State Archives of Irad

The State Archives of Irad (Iradi: Irad Mamlekettik Arkhivi) is the national archive of Irad, in Talas. It holds the records of the Iradi SSR, the Provisional Government of 1992, the territorial administration of 1992–2006 and the government of the Irad Special Economic Zone, together with older documents from the Kokand and Russian periods. Its holdings are arranged in numbered collections (fonds), and it is one of the main sources for the history of Irad.^[1]

History

The archive descends from the Central State Archive of the Iradi SSR, established in Kobozev in 1927. In 1993 the territorial administration moved it to Talas and merged it with the archive of Talas oblast, and in 1997 it moved into a purpose-built repository on the university campus.^[1] The internal-security and party files, closed in the Soviet period, were opened to researchers in the 1990s, which made possible new studies of the purges of 1937, the 1956 Talas Riots and Soviet industrialization. Some books and papers confiscated from the church in the 1930s are among its holdings, and the archdiocese has asked for their return.^[2] Under the Legal Deposit Act of 1995 it registers every title published in Irad and keeps one copy; two more go to the National Library of Irad next door.

Holdings

Among the most consulted collections are:

• Fond 3, Kokand charters and firmans and the church records of Iyık Janyl (1727–1876);
• Fond 85, the protocols of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Irad (1925–1991), including internal-security reports on the 1956 riots;
• Fond 77, the files of the Commissioner for Religious Affairs of the Iradi SSR (1937–1991);
• Fond 108, the records of the Revolution of 1992 and the minutes and decrees of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Irad, including the papers of Amanbek Alimbekov from that year;
• Fond 110, the journals and enacted statutes of the Territorial Legislature of Irad (1992–2006);
• Fond 111, the reports and jurisprudence of the Supreme Court of Irad (1992–2023);
• Fond 131, military records, including those of the First Iradi Civil War;
• Fond 204, the records of the Iradneft Production Association (1949–1993);
• Fond 218, studbook and breeding registers of the horse-breeding trusts.^[1]

Access

Records of the Soviet and territorial periods are generally open, subject to a 30-year rule for personal files. Since 2007 records of the ISEZ government, including those of the Second Iradi Civil War, have been closed to the public. Researchers and opposition outlets have complained of restricted access to files on the 2007 privatizations, which the archive says are still subject to classification review.^[3]

References

1. ^ State Archives of Irad (2019). Guide to the Fonds. Talas.
2. ^ Talas State University Press (2011). Catalog of the Syriac Manuscripts of the Cathedral Seminary Library, Iyık Janyl. Talas.
3. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2021). "Closed Shelves: Archives and Memory in the ISEZ." Vol. 28, No. 4, pp. 301–318.