State Archives of the Republic of Macedonia

Address: Grigor Prlichev, 3
1000 SKOPJE

The Republic of Macedonia

tel.: (++ 389 2) 3237-211, 3115-783, 3165-947; 3116-571
fax: 3165-944

Office hours: 8.00 a.m. - 4.00 p.m.

The State Archives of the Republic of Macedonia were established on April 1st ,1951 . Since 1926 up to 1941 the State Archives had functioned under the leadeship of the State Archives of Serbia in Belgrade. The largest part of the collected archive records had been transfered to Belgrade.

The need to collect and protect the archive materials was expressed even during World War ll, when on May 3, the Ministry for National Education annouced the intention to establish the Archives of the Peoples Liberation Movement of Macedonia, as part of the Nacional Library in Skopje. This initiative was not realized for several reasons, but soon after wards, with decree No. 2543, dated May 31, 1945, the Ministry for National Education of the Peoples Republic of Macedonia created the Committee for the collection of archive materials. The Committee developed activies in the engaging of education workers for performing the tasks in regard to the indication and collection of archive materials. This manner of work could not give results. In 1946 and 1947, the newly established Facilty of Philosophy and the Institute for Nacional History actively got involved in this activity.

In 1949, at the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Macedonia, the Histirical Archives were established, with the task to select and process archive and memorial materials connection with the workers movement, the Peoples Liberation War and Communist Party of Macedonia. The holdings that were kept in these Archives, today are in the Archives of Macedonia. The enactment of the General Law on State Archive in Yugoslavia in 1950 was the base on which on January 6, 1951, the National Assembly of the Peoples Republic of Macedonia enacted the Law on State Archives, which established the creation of the Archives of Macedonia (at that time bearing the name “State Archives of PR of Macedonia).

The first normative act in Macedonia from the domain of legislature on archive not only set up the organization of the Archives of Macedonia and its tasks, but also determined the creation of several regional archives, and archives as part of it, with the goal to collect, preserve, protect and process, as intensively as possible, the archive materials which was created in the in institutions of the new state, and furthermore, to engege in collection and protecting of archive materials which would serve in the study of the history of the Macedonian peoples. In the period of 1953 to 1960, nine regional historical archives were created and started to work, which with the new Law on Archive Materials from 1990, become a part of the Archives of Macedonia, as local units, nameiy: Bitola, Kumanovo, Ohrid, Prilep, Skopje Strumica, Tetovo, Titov Veles and Stip.

Following the foundation the State Archives of the Republic of Macedonia accessed to establish the archival network institutions covering the whole territory of the Republic of Macedonia. Firstly, they were functioning as the archive departments at the National Museums, later they developed into the department institutions. Since 1990 the integration of the archive service in Macedonia has been in progress resulting in the transformation of the independent archives' institutions into departments.

The newly created accomodated building of the State Archives of the Republic of Macedonia Head Office was put into function in 1969. The bilateral cooperation, research work and publishing activities have been performed in the Archives' Head Office exclusively. The State Archives of the Republic of Macedonia also includes the Laboratory for conservation and restoration and the Microfilming Laboratory.

The projecting of the integrated informative system intro the State Archives of the Republic of Macedonia Head Office enables the models of the three systems - informative science, the system of technical preservation and the system of automatic atmosphere regulation in the repositories to be carried on. After the model has been developed and integrated in, it will be implemented into the departments in the Republic of Macedonia.

The State Archives of the Republic of Macedonia Head Office has been authorized to have jurisdiction over the creators and owners of the republic rank archive records. It has been functioning with 200 registar's offices in total.

The State Archives of the Republic of Macedonia Reading Room has 10 places at the users' disposal and it is equiped with 4 microfilm readers and 1 microfilm printer. Microfilms, photocopies and xerox copies may be processed at the request of the users. The Reading Room is at the users' disposal from 8.00 a.m. to 2.00 p.m. every working day.

In the State Archives of the Republic of Macedonia 1144 archive groups and 23 archival collections are at the users' disposal. The oldest document which has been kept in the Archives originates from the 12th century.

The records concerning the social and the economic conditions of life in Bitola Vilayet are of special importance and are contained in 19 books in continuity from 1607 to 1912 with total number of 40.000 separate acts written in Old Turkish.

Since the period of the Ottoman administration in Macedonia, the archive groups of the District administration (the Offices of the kaimakams) for Prilep (1869-1912) and Tetovo, the municipal administration in Veles, Radovish, Skopje, Tetovo and Shtip are preserved.

Archive groups of significant Macedonian revolutionaries are preserved concerning the National Liberation movement in Macedonia such as: Goce Delchev, Petar Manjukov, Dimitar Vlahov, Dobri Daskalov, Krste Misirkov as well as separate revolutionary districts of VMRO (International Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation) (1896-1926).

Since the period of the Bulgarian administration in Macedonia (1915-1918), the District, Municipal and Community administration archive groups are preserved.

Since the period of Serbian administration in Macedonia (1918-1941) the archive groups of the Ban's administration of Vardar's Banovina (1929-1941) are preserved.

Since the period of the Bulgarian occupation of Macedonia (1941-1944), the archive groups referring to the District, Municipal and Community administration, head and police offices as well as the court materials are preserved.

Since the period of the National Liberation War of the Macedonian people from the Vardar, Aegean and Pirin part of Macedonia, the archive groups of the corps, divisions, operative zones, brigades, battalions and the Partisans' Detachments of the National Liberation War (1941-1944) are preserved.

Since the post war period the archive group "The Antifascist Council of the National Liberation of Macedonia (ASNOM)" (1944-1945), the archive groups of the Government of Macedonia (1945-1990) and the one of the Parliament (1945-1990) are preserved.

The following archive groups are also preserved in the State Archives of the Republic of Macedonia: the archive groups of the Greek Orthodox Church (1705-1917); the archive groups of the Bulgarian Exarcate - dioceses of the metropolitan, parishes and church administration (1890-1912); the archive groups of the Serbian Orthodox Church - Orthodox diocese of the metropolitan, parishes and church administration, churches and monasteries (1913-1941); the archive groups of the Islamic religions community - Vacouf administration, District offices of muftis, District Vacouf Mearif agencies and Offices of imams (1919-1941).

The private and family records of: Andreevi from Krushevo, Bogdanovi, Mashovi and Kirkovi from Veles, Bogdanovi from Salonica, Bogoevic from Tetovo, Bojadjievi from Debar, Isakovski and Pop Antevi from Skopje, Zozi and Danabash from Bitola, Popovi from Prilep and Sarmapoza from Ohrid occupy a significant part of the total number of archive groups.

The archival collections are compiled from: firmans (1646-1859), berats (1702-1911), vacoufnamas (1574-1911), maps etc.