National Archives and Records Service

Resources (24)

• Miscellaneous

  The following record groups may contain materials pertaining to Russia/USSR:

  RG 15. Records of the Veterans Administration, 1773–1969, 76,197 cu. ft.

  RG 17. Records of the Bureau of Animal Industry, 1874–1953, 696 cu. ft.

  RG 23. Records of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, 1806–1965, 3,238 cu. ft.

  RG 81. Records of the United States International Trade Commission, 1909–68, 702 cu. ft.

  RG 87. Records of the United States Secret Service, 1863–1971, 872 cu. ft.

  RG 143. Records of the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts (Navy), 1885–1946, 3,906 cu. ft.

  RG 189. Records of the National Academy of Sciences, 1900–64, 65 cu. ft.

  RG 203. Records of the Office of the Chief of Finance (Army), 1792–1942, 480 cu. ft.

  RG 389. Records of the Office of the Provost Marshall General, 1937–56, 684 cu. ft.

  RG 401. National Archives Gift Collection of Materials Pertaining to Polar Regions. 1750–1974, 967 cu. ft.

• RG 11. General Records of the United States Government, 1778-1974

  2,070 cu. ft. This record group contains international treaties and agreements signed by the United States. Among the Russian-related documents are the Convention as to the Pacific Ocean and the Northwest coast of America, 1824, the Treaty of Navigation and Commerce of 1832, the Convention Ceding Alaska, 1867, the Extradition Convention of 1887, and the North Pacific Sealing Convention of 1911. There are also small-scale maps of Russia in the 18th and 19th c. and a manuscript plan of Sitka, Alaska compiled in 1867 and later published in H. Ex. Doc. 125, 40th Congress, ed. session, Serial 1337.

• RG 123. Records of the United States Court of Claims, 1783-1952

  2,840 cu. ft. Formed in 1855, the U.S. Court of Claims is concerned with claims against the United States. Included in its records are documents, 1921–38, on Soviet efforts to be compensated for 2 ships being built for Russia that were requisitioned by the U.S. in 1917. Note: material on this topic can also be found in RG 205.

• RG 125. Records of the Office of the Judge Advocate General (Navy), 1799-1943

  2,687 cu. ft. Established in 1880, the Office of the Judge Advocate handles legal matters for the navy. Its records may include materials on incidents involving U.S. naval personnel or U.S. naval vessels in Russian ports. There may also be records relating to investigations of Russian nationals working at U.S. naval installations and records of United States participation in international conferences dealing with laws of the sea.

• RG 153. Records of the Office of the Judge Advocate General (Army), 1800-1957

  6,316 cu. ft. The Office of the Judge Advocate General, Army, deals with army legal matters. Its records contain reports of investigations of criminal acts committed by Nazis (German and non-German) in the USSR, by Nazis against Soviet citizens in the Soviet Union, and by Soviet citizens against other Soviet citizens and persons of other nationalities. Also included are trial records of Nazis that shed light on the Katyn Forest massacre, the extermination of Soviet Jews, and the participation of Soviet judges in the International Military Tribunal, Far East.

• RG 19. Records of the Bureau of Ships, 1775-1949

  17,194 cu. ft. The Bureau of Ships is the successor of several government agencies that handled ships and other craft. Its records include photos of Russian naval vessels, 1900 and 1915, correspondence on lendlease naval equipment to the Soviet Union, 1941–45, and materials on tools and equipment bought by the Amtorg Corp., 1937–39.

• RG 20. Records of the Office of the Special Adviser to the President on Foreign Trade, 1934-36

  57 cu. ft." The Office of the Special Adviser to the President on Foreign Trade was created in 1934. Its records include data on exports and imports between the U.S. and the USSR, 1922–34. There are also copies of commercial agreements, 1934–35, between the Soviet government and England, France, and Latvia.

• RG 200. National Archives Gift Collection, 1783-1974

  7,294 cu. ft. The materials in this record group were donated to the National Archives by various groups and individuals. Included are the Charles Edward Rhetts Papers, which contain correspondence, memoranda, and reports pertaining to lend-lease supplies to the USSR and other countries, 1941–42. Recently received are the records of the American National Red Cross, 1881–1946, 33.31 cu. m., which include correspondence, reports, memoranda, and publications relating to Red Cross relief operations undertaken in Russia, Siberia, Armenia, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia as a result of floods, famines, droughts, epidemics, and wars. There are also films and/or newsreels on Soviet military equipment, on foreign dignitaries visiting the USSR, Soviet diplomats abroad (including the U.S. and the UN), Soviet troops in East Berlin, Vice President Nixon's trip to Eastern Europe and the USSR, and his tour of the American Trade Fair in Moscow with N. S. Khrushchev in 1959, the 1960 Paris Summit Conference, the meeting between President Kennedy and N. S. Khrushchev in Vienna in 1961, Khrushchev's visit to the U.S. in 1959 and to France in 1960, the signing of the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty in 1963, the Russo-Finnish War, communism in Russia and Cuba, celebrations of the Bolshevik Revolution, the trans-Siberian railway, and other Russian-related subjects. There are taped speeches by Stalin, Trotskii, Molotov, and Khrushchev; a 1-hour tape, "Lenin and the People's Commissars"; photographs of German troops in Russia during World War II, and of the Soviet occupation of Vienna.

• RG 205. Records of the Court of Claims Section (Justice), 1793-1947

  1,678 cu. ft. Includes records, 1921–38, of Soviet efforts to be compensated for 2 ships being built for Russia that were requisitioned by the U.S. government in 1917. There is also material on this matter in RG 123.

• RG 217. Records of the United States General Accounting Office, 1776-1960

  36,987 cu. ft. Created in 1921, the General Accounting Office (GAO) audits the employment of public funds. Its records contain contracts used for the quartering of U.S. soldiers in Archangel, 1919.

• RG 233. Records of the United States House of Representatives, 1789-1974

  17,201 cu. ft. The records of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and of the House Committee on Un-American Activities are in this record group. These records contain materials on American attitudes to Russia, the Bolshevik Revolution, and the independence of Eastern European areas, including the Ukraine. There are also numerous bills, petitions, and resolutions pertaining to the abrogation of the U.S.-Russian commercial treaty of 1832, interest payments on Russian Imperial government bonds, U.S. mediation in the Russo-Japanese War, the extradition of Jan Pouren and Christian Rudowitz to Russia, the construction of telegraphic cables between the U.S. and Siberia, communist activities, and many other Russianrelated subjects.

• RG 26. Records of the United States Coast Guard, 1789-1975

  10,760 cu. ft. Formed in 1915, the U.S. Coast Guard handles customs and navigation regulations. Its Alaska file includes correspondence from the secretary of State regarding illicit fur-sealing activities by American citizens who were seized by Russian authorities and sentenced to prison in Vladivostok (note: there is an Alaska file in RG 36). Also included are correspondence and communications of the Bering Sea Patrol (now the Alaska Patrol), 1926–40.

• RG 36. Records of the United States Customs Service, 1745-1965

  10,554 cu. ft. The Customs Service was established in 1789 and reached bureau status in 1927. Its Alaska File includes documents on how the treaty of 1867 influenced the Russian Church in Alaska. It also contains an 1867 report on the Aleutian Islands based on an article by Abraham Charitonoff and on inventories of public buildings by the governor of the Russian colonies in America. Finding aid available: https://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/036.html

• RG 360. Records of the Continental and Confederation Congresses and the Constitutional Convention, 1774-96

  312 cu. ft. Records of the Continental and Confederation Congresses, 1774–89, 415 ft., contain Item 86, Items from Ralph Izard and Others, 1777–84, which includes letters pertaining to Francis Dana's mission to St. Petersburg in the 1780s as envoy of the United States. The records also have materials relating to early Russian-American relations and to John Paul Jones's service in Russia.

• RG 393. Records of the United States Army Continental Commands, 1821-1920

  10,401 cu. ft. Included are materials on the buildings and property that were part of the transfer of Alaska from Russia to the United States in 1867.

• RG 395. Records of U.S. Army Overseas Operations and Commands, 1898-1942

  2,405 cu. ft. This record group includes the records of the American Expeditionary Forces in Siberia, 1918–20. Most of the material consists of war diaries written at American headquarters at Vladivostok; there are also diaries from local units at Shkotovo and the Suchan mines. Other materials include correspondence, cablegrams, telegrams, issuances, and photographs.

• RG 41. Records of the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation, 1774-1966

  11,858 cu, ft. Established in 1884, the Bureau of Navigation (renamed in 1936 the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation) handled, among other matters, the administration of navigation laws. Its records contain data on Russian merchant and war ships in the early 1900s, as well as U.S. diplomatic documents from Riga on Soviet regulation of travel abroad by USSR citizens. There are also letters on the elimination of discrimination against Latvian vessels, 1923; lists of Latvian merchant ships, 1925–26; a 1926 agreement signed between Latvia and the U.S. for reciprocal recognition of shipmeasurement certificates; and a report on Soviet views toward the First International Congress of Sailors and Port Workers, which took place at Altona, Germany, in May 1942.

• RG 45. Naval Records Collection of the Office of Naval Records and Library, 1648-1945

  2,966 cu. ft. The Office of Naval Records and Library, joined to the Office of Naval History in 1946, gathered and preserved records pertaining to naval affairs. Its subject file includes communications from Newton A. McCully when he was in the USSR; messages from the U.S.S. Olympia; and Office of Naval Intelligence records on the situation in northern Russia after World War I. Also included are the Asiatic Squadron Letters, 21 vols., 1865–85, which contain descriptions of Russian ports in the Pacific that were visited by ships attached to the Asiatic Squadron. In addition, the record group contains materials on U.S. submarine activities off the Russian Pacific coast; conditions and military forces in Vladivostok, 1919–20; the activities of the Russian Volunteer Fleet during the Russo-Japanese War; the Murmansk railroad after World War I; the activities in Russia of William H. Schuetze, who travelled from Moscow to Irkutsk in 1885; Russian economic and diplomatic affairs, 1890–1916; and on the activities of John Paul Jones, 1778–91. There are also various maps and charts, some of British origin, with information on the Baltic and Arctic territories of the USSR. Finally, there is a journal of Capt. James Biddle, 1817–19, which mentions the presence of the Russian vessel Kutusoff at Monterey, where her officers bought grain supplies for the Sitka colony.

• RG 45. Records of the Office of the Chief of Naval Intelligence, 1882-1968

  3,720 cu. ft. Formed in 1915, the Office of Naval Operations is responsible for the coordination of operational activities by the Navy. Its records include naval attache reports, 1892–1946, that deal with Russian military affairs and with political, economic, social, and diplomatic matters. Topics covered in detail include the Russo-Japanese War, the Russian Civil War, the Five-Year Plans, the Russo-Finnish War of 1939–40, World War II, communism, and ethnic and political minorities in the USSR. Other materials pertaining to Russia include the administrative files and general correspondence of the Office of Naval Intelligence, 1892–1944. These contain information on visits by Russian military personnel to the U.S., Soviet aviation, an hydrographic expedition to the Russian Arctic in 1924, and Russian economic and political affairs. Also included in these files are letters from Lieutenant N. A. McCully, 1904–1905, which pertain to the Russo-Japanese War and contain several hand-drawn maps. RG 38 also has McCully's diary, 15 August 1904–31 March 1908; it deals with operations by the Russians and Japanese in the Manchuria area and contains information on Manchurian coal deposits. Other Russian-related material include general correspondence, 1943–46, on lendlease to the USSR, a flu epidemic in Moscow, Soviet decoration of U.S. naval personnel, ships built in the U.S. for the USSR, and a Soviet agreement with RCA. There are also Naval Armed Guard reports and logs on the operations and personnel of merchant ships that convoyed supplies to Russia after World War II. Finally, there are topographic and terrain maps of the USSR and 20 photographs of Soviet leaders who took part in the United Nations conference in San Francisco, 1945. Finding aid avialable: https://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/045.html#45.5.1

• RG 46. Records of the United States Senate, 1789-1974

  14,050 cu. ft. Included are the files of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, which contain hearings, committee papers, and petitions relating to U.S. concern for conditions in Russia during the Revolution and to American attitudes toward recognition of the Soviet Union. There are also the hearings of the Committee pertaining to the U-2 incident and to the summit conference in 1960; efforts to build a telegraph between the U.S. and Europe; documents, filed under "Soviet tools," on equipment provided to Russia under lend-lease; records in the Truman Committee of the Senate on Soviet needs for rubber; and numerous resolutions and petitions pertaining to events and the treatment of Jews in Russia.

• RG 65. Records of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1897-1936

  29 cu. ft. The main function of the FBI is to investigate violations of federal law. Its records contain 2 microfilm series, Miscellaneous Files, 1908–21, 145 rolls, and Bureau Section Files, 1910–21, 81 rolls, that include investigative information on persons associated with communist organizations.

• RG 75. Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 1794-1967

  43,660 cu. ft. The Bureau of Indian Affairs was created in 1824. Included in the record group is documentation on an expedition to Siberia undertaken in 1891 by Sheldon Jackson to import Siberian reindeer and herders. There is also a motion picture, "A Trip to the Arctic with Uncle Sam," 1921, 1 reel, that documents a trip on the ship Bear from the Aleutian Islands to Plover Bay, Siberia, by way of Point Barrow, Alaska. It includes scenes of Eskimo life in the Arctic.

• RG 85. Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-1954

  1,746 cu. ft. The passenger arrival records, 1883–1954, 11,476 rolls of microfilm, contain the names of Russian immigrants to the U.S. and of ship and airplane passenger and crew lists. There are also letters received, 1882–1906, and subject correspondence, 1906–32, that may include files relating to groups of Russian immigrants.

• RG 94. Records of the Adjutant General's Office, ca. 1783-1925

  38,111 cu. ft. In operation since 1821, the adjutant general's office maintains the records of the U.S. army. Its records include reports and other materials by U.S. military observers during the Crimean War and the Russo-Japanese War. Among these observers were Capt. George B. McClellan and Capt. John J. Pershing.