The Fonds of the Central State Archive of Supreme Bodies of Power and Government of Ukraine as a Source for Studying the Activities of the Office of the Plenipotentiary of the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of the USSR in the Ukrainian SSR in t

Abstract

The article presents a source-critical analysis of the holdings of the Central State Archive of Supreme Bodies of Power and Government of Ukraine (TsDAVO of Ukraine) relating to the activities of the Office of the Plenipotentiary of the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of the USSR in the Ukrainian SSR during the 1920s, treated as a representative body of documents reflecting the process of centralization of the foreign policy activities of the Union republics in the period of the formation of Soviet statehood. The historical and legal preconditions for the establishment of the institution of the Plenipotentiaries of the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of the USSR following the creation of the Soviet Union are examined, as well as the transformation of the competences of republican authorities in the sphere of international relations. On the basis of materials preserved in the Central State Archive of Supreme Bodies of Power and Government of Ukraine in Kyiv, the structure of the archival fonds, the principles of their formation and systematization are analyzed, and the main groups of documents are identified: organizational and administrative acts, official correspondence, analytical and reporting materials, personnel and financial-economic documentation, and consular files.

The informational potential of the fonds for reconstructing the administrative structure of the institution, the mechanisms of its subordination to the Union center, the specific features of its personnel policy, and the practical implementation of diplomatic and consular functions within the territory of the Ukrainian SSR is analyzed. The problems of source criticism of documents from the 1920s are outlined, including the influence of ideological rhetoric, the formalized character of reporting, and possible lacunae in the preservation of materials. The article substantiates the conclusion that the holdings of the Office of the Plenipotentiary of the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of the USSR in the Ukrainian SSR constitute a highly valuable source base for studying the institutional evolution of Soviet diplomacy and the transformation of the international legal status of the Ukrainian SSR within the USSR in the 1920s.