The Krasnogorsk Archive's film collection documents the entire history of Russian filmmaking, beginning with footage of the 1896 coronation of Czar Nicholas II shot by Kamill Serf, a cameraman for the pioneering Lumiere Brothers. Compiling another 1,000 films before 1917, the Archive was then nationalized and became the repository of all films documenting the October Revolution and events that followed. Known then as the Central Film and Photo Archive, the collection was installed on the grounds of the Lefortov Palace in 1928, and in 1936 was moved to its present location in the town of Krasnogorsk near Moscow.

The Archive has a virtually complete collection of newsreels from 1919 to 1985, documenting the politics, wars, disasters, trials, and the disparate peoples and places of the United Soviet Socialist Republic. Available footage covers both World Wars; the Soviet invasions of Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Afghanistan; and the many dimensions of the Cold War including the Cuban missile crisis, the space race, Vietnam, and the collapse of the Communist system. Literature, art, sports, science, and many other aspects of Russian and other cultures of Eastern Europe and Central Asia are vividly represented among the 42,200 films of the Archive.

The Archive has a very progressive preservation plan in place, which was followed until the changes in government in the late 1980s. The vast collection of materials is maintained in a humidity and temperature-controlled environment and preventative treatment and restoration of many materials has been undertaken. The 52,000 films on nitrate stock have been duplicated except for perhaps 1%. Of course there is continuing preservation work to be done in transferring various other types of film currently endangered, but there are not sufficient government funds appropriated.

Archive History

The Russian State Documentary Film and Photo Archive at Krasnogorsk was founded in 1926. Prior to 1918 all film and photo documents were the private property of their creators. With the Decrees of Soviet Government of 1918-1919 the production, accounting and use of film and photo materials was given to the State, as the entire industry was nationalized.

Photo albums and positive photo materials of pre-Revolutionary time and the first years of Soviet power were concentrated at the Department IV of the State Archive of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, which was later reorganized and became the Archive of October Revolution (AOR). As of 1926 the Archive of October Revolution was receiving film documents from the storehouses of the Skobelev Elucidative Committee, Soviet film organizations, including Sovkino, Proletkino, and the Narcompros RSFSR, the Leningrad Historical and Regional Archives, and from private persons. Between 1927 and 1928, a special depository for film documents was organized in the Archive of October Revolution, but the idea to concentrate all film materials in one place did not work well up to the end of this period. Some film and photo documents still remained with scientific institutes, museums and other organizations. Taking this into consideration, the decision was made to organize an independent film and photo archive and to construct a depository for storage of the documents. Construction was begun in 1928 in Moscow on the territory of former Lefortov Palace. But the documents placed in the new Central Photo and Film Archive remained unsorted for 10 years.

In 1934 the Central Photo and Film Archive was consolidated with the Central Archive of Sound Recordings and was named Central Photo, Phono, and Film Archive (CPPFA). In 1953 Archive moved into another building in the town of Krasnogorsk near Moscow where it is located today. In 1967 the Department of Phonograms of the Archive split off as an independent archive, the Central State Archive of Sound Recordings of USSR. Between 1967 and 1992 the Film and Photo Archive was called the Central State Archive of Film/Photo Documents of USSR. In 1992 it was renamed the Russian State Documentary Film and Photo Archive (RGAKFD).