Photo | The Narva city archive has a new storage
In April 2025, partial renovation of the premises of the Narva city archive ended. The Narva Gazeta visited excursions on the archive organized for representatives of the press. As it turned out, archival materials are in high demand today.
This year, the Narvsky city archive marks 103 years. His service area still covers three cities of Ida-Virumaa: Narva, Narva-Yesuu and Sillamyae. In the building on Linda Street, 4 archive has been located for 15 years. In 2023, the city provided the archive with additional premises, where a new storage area of 500 square meters was located. The expansion program included major repairs, which has not been completed not so long ago. The total area of storage is now 1500 square meters. m.
“The volume of documents is constantly increasing. For example, in 1995, when the archive moved to Kirik Street, and when I started working there, there were about 20,000 cases in it, ”recalls the city archive and director of the archive Andres Kustol. “Now about 420,000 cases accepted and about the same amount of archiving, which is why there was a need to expand. Materials from the Narva Hospital, Schools and the Department of Architecture and Urban Construction were added. Many of them – mainly those that are subject to constant storage – are digitized by us. This will allow you to place all the materials received to us in the new storage, ”says Kustol.
The archive team is small: only five specialists work here, including the director and one assistant engaged in cleaning. Archivarius believes that they will cope with the upcoming tasks for three years.
The new repository is equipped on the second floor, where Bowling was previously located. It meets all the requirements for such institutions: there are ventilation and smoke removal systems, the floor, walls and doors are fulfilled according to fire standards. Unlike the lower floor, where mobile racks are used, stationary are installed at the second level: for installation on the second floor, the mechanism of their movement is too heavy.
Documents are stored in the Narv archive from 1944 to the present. Most often, they are addressed here with requests for confirmation of work experience, clarification of wages and training information. Also often request data on the date and time of birth. Various institutions are interested in the materials of the courts, prosecutors, notaries and the city council.
For example, last week the archive was visited by employees of the ETV+ television channel from the Evallevid program. They studied the case of Boris Barmotin, who was serving a life sentence for a triple murder in Sillamae, trying to find out why he had a ghostly chance of liberation 27 years after a cruel crime.
The mayor of Narva, Katri Raik, who was also present on excursions, admitted that she turned to the archive for the only time, and on her personal question: several years ago her friends accidentally discovered a grave with the inscription Katri Raik in the riegikul cemetery. The archive helped to find out that the buried woman was Ingermanland, who moved to Narva in adulthood.
Photo: Natalia Starostina
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