Archives and Records Management Section

Resources (7)

• The following general archival groups contain, interspersed throughout, materials which bear on Soviet participation in UN activities:

  UN Conference on International Organization, San Francisco, 1945. Working papers, correspondence, drafts, notes, verbatim minutes, delegations' comments on the Dumbarton Oaks Proposals.

  UN Development Programme (UNDP). Includes some non-current registry files on operational assistance, plus files and working papers on evaluation of projects and reports, 1950–67. Closed to outside researchers for up to 25 years. UN Preparatory Commission, 1945–46. Summaries of meetings (of the commission and of its committees), working papers, Secretariat correspondence and cables.

  UN Secretariat. Registry files from all departments, since 1946 (especially the general ledgers); non-registry records, 1946–72, particularly for the secretary-general's office, the executive office, General Assembly affairs sections, the Office for Special Political Affairs, and the Protocol Section. These records are closed to outside investigators until a time limit (up to 20 years) expires.

• Though established in 1945, at a historic meeting in San Francisco, the United Nations has a "pre-history" dating to 1942. Some of the most important records of the organization come from these earliest years. The archives, like the United Nations as a whole, occupied its permanent headquarters in New York in 1952. The massive holdings of the repository currently total over 20,600 ft. of materials, mainly generated by the Secretariat.

• Byelorussia Mission, 1946-47

  10 ft. Established in Minsk in April 1946, the mission was concerned exclusively with the receipt and distribution of relief supplies. Representatives of the Byelorussian government in Washington and London handled procurements and final disposition of supplies. A port office at Odessa also served the Ukraine mission. Largely completing its program by late 1946, and reorganized with fewer personnel, the Byelorussian mission closed 30 June 1947. The records are in 3 subdivisions: office of the chief, including subject files, monthly narrative reports, working papers, and correspondence; finance and administration; and supply.

• Records of the European Regional Office

  320 ft. This office's records are of the same kind as headquarters' and are divided into 4 groups. Ukrainian and Byelorussian items are again interspersed.

• Records of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), 1943-49

  Established 9 November 1943, with 44 nations signing an agreement for the relief of war victims in areas under the control of any of the "united nations." Headquarters of the UNRRA became Washington, D.C.; a European Regional Office was established in London; and mission posts took up local work in the territories receiving aid. 4 of the most important UNRRA sets of records are:

• Records of the UNRRA Headquarters

  1,089 ft. Reports, office files, account books, correspondence, and miscellaneous documents fall into 7 subdivisions (e.g., executive offices, bureau of administration, bureau of supply, bureau of areas). Interspersed throughout are materials on the Ukraine and Byelorussia; the total number of relevant items and/or their percentage cannot be stated.

• Ukraine Mission, 1946-47

  5 ft. The mission, under Marshall MacDuffie, reached Kiev 20 March 1946. As with Byelorussia, the Ukrainian government negotiated through representatives in London and Washington and concerned itself with procuring and distributing supplies. The mission assisted in receiving and disposing of material. It also tried to publicize the program, making a newsreel film of activities and meeting with the newspapermen (see the separate entry for UN Headquarters—Film Footage Library). V. V. Khomyak was the mission's liaison with the Ukrainian Council of Ministers, headed at this time by N. S. Khrushchev. The mission helped to transfer $189 million worth of goods to the Ukraine. The records are in 3 groups, chief of mission, finance, and supply.