«Archival Aspect» in the Correspondence between Helena Polyachkivna and Oswald Balzer, the Employees of the Bernardine Archives in Lviv in 1911–1933

The article presents the analysis of correspondence between two employees of the Bernardine Archives in Lviv director O. Balzer and archivist H. Polyachkivna fond at the National Ossolinski Library in Wroclaw. The aim of the publication is to present the informational potential of the collection, in particular those aspects related to the functioning of the archive. In order to achieve it the unpublished letters of archivists have been analyzed, the dates and the origin have been determined, the main directions of archive's activity, represented in the correspondence, have been viewed. The research methodology involves the usage of studying whole historical sources and being objective. Descriptive, typological, anthropological and biographical methods, as well as methods of analysis and synthesis have been used. The article is of great scientifi c novelty and value as the sources analyzed there have not been published in any journal before. The information derived from the letters allows to study some aspects of life, professional and scientifi c biography of both historians-archivists, as well as to characterize the main tendencies of development not only of Lviv, but also partly of Krakow, Poznan and even Paris and Roman historical sphere of 1920–1930s. The prospects for further research are to publish the analyzed correspondence, as well as to identify and process other personal documents of Lviv archivists. Conclusions. The rich and thematically diverse correspondence of O. Balzer and H. Polyachkivna has signifi cant informational value. Thanks to the provided study of the letters the researcher has managed to trace the formation of the Bernardine Archives with ancient Sambir acts to determine the list of archive's staff and their work, to reconstruct the daily life of the institution and the relationship between the employees. The material and technical conditions of archives which were quite hard for conducting archival work have been analyzed.