution (post-Revolutionary).
1931
January – In his report in 1930 manager of state central archive Kh. Samvelyan demanded the definition of archive workers staff in all important institutions, without which archive documents were lost. According to his report in all state institutions positions of archivists didn’t exist any more and there was such staff only in people’s commissariat, in Yerevan and Leninakan municipal council executive committees.
1 October – Manager of the state central archive was assigned Levon Yaghubyan and prof. Kh. Samvelyan was assigned as assistant manager.
24 October – The ASSR Central executive committee Chair adopted a decision about the state archive situation. It stated that there were a number of shortcomings in the archive keeping of Armenia. For instance, there are no organized archives in regions; the state central archive has no qualified archivists which is the reason of unsatisfactory results of scientific-technical development of archive fonts, creation of scientific-informational apparatus, work of documents collection and usage. Taking into consideration the importance of document materials of the republic for socialistic construction and historical science, the Central executive committee Chair decided to organize courses with the aim of preparing archive personnel, to send two archivists to the institute of archive keeping attached to the USSR archive board, for education. With that decision the ASSR state central archive was reorganized into the ASSR central archive board. The decision proposed to take measures to regulate document materials of people’s commissariats as well as of institutions, cooperative unions in the center and in regions, to organize regional archives for receipt of archive materials of local institutions. The ASSR People’s Commissariat of Finance was to dispose money to improve the state of archives, to get new staff. Managers of central institutions were offered to restore the staff of archive managers, to stop the parallelism of archive funds maintenance in different museums, public libraries and elsewhere, concentrating their document materials in central state archive. The attention of procurator’s bodies was drawn on the necessity of calling to criminal responsibility those who violate the archive legislation. In the decision there were special points of receipt of documents of Echmiadzin patriarchate archives of pre-soviet period, documents of non-permanent maintenance expert examination, of separated waste paper filing to the plant. Besides, the state archive was supplemented with 3 new co-workers. One of subdivisions of the decision was entitled ‘’About the Building of State Archive’’ where the unsuitability of the building was mentioned. It was found necessary to build a new building suitable of archive demands. For its construction in 1932 credits were to be added to checking numbers of the budget.
1932
23 April – With the ASSR central executive committee and Council of People’s commissars decision the legislation of the ASSR central archive board was affirmed. The central archive board role and meaning in the work of governing apparatus of the republic was clearly defined, its objects, rights and obligations were drawn, developing ways and boundaries of archive keeping were outlined.
1 June – Junior government of the ASSR Central executive committee decided to organize consequent archive bureaus in municipal and regional councils of the republic, according to the new legislation of the board, and to organize archive departments with the rights of structural subdivisions in most important institutions.
The Central archive board was ordered to urgently publish the instruction of organizing the archive business and to deliver it to archive bureaus and departments administrations. Regional executive committees were proposed to urgently start the organization of expenses.
1 July – In view of affirmation of the ASSR archive board legislation and according to the order of the ASSR state central archive ‘’State central archive was renamed into’’ The ASSR central archive board.
21 October – The management of the ASSR Central executive committee decided to found a library of history and archive keeping which would include the problems of history, culture, economics and related problems of Armenia, the Armenian life, Transcaucasus, Russia and Near Eastern countries. According to that decision, the library was to have an inquiry department of archive keeping for encyclopedic, annalistic, dictionary inquiries and other publications of the same contents. The typing house was proposed to provide the organizing library of state archive of Armenia with periodical and non-periodical editions which were published or were still being published in Armenia. At the same time the People’s Commissariat of enlightening was assigned the task of ordering the Public, Echmiadzin scientific and Yerevan pedagogical institute libraries boards to straight and free of charge file the supplementary copies of editions present in their libraries to the central archive board.
1933
3 February – The first meeting of the ASSR central archive board scientific – workers. Problems of archive materials development and publishing were discussed. It was decided to prepare the 1st edition of ‘’Red Archive’’ for publication.
15 February – Director of the ASSR central archive board and state central archive Levon Yaghublyan was relieved of his post connected with his assignment to another position.
16 February – Director of central archive board and state central archive was assigned Suren Markosyan.
20 October – With the order of the ASSR central archive board the reconstruction of archive business look place. Administrative (chief-S. Markosyan), archive – technical (M. Shaldzyan) sectors, sectors of systematization and thematic (Kh. Samvelyan) and research sectors were created.
- Archive council of central archive board was created which included Morus Hasratyan from cultural-historical institute, Karo Ghazaryan from the institute of Marxism-Leninism, Hovhannes Petrosyan from state-planning, N. Mamulyan from People’s commissariat of village workers board, Garnik Gazaryan from People’s Commissariat of enlightening and archivists Suren Markosyan, Khachik Samvelyan, Vardan Parsamyan, and Grigor Chubar.
1934
15 February – The ASSR central executive committee chair adopted decision of village councils archives regulation as well as of the process of regional archive bureau creation.
The decision proposed all the regional executive committees to oblige village councils to take measures to regulate village councils archives with the personal responsibility of the managers, to organize archive bureaus attached to regional executive committees (in case there were no such bureaus before), disposing technical conveniences and financial means to regulate document materials. The central archive board and regional executive committees were proposed to strengthen mutual connection and with agreed upon arrangements provide archive documents regulation in regional centers and village councils.
July – The ASSR central archive board consisted of the state archive – historical (111 funds) and October Revolutionary (170 funds) departments, trade union central archive (9 funds), Yerevan municipal archive bureau (195 departmental archives), Leninakan municipal archive bureau (365 departmental archives), Echmiadzin historical archive (materials of spiritual meetings and of Patriarch's office), 26 regional archive bureaus.
1935
1 August – With the ASSR central executive committee decision Suren Markosyan was relieved from his post of central archive board manager. Board manager was assigned Karapet Stepanyan who remained in that position until 1951.
12 September – Instead of the ASSR central state archive 3 departments a) archival-technical, b) scientific-thematic, c) scientific-publishing, were created archives of October revolution and Historical archive. In October Revolutionary archive there were 188 funds with 93.000 maintenance units, and in historical archive there were 119 funds with 62.500 maintenance units. Out of 307 funds, 144 funds were regulated with 62.488 maintenance units (40%).
In scientific –informative libraries there were 3162 volumes of books and 1782agazines.
19 November – The ASSR central executive committee heard the question of ''Central state archive business'' and decided to enlarge its building, prevent the fluidity of archive managers in regions and central institutions, strengthen control over archives, calling to criminal responsibility those who would violate the safety of archive documents maintenance.
1936
10 November - In order to improve the regional archives, for the first time in Yerevan 15-days courses for archive managers were organized. During the classes the meanings of archives, managers’ obligations, schedules of archive documents regulation and maintenance were explained.
1937
15 August – The ASSR state central archive handed 166 fragments of church books to the public library of the republic.
1938
7 August – With the example of the USSR Supreme council the ASSR supreme council decided to put the central archive board and state central archives under the disposal of the ASSR People's commissariat of Internal affairs. The archive board was renamed into archive department, being one of structural subdivisions of the ASSR People's commissariat of internal affairs. The department was given the functions of supplementation registration of the state archive fund documents, organization of scientific-technical work development, management of central, municipal and regional state archive functions, choice and control of materials subject or not subject to maintenance in state and departmental archives, serving of those materials to the construction of new social system and other functions of archive construction.
September-December – The ASSR state central archive, with the aim of separating the October Revolutionary and historical archives into 2 independent units, passed a check up of 244 funds presence and state. Many fund makers names were cleared out, starting dates, funds contents as well as new funds (8) were discovered.
It turned out that the October Revolutionary archive owned 243 funds with 121.838 maintenance units and the historical archive owned 129 funds with 63.410 maintenance units.
1940
September – The order of archive works of the USSR People's commissariats institutions and organizations was translated from Russian into Armenian and was published (1500 editions).
The order was delivered to all the ASSR People's commissariats, central and local institutions and state regional archives.
1941
4 March – With the order of the ASSR People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs, scientific worker of archive department Harutyun Karapetyan was assigned director of October Revolutionary state central archive, and Karapet Stepanyan was assigned director of historical state central archive, still performing the duties of board manager.
29 March – The ASSR People's Councils commissariat adopted the legislation of archive funds and list of state archives. According to that, the RA could have 2 central archives-the ASSR state central archive and the ASSR film, photograph and sound-recording documents state central archive.
30 May – The ASSR People's Councils Commissariat obliged all the publishing organizations to hand the state central archive one sample of literature of scientific-historical and official meaning, according to the ASSR People's Councils Commissariat the ASSR state archive fund legislation adopted on 29 March, 1941.
– The ASSR October Revolutionary and historical archives were united and the ASSR state central archive was recreated according to the ''USSR state central archive net'', affirmed by the USSR People’s commissar.
15 October - Senior inspector of the ASSR state central archive Abraham Mkrtchyan was assigned acting official of chief of the archive.