Russia

Where the records are

Each region of Russia has its state archive with the church registers and tax censuses (revision lists) of its territory. Moscow and St Petersburg have their own city archives, and the Russian State Historical Archive in St Petersburg holds the records of the empire's central institutions, including the Synod, the church's governing body. Soviet civil registration is kept by the regional registry offices and archives.

What is online

• Guides to Russian archives. Which archive holds which collections: the printed guides of Russian archives, searchable.
• The Russian State Historical Archive in St Petersburg: the empire's central institutions, the Synod (the church's governing body), the nobility and the merchants.
• Regional archives. Many publish scanned church registers on their own sites. The St Petersburg archives' site (spbarchives.ru) opens only from inside Russia, and its images need a Russian government-services (Gosuslugi) account and a paid day pass.
• The Russian National Library, Vivaldi. Scanned books, among them the St Petersburg address books.
• FamilySearch. Films of many Russian church registers and tax censuses; viewing needs a free FamilySearch account.
• Pamyat Naroda. Second World War service records, losses and awards, searchable by name. It asks you to pass a security check first.
• Podvig Naroda. Second World War awards, often with the birthplace down to the village council.
• Poisk.re. The same war cards without the security check; at most 20 results a search.
• Open List. Victims of Soviet political repression, by name.
• Returned Names. Books of memory of the Leningrad blockade and of repression.

How to order

Regional archives answer genealogical requests, mostly in Russian and often for a fee. Payment from abroad can be difficult; a local researcher or an agency is the usual way around it.

Traps

• Several Russian archive and database sites do not open from outside Russia.
• The capitals' registers are huge: a parish of St Petersburg may have thousands of entries a year, so the exact parish and year matter.
• A surname may be spelled differently in every record. Search the start of the surname, not the whole word.