ABOUT THE ARCHIVE

The Archives of Yugoslavia was established under the General Law on State Archives on 21 January 1950 as the State Archives of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, with the task of collecting, protecting, and processing all historical archival material created on the territory of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, regardless of whether it was owned by the public or private sector. In this way, the protection of historical archival material was placed under the special protection of the state, while the State Archives of the FPRY was placed under the supervision of the Ministry of Science and Culture of the FPRY.

For the purpose of collecting, protecting, and processing historical archival material, the Law also provided for the establishment of state archives of the people's republics and archives in cities, in accordance with the administrative division or the specific historical development of certain territories. In other words, it laid the foundations for the development of a network of archival institutions. During 1951, laws on archives were adopted in the People's Republic of Serbia, the People's Republic of Macedonia, and the People's Republic of Montenegro, and in 1962 in the People's Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the People's Republic of Croatia.

The General Law on State Archives also provided for the establishment of the Main Archival Council of the FPRY, as an expert advisory body within the Council for Science and Culture of the Government of the FPRY, tasked with studying theoretical, methodological, and organizational issues within the field of archival activities.

The adoption of the Constitution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on 7 April 1963 represented a major turning point in the organization of the state and, consequently, in the development of archival activities. The constitutional changes, based on the further development of self-management and the reorganization of relations between the federation and the socialist republics, created the need to harmonize archival legislation with the new constitutional order. With the adoption of new federal laws in 1964, namely the General Law on Archival Material (9 December 1964), the Law on the Archives of Yugoslavia (9 December 1964), and the Law on the Archival Council of Yugoslavia (9 December 1964), a new legal framework was established for the organization and operation of the archival service in Yugoslavia.

The General Law on Archival Material of 1964 defined the concept of archival material, established the legal framework for its protection, granted it the status of a cultural monument, and declared it to be social property.

The Law on the Archives of Yugoslavia of 1964 was the first law in the country to regulate the activities, status, and management of the Archives of Yugoslavia, as well as all other matters relevant to its work in protecting archival material created by the bodies and organizations of the federation.

This Law regulated the status of the Archives of Yugoslavia as an institution whose activities were of special social interest. The responsibilities of the Archives of Yugoslavia included collecting, arranging, processing, preserving, and making available for use archival material of special interest to the federation, as well as maintaining general records on archives and their archival fonds, and performing all other tasks assigned to it by law.

The Law also established the Archival Council of Yugoslavia as an expert body responsible for performing certain professional, advisory, and other tasks within the jurisdiction of the federation in the field of protecting the federation's archival material, such as establishing principles for the uniform registration and selection of archival material from records management material; examining issues of common interest concerning the protection of archival material and the methods used for its protection, and providing recommendations and opinions on these matters to organizations engaged in the protection of archival material; and submitting proposals and opinions to federal bodies on matters concerning the protection of archival material.

With the establishment of the Archival Council of Yugoslavia, the Main Archival Council ceased to exist.

As a result of the constitutional changes of 1968 and 1971, as well as the need to regulate more precisely the system for protecting archival material of interest to the federation, a new Law on the Archives of Yugoslavia was adopted on 27 December 1972 and published in the Official Gazette of the SFRY, No. 6/1973. It aligned the position of the Archives with the amended constitutional and legal framework, while defining its activities in relation to the needs and functions of the federal bodies.

Under the Law on the Archives of Yugoslavia of 1973, the Archives of Yugoslavia was entrusted with collecting, protecting, preserving, arranging, processing, publishing, and making available for use archival material created through the work of central state bodies and institutions; central bodies of political parties and other organizations in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia; as well as bodies of the federation.

Under the Law on the Organization and Scope of Responsibilities of Federal Administrative Bodies and Federal Organizations of 28 April 1978, the Archives of Yugoslavia was granted the status of a federal organization, that is, an independent institution accountable for its work to the federal government.

The scope of work of the Archives of Yugoslavia in the field of protecting the federation's archival material was regulated in greater detail by the Law on the Archival Material of the Federation of 7 March 1986, which defined the concept of the federation's archival material. The federation's archival material was understood to include material created through the work of federal bodies, socio-political organizations within the federation, institutions performing tasks of interest to the exercise of the federation's functions, communities established under federal law, as well as social organizations and citizens' associations and their federations, and self-management organizations and communities entrusted with the exercise of public powers under federal law.

In 2003, as a result of changes in the state and legal structure, the Archives of Yugoslavia was renamed the Archives of Serbia and Montenegro. Following the dissolution of that state union, in 2009 the Archives regained the name Archives of Yugoslavia, and its status was regulated as that of a cultural institution.

The Law on Archival Material and Archival Activities, which entered into force in 2021, established the status of the Archives of Yugoslavia as a public archive and an institution responsible for the protection of archival material, with responsibilities encompassing the protection of archival material created through the work of the central state bodies and organizations of the Yugoslav state during the period from 1918 to 2006, as well as tasks related to the implementation of Annex “D” of the Agreement on Succession Issues.

Taking Over of Archival Material from those who have created them is one of the most important functions of any archive. The issue of storage space which the Archives have faced since establishment, the need to collect the material which have come in their competence after establishment and major changes in the 1990s resulted in major oscillations in the quantity of received material in different years. So in 1955 total of 7202 meters was received and after dissolution of SFRY, 1990-1993, total number of 10.854 meters was taken over. By the end of the eighties and the beginning of the nineties from the Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, complete material dealing with the Kingdom of Yugoslavia with all diplomatic – consular representation offices till 1945 was taken over by the Archives of Yugoslavia. After the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia was dissolved, the Archives took over its compete archives (fond 507, 661 meter) together with employees. The Archives of Yugoslavia in 2010 took over complete archive of Josip Broz Tito (fonds, 836, 837, totally about 300meters) together with the employees.

From the foundation till this day, the role of the Archive has been to collect systematically archival material, to take it over, arrange it and make it accessible to the public. In order that the archival material of one fond or collection is presented in a most proper way to the public and in order to be physically protected from decay it is processed and arranged according to the new principles, it is valued by using modern criteria, the structure is established and finally it is presented through finding aids (inventories) to enable researchers to obtain necessary information as soon as possible.

Wider public is introduced to the rich Archival material through publications and thematic exhibitions of documents. From the very beginning, the archives worked on conservation and restoration of archival material. Being one type of protection of archival material, photography and microfilm laboratories were established in the Archives. Digitizing of material has been very active in the last years presenting one more aspect of protection of original archival material, so to speak. One of the most important digitized fonds that could be searched in that way is Collection of Milan Stojadinović (AJ-37). Since 1997, the Archives have had its web page that was significantly revised in 2008, today a new one up-to date designed web page of this institution has been presented .

In the Archives There are about 40 thousand meters of documentary material respectfully 886 archival fonds consisting of 149 fonds from the period of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, 646 fonds from the period of SFRY/SRY/Serbia and Montenegro and 91 collections of the documents. Collection of photographs has about 50.000 photos from 62 archival fonds including those received as a gift or obtained by repurchase. All archival material is subject to law provisions regarding its accessibility (30 years). Archival material is stored in the depots at two locations (Archives building itself, 33 Vase Pelagića and depot of the Archives of Yugoslavia in the former building of Federal Executive Council 2, 104 Bulevar Zorana Djindjića). All fonds and collections have finding aids – listings (not processed fonds), inventories and card files (processed fonds and collections). Finding aids for processed fonds (inventories) except in written form exist as well in the data base, from 2003 in MS Access base and from 2013 it works in a new system of web-application that is accessible in the reading room of the Archives. On the website of the Archives, inventories could be find in PDF. Since 2000, the Archives have been publishing professional Review Archive.