Photographs from the Funds of RSDFPA

This collection consists of photos provided by the Russian State Documentary Film & Photo Archive (RSDFPA). All photographs are of the period of the Great Patriotic War.

The Russian State Documentary Film & Photo Archive was established in 1926.

Until 1918, all film and photo documents were privately owned by film and photo entrepreneurs. In accordance with the decrees of the Soviet Government of 1918-1919, the production, recording and use of film and photographic products were transferred to the state. After the nationalization of the film- and photo-production, all photo albums and the photographic positives of pre-revolutionary period and the first years of Soviet time were concentrated at the IV-th Department of the State Archive of the RSFSR. Subsequently it was transformed into the Archive of the October Revolution (AOR). Film documents began to arrive a little later, and until 1926 the Archive of the October Revolution received them from the warehouses of the Skobelevsky Educational Committee, Soviet cinema organizations – the Sovkino, the Proletkino, and the People's Commissariat of Education, the Leningrad historical and regional archives, from private individuals. For the storage of film documents at the AOR a special film repository was organized from 1927 to 1928. However, it was not possible to concentrate all film and photographic documents in one place until 1927. A certain amount of documents continued to remain in a number of scientific institutions, museums and organizations. Taking this into account, it was decided to organize an independent film and photo archive and build a special storage building. It was put in service on the territory of the former Lefortovo Palace in Moscow in 1928. The film documents received from film production organizations were not sorted out for about ten years.

The Central Photo and Film Archive was merged with the Central Archive of Audio Recordings and became known as the Central Photo, Audio and Film Archive in 1934. In 1953, the archive moved to another building in the city of Krasnogorsk near Moscow, where it is still located.

In 1967, the archive's Audio Recording Department was transformed into an independent archive – the Central State Archive of Audio Recordings of the USSR. From 1967 to 1992, the film and photo archive was named the Central State Archive of Film and Photo documents of the USSR.

It received its current name the Russian State Documentary Film & Photo Archive in 1992. By the Decree #275 of April 2, 1997 of the President of the Russian Federation, the RSDFPA was included in the State list of especially valuable objects of cultural heritage of the peoples of the Russian Federation.