%0 Journal Article
%T Archival reforms in Ukraine: history, projects, current challenges
%A Matiash, Iryna
%J Archeion
%V 2022
%R 10.4467/26581264ARC.22.005.16466
%N 123
%P 125-166
%K Archival reform, archival affairs of Ukraine, National Archival Fond, archives of Ukraine during the Russian invasion
%@ 0066-6041
%D 2022
%U https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/archeion/article/arkhivni-reformy-v-ukrayini-istoriya-proyekty-vyklyky-sohodennya
%X The aim of the article is to highlight the characteristics and reasons for archival reforms in Ukraine in the years 1917–2022. It also analyses the challenges and problems faced by Ukrainian archives after Ukraine gained independence in 1991, as well as those stemming from the war caused by Russia in 2014 and the invasion of February 24, 2022. The research method applied is based on scientific criteria, taking into account the historical context, consistency and specific research methodology, in particular archival heuristics and source criticism. The express focus group poll method was also used. Originality of the research lies in the reconstruction of the process of reforming the archival sector in Ukraine, defining its stages, their characteristics and mutual relations, as well as analysing the problems of Ukrainian archives after the Russian invasion. The author argues that archival reforms in Ukraine are an integral part of the state-building process, and the need for their implementation became a reality when Ukraine was liberated from the influence of both the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. The key idea behind all the archival reforms (five in 1917–1925 and two in 1991–2022) was to organize the archival domain of the independent state, so as to secure and preserve all of its archival resources as an integral part of the world archival heritage and enable wide access to archival documents. The specificity of reforms as applied to archives in modern times, after Ukraine regained independence on August 24, 1991, is their permanent, practice-oriented nature. In this process, the „archival reform of the 1990s” can be distinguished and the archival reform based on the „principle of five I”, created by Anatolii W. Khromov. The author concludes that the Russian invasion resulted in increased risk for the archival resources and archives of Ukraine, posing a threat of irreversible losses, not only of the national Archival Fond of Ukraine, but also of the world archival heritage as a whole.