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THE LARGEST HISTORICAL ARCHIVESIN RUSSIA AND EUROPEIS UNDER THE THREAT OF DESTRUCTIONACCORDING TO THE DECISION OF THE OFFICIALS!The Russian State Historical Archives in St.Petersburg is under threat of closing, eviction and destruction due to the decision of the officials, planning to use all its buildings for accommodation of the offices and a hotel complex.On December 17th, 2002 the Chairman of the Government of Russia Mikhail Kasianov signed a bylaw according to which all the buildings occupied by the Russian State Historical Archive were confiscated and were consigned to the Administration of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin.The administration of the Archives was proposed to close the archives and to release the buildings. Before the new building will be constructed the collections were proposed to warehouse somewhere. This means that the Archives will be closed in summer 2003 for 15-30 years!There were several articles in Russian papers, magazines, TV interviews against closing the Archives. But till now there is no document stopping this awfull governmental decision.WE ASK FOR HELP OF THE EUROPEAN AND WORLD COMMUNITY,UNESCO, THE SCIENTISTS AND POLITICIANSTO AFFECT THE RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES AND INDUCE THEMTO ABANDON THE ATTEMPT OF CONFISCATION OF THE BUILDINGSOF THE ARCHIVES AND CLOSING IT!http://rgia.narod.ru/maineng.htmRead a little more in German hereShort information on the archives in English:http://feefhs.org/blitz/blitzfa.htmlhttp://rgia.narod.ru/archiveng.htm (with pictures)