The Archaeographic Commission (Археографическая комиссия) was set up in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

in 1834 by Platon Shirinsky-Shikhmatov, Nikolay Ustryalov, and

Pavel Stroyev Pavel Mikhailovich Stroyev (Павел Михайлович Строев; 1796–1876) was a Russian paleographer who brought to light some of the most important sources of Russian history, including the Sudebnik of 1497, the homilies of St. Cy ...

with the aim of publishing historical and ethnographic materials assembled by Stroyev and others in the provinces of

Imperial Russia Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor/empress, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * ...

. The commission was affiliated with the imperial ministry of education and was modeled on an earlier commission based in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. Its first major enterprise was the

Complete Collection of Russian Chronicles The Complete Collection of Russian Chronicles (, abbr. ''PSRL'') is a series of published volumes aimed at collecting all medieval East Slavic chronicles, with various editions published in Imperial Russia, the Soviet Union, and Russian Federat ...

, published from 1841 onward. Regional archaeographical commissions were established in

Kiev Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

Vilna Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

, and

Tiflis Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი, ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), ( ka, ტფილისი, tr ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia ( ...

. The commission spearheaded efforts to obtain foreign sources on Russian history and sent its emissaries in search of Russia-related documents to the major archives of Europe. After Shirinsky-Shikhmatov the commission's presidents included Avraam Norov (1850–69),

Vladimir Titov Vladimir Titov (Russian: Владимир Титов) may refer to the following notable people: * Vladimir Titov (cosmonaut) (born 1947), Russian cosmonaut * Vladimir Titov (diplomat) (1964-2025), Russian diplomat * Vladimir Titov (footballer) ( ...

(1871–91),

Sergei Platonov Sergey Fyodorovich Platonov () (28 June Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="6 June Old Style and New Style dates">O.S. 1860 – 10 January 1933) was a Russian historian who led the official St Petersburg school of imperial historio ...

(1918–29),

Nikolay Likhachov Nikolay Petrovich Likhachyov (), alternatively transliterated as Likhachev (12 April 1862 – 14 April 1936) was the first and foremost Russian sigillographer (that is, an expert on seals) who also contributed significantly to an array of auxi ...

(1929), and

Mikhail Pokrovsky Mikhail Nikolayevich Pokrovsky (; – April 10, 1932) was a Russian Marxist historian, revolutionary and a Soviet public and political figure. One of the earliest professionally trained historians to join the Russian revolutionary movement, Pokr ...

(1930–32). In the 20th century the institution went through several reorganizations and name changes. After the establishment of the

Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991. It united the country's leading scientists and was subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (un ...

(1925), the commission came under its jurisdiction. The Historical-Archaeographic Institute, founded in 1931, was liquidated in 1936 and transformed into the

Saint Petersburg Institute of History The Saint Petersburg Institute of History () is a research institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the field of Russian and foreign history. It is part of the Department of Historical and Philological Sciences of the Russian Academy of Scie ...

(SPbIH). Today, the SPbIH archive contains documents collected by the previous Archaeographic Commission. The modern Archaeographic Commission was founded in 1956 by

Mikhail Tikhomirov Mikhail Nikolayevich Tikhomirov (; 31 May 1893 — 2 September 1965) was a leading Soviet specialist in medieval Russian paleography. Tikhomirov was born and spent his whole life in Moscow, where he was in charge of the Archaeographic Commissio ...

as a branch of the Academy's history department.

Bibliography

* {{Authority control Palaeography Learned societies of Russia Archives in Russia Russian studies 1834 establishments in the Russian Empire Book publishing companies of the Russian Empire