Archives: Russian State Naval Archive in St. Petersburg welcomes unique documents

Holdings of the Russian State Naval Archive in St. Petersburg now feature new unique documents. A book of orders of the commander of the Pacific Ocean squadron which dates back to the 1880s has been donated to the repository.

A set of documents received by the Central Naval Archive is dated 1882 and is directly associated with the name of the Commander of the Pacific Ocean Squadron, rear admiral Avraamiy Aslanbegov.

The St. Petersburg Archive has a special fund of Aslanbegov, but until now there was an only weak point – it lacked authentic documents which would shed the light on the commandment of the ship detachment in the Pacific Ocean. In 2007 representatives of the Miyanobu family from Gotsu, Japan expressed readiness to return this book to Russia. According to the family legend, documents were received by the Japanese side after the wreck of the “Irtysh” transport ship in 1905.

There is another important acquisition of the Naval Archive. During the reconstruction of the headquarters building the State Hermitage staff discovered a set of documents related to the history of shipbuilding in Nikolayev shipyards.