The Tver State Region Archive was organized in 1919. There are one million and half files in this archive. The Archive keeps records of the tsar's and of soviet institutions, personal papers, a large collection of photographs, and audio-visual materials. Basically the materials are dated the 18th - 20th centuries but the oldest document is a document of the end of the 14th century. The Tver archive has a significant collection of manuscripts and rare books. It includes about two thousand items from the 14th until 20th centuries. The Archive collects records of state and non-state institutions and the papers of citizens. There are 50 employees in this archive but only 35 professional archivists.
The former party archive was reorganized in the Tver Center of Modern History Documentation in 1991. Today it is a state archive. Basically the Center is keeping materials of regional organizations of the Communist Party. Records of local agencies of the KGB were transferred to the Center too. There are about one million files in the Center. Today the Center is beginning to collect records of different institutions and the papers of citizens. Twenty-five people work in the Center. The functions of the Center and the Tver Region State Archive are similar today.
Each district center has a local municipal archive that keeps records of local state and municipal institutions. Today district archives try to collect photographs, audio-visual materials, and personal papers. It is very difficult because only one or two people work in these archives usually. The smallest district archive keeps about 15,000 files. The largest district archive keeps above 100,000 files.
The materials of all state and municipal archives of the Tver region are accessible for citizens and researchers, as a rule, but region state archives have documents that are restricted for searchers, of course. There are reading rooms in all archives. The archives open five days a week. Trained staff are present to assist researchers, and a variety of indexes, finding aids, and reference materials are available for use. The public catalogues consist of the card catalogs. There are also separate catalogs for books and newspapers. Each record fond has an inventory (opis).
An automated data search is being introduced in the Tver State Region Archive. Some archival collections of the state region archives are entered in the Research Libraries Information Network (RLIN). The researchers have microfiche and microfilm reading facilities at their disposal in the regional archives.
The Tver State Region Archive and the Tver Center of Modern History Documentation have scientific-reference libraries with voluminous book and journal fond. There are books published in Russia before the 18th century, books in foreign languages, and books from libraries of the nobles, officials, and intellectuals.
Copies of the most documents can be made but it depending on the condition of the original. On request, the staff will conduct a search of any topic information and files and inform the researcher of records fond and a summary of basic documents. All services of the state region archives, excluding the use of the reading rooms, are for fee.
Thematerials housed at the archives of Tver region contain the following topic units:
Also two subject groups must exist with the topic units: