THE ARCHIVE OF THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF POLAND – THE ASPECT OF ACCESSIBILITY OF THE ARCHIVAL MATERIALS

Abstract

In Polish archival law, the Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland has the status of a separated archive, i.e. not subject to the supervision of state archives. This is a key archive for researchers dealing with diplomatic and consular activities of the Polish state over the last several decades. Its activities are regulated by a number of legal acts. First of all, these are The Act on National Archival Resource and Archives of 14 July 1983 and Regulation of the Council of Ministers on the manner and mode of making available the archival materials contained in separated archives of 22 June 2011. The most important internal norms are: Organizational Regulations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Instruction on the organization and scope of operation of archive and Regulations of the Reading Room of the MFA Archive. No publication has been published on the history and organization of this archive. There is also no publication describing its entire resource. Currently, this archive contains documentation created after World War II. This is approximately 6.5 thousand linear meters of archival materials. A lot of information about archival materials from the first twenty years after the end of World War II can be found on its website. Getting access to archival materials is an extremely important issue. The Archive makes its archival materials available to the visitors in the traditional way in its reading room, after obtaining the permission of the director by them. Although according to the Regulations of the Reading Room of the MFA Archive it should be open to visitors for up to four days a week, the MFA Archive Reading Room has been open only one day a week for a long time, which makes it more difficult for researchers to use the documentation stored in the archive. However, a large part of the documentation from 1945–1965 has been digitized and is available online in free access to all interested parties. Currently, scans of 10,895 archival items from 16 archival funds are available. The website has a search engine that makes it easier to find specific documents.