The Optimization of the Central State Archives System of Ukraine in War Conditions

The large-scale war phase, waged by the Russian Federation war against Ukraine, began on February 24, 2022, and posed a number of urgent problems for the Government of Ukraine, such as ensuring the sustainable operation of the central state archives system in the face of armed aggression, reducing state budget expenditures, and relocating of professionals. The aim of this study is to characterize and analyze the provisions and practices of the central archives of Ukraine, primarily the Central State Electronic Archives of Ukraine, the Central State Archives of Foreign Archival Ucrainica, the Central State Archives of Public Associations of Ukraine, and the H.S. Pshenychny Central State Film and Photo Archives of Ukraine, as well as to identify proposals for improving the administration of their activities and further reorganization. Research methods. The system method (for the analysis of the archival structure and its functionality), general scientifi c-comparative and special – comparative-legal, and comparative-historical methods (for comparing the implementation practice of this activity direction of state archives in Ukraine) are used. The author also used the formal-legal method to characterize comprehensively the main legal categories of archival legislation of Ukraine. Method of scientifi c interpretation of the law was used to substantiate the content of resolutions and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine orders and other regulations. The results of the study are proposals for the preparation of a government's draft decision on optimizing the system of central state archival institutions in Ukraine. Conclusions. It is established that the current structure of the central state archives of Ukraine does not fully ensure the implementation of state archival policy in the areas of formation, accounting, storage, and use of information resources in electronic form and archival Ucrainica. Optimizing the four state archives by merging them into two new ones should signifi cantly improve the situation.