State Archive Service of Ukraine

The State Archive Service of Ukraine or Ukrderzharkhiv is a Ukrainian government agency that implements state policy regarding the keeping of archives and record, function of state system of documentation security fund as well as an inter-trade coordination on matters within its competence. As part of administrative reorganization initiated by the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych in 2010, the service was created out the State Committee of Archives (DerzhKomArchiv). The agency is part of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine since 1999.

Ukrderzharkhiv is a member of the International Council on Archives since 1956.

Ukrainian archives are among the least accessible in Europe, as archives do not publish their catalogs online, and there is no state program for this as of 2017. Archives are often overloaded with visitors. Waiting time to access documents in reading room could reach several weeks and occasionally months. Most of the staff speak Ukrainian or Russian only. Some of the western archives have personal that can speak Polish and occasionally Romanian, Moldavian and English. So far it seems that Odessa state oblast archive is the only one where personal can speak English.

Over the years there have been some international programs for scanning collections. US Holocaust Memorial Museum had some successful programs.

FamilySearch used to work in Ukraine from 1993 until 2011, however the contract was dropped by the Ukrainian government when president Yanukovych came to power. His new chief of Ukrderzharkhiv, a member of communist party Olha Hinzburh, proclaimed that "Ukrainian archives are to open for everyone". During 18 years of successful collaboration FamilySearch digitized many collections and made them available online https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list/?page=1&countryId=1927132 . Due to their agreement with the Ukrainian government, these records (unlike similar records from other areas) are only available in person at a Family History Center. FamilySearch has tried to get permission to make the records available online, but efforts have been refused by the Ukrderzharkhiv.

In general Ukrainian archives struggle of poor state support and strong corruption. Putting documents online will drop illegal income for many archives officials and so they block it.

In 2003 Ukraine had lost one of the most valuable collections of Ukrainian Podilia 1795-1900 during the fire in Kamenets-Podilsky archive. In 2014 Ukraine lost the Crimea, Donestk and Luhansk archives.

Most of the present archives stored in old buildings without fundamental storage facilities. Some of the buildings do not even have heating in winter.

There were a number of rumors about stealing precious documents from state archives. Some of them were available on international auctions like eBay. Most notable cases were in Lviv and Kharkiv archives. It's not clear of how many documents were stolen and absent at the moment.