The Archives State Agency has marked its 65^th anniversary and organized several events aimed at showing the treasures it stores to the people. Some may think the archives are a place of gloom and dust, inhabited by a few archivists and historians. The agency puts on display a modern archive that stores not only paper documents and works of art but various artefacts, too. A process of digitization and electronic archiving also continues.

On the occasion of its anniversary the agency announced a day of open doors for all archives in the country. Visitors had the opportunity to see unique and especially valuable documents in the reading rooms of the Central State Archive in Sofia. For those interested in the process of archiving, access to laboratories where restoration and conservation of documents is performed was provided. This is only a small part of the activities carried out in the archival system. Anyone who visits the archives on Moskovska 5 Street in Sofia will have the opportunity to see the exhibition "Art in Archives," that puts on display artworks kept in the Central State Archive.

How big are the Bulgarian State Archives actually and is it easy to preserve the precious artefacts that are stored in it? More details from head of the Archives State Agency, Assoc. Prof. Mihail Gruev:

"Special conditions for storing archives are required. The system of the agency includes two central archives - the one in Sofia, the Central Military Archives in Veliko Tarnovo, as well as 28 regional archives nationwide. Each of them consists of a few buildings. But many of these buildings were not initially built for storing archives and do not meet the required standards. Maintaining a nice and tidy archive is a costly initiative. Developed countries invest a lot in archives because they store the memory of a nation."

It is worth asking, what does state institutions do to protect important artefacts and documents?

"In recent years we have been performing large-scale digitization, which starts from creating an inventory of archival documents and their digitisation. On the website of the Agency one can find an information system that allows you to search in different funds, using keywords. Thus people with little knowledge of archives could find information about events and even family members from the past. We try to expand this access, but this is a process that will take years. In countries with well-developed archives, digitization reaches up to 8%, but unfortunately we are lagging behind."

No matter how imperfect the Bulgarian State Archives may look, they are a true treasure. This is a place where people can find whatever interests them. For this reason the agency honoured with a Reader of the Year Award Mr. Rumen Ivanov, a resident of Pernik. In 2015 he spent a total of 120 days in the archives to retrieve the complete information on all mayors in Pernik region before 9 September, 1944.

We learned more about future projects of the agency. One of the goals is to give recognition to all the people who have supported the work of the agency over the years, as well as those who donated items and valuables, previously considered lost. At the end of the year Archives State Agency vowed to publish a list of the names of all who died in the wars in which modern Bulgaria fought.

Here's what Assoc. Prof. Mihail Gruev told us at the end of our meeting.

"I call on people to visit the archives more often. This is a place that stores many valuable paintings, photographs and documents. These are different pieces of our past that can only enrich us."

English: Alexander Markov