Sonderband 2. International Council on Archives. Dritte Europäische Archivkonferenz, Wien 11. bis 15. Mai 1993. Tagungsprotokolle (1996)
2. Session /Séance. Regional (trans-border) Cooperation / Coopération régionale (transfrontaliere) - Rastas, Pirkko: Archival cooperation between the Nordic and Baltic countries / La coopération entre les pays Nordique et les pays baltes (english 161 - français 176)
4. 2. Latvia In Latvia we met all the leaders of the archival authorities and the Head of the Archival Administration, Mr Valdis Stals. The discussions were in Russian and Mr. Peep Pillak, who accompanied us, functioned as an interpreter. The questions and attitude of the Latvians reflected considerable professional skills but also pessimism, caution and worries concerning the effects of social change. The Latvian archival authorities are directly controlled by the Parliament. They are led by the Archival Administration. There are three Central Archives, i. e. the National Archives, The Historical Archives and the Film and Sound Archives. There are also three Provincial (local) archives. The two central archives that were mentioned first contain 6, 5 million archival units. 20 % of the records date back to the time before 1710. An archival law was passed March 26, 1991. The KGB records were transported to Russia some three years ago. The Latvians have negotiated with Moscow in order to get them back. Difficult working conditions have led to increased pessimism among the Latvians. Archives cannot be heated, the records are in danger of destruction and the archival material is growing rapidly. The social changes are also a threat, because important organizations are no longer controlled by archival authorities, when they have been privatized. International contacts are less frequent than in Estonia and difficult to handle. Foreign researchers have come from Germany and the United States. Copies of documents are exchanged with other countries. The Latvians considered an evaluation of the archival institutions of Latvia by an international commission as a good weapon for the local archival authorities; it would enable them to put pressure on the parliament and make it more symphatetic to archival needs. International moral support would, according to the Latvians, be of great importance and make it possible to raise the status of their profession. They also stressed the importance of information from abroad concerning archive theory and particularly about archival methodology. English and German were suitable languages in international cooperation. The Latvian desovietisation process also obliges the archives to issue a lot of certificates and it was feared that the search rooms would, therefore, have to be closed. In 1991 the archival institutions received 94 000 certificate requests. 94 % of them have been dealt with. The archival authorities received 40 000 new, requests during the first four months of 1992. 4. 3. Lithuania In Vilna we visited the Historical Archives and met the Head of the Archival Administration, Aleksandras Guobys. English and Russian were used during our discussion. The Lithuanian archival system consists of six central archives and 10 local archives. One of the central archives is the former archives of the Communist Party that has been transformed into an archives of the Popular movement. The archival authorities have 6, 5 million archival units in their custody. The Archives 2. Session/Séance: Rastas, Cooperation between the Nordic and Baltic Countries 172
