On April 10, 2021, the I. S. Zharaev National Centre for Audiovisual Heritage of the Peoples of the Republic of Sakha, turned twenty-five-years-old. This essay is about the fundamental stages of the center’s formation and about what it has managed to create in its first half century.
The idea for an archive of visual material about Yakutia first occurred as early as the 1960s. Alevtina Grigor’evna Teterina, an editor of newsreel and documentary films; Tamara Petrovna Karnaukhova, head of the republic’s film distribution studio; and several employees at the republic’s offices in charge of film screenings, all initially came up with the idea for the need to collect documentary film material about Yakutia. They began collating footage of Yakutia from film magazines and other movies. At that time, of course, there was little information about the images, no annotations, and the materials were never made into a publishable collection.
Not until the 1990s would the idea to create a special institution for the collection and codification of all the film and video material about the life of Northerners in Yakutia under one roof again come to two filmmakers—Ivan Spiridonovich Zharaev and Vissarion Andreevich Tomskii—with a long record of work and authority within the world of cinema in Yakutia. “In 1993,” recalls Tomskii, who, at that time, had been the General Director of the film studio Yakutkinovideoob’edinenie (Yakutia cinema and video association):
at one of the meetings with the President of the Sakha Republic, M. E. Nikolaev, I proposed creating a repository of films about Yakutia. There was footage of our republic stored in Irkutsk, Moscow, Novosibirsk, in other cities in the Soviet Union, and even abroad. It was necessary to undertake a search-and-rescue mission and bring it all to Yakutia. Only then would the residents of Yakutia, scholars, and journalists be able to familiarize themselves with the historical footage. The president was intrigued by the idea and gave an order to issue a proposal in writing (Zharaev 2006).
Before they could get the president’s full attention and approval, however, it was necessary to have some film material about Yakutia already in hand. Therefore, in 1995, Tomskii took two trips to Moscow, to the Russian State Cinema and Photo Archives (RGAKFD), and brought back with him a few cassettes with recordings, fragments, and storylines about Yakutia.
In October 1995, at a meeting of the directors of the republic’s film production companies comprised of all the veterans of cinema exhibition in Yakutia, the question was raised about creating an independent archive of films about Yakutia, similar to the State Film Fund of the USSR. Most of the meeting participants approved. On November 24, 1995, the leaders of the republic’s film veterans’ organizations, the Union of Cinematographers of the Republic of Sakha, the State film company Sakhafil’m, and the Republic of Sakha’s Ministry of Culture and Department of Film and Film Distribution issued a statement outlining the need to establish a national archive of film material.
On December 4, 1995, the project was sent by the first President of the Republic of Sakha, Mikhail Efimovich Nikolaev, to the state assembly with the resolution: “The question is difficult but necessary. It needs to be considered by the government. You have fifteen days to determine the timing and scope of the project.” In accordance with this deadline, a solution needed to be prepared by December 17, 1995. Work on a draft decree and proposals for different kinds programs began immediately. All these ideas and documents were coordinated in concert with various ministries and departments, as well as with officials on whom the fate of the final draft depended. As Ivan Zharaev recalled:
During the preparation period, we thought for a long time about the name of the institution. At first we proposed State National Film and Video Archive on Yakutia. However, at the Northern Forum, a similar organization was created with an analogous name: the International Audiovisual Foundation for the Peoples of the North. In the end, we settled on the name State National Repository for Film Documents on the Republic of Sakha (Romanov 2021).
On April 10, 1996, Zharaev and Tomskii—two enthusiasts, two patriots, and two professionals in their field—had achieved establishing a film archive in Yakutia. In 1997, the republic’s president signed the decree “On the State National Repository of Film Documents on the Republic of Sakha as proposed by the Cinematography Committee under the Government of the Republic of Sakha.” The document underscored the importance of creating a national film archive, given the unique value of film material in formulating, studying, and popularizing images of Yakutia.
The end of the twentieth century for Yakutia, as well as for all of Russia, was difficult in many respects. In 1996, the collapse of the economy in the once powerful country did not inspire hope for the creation of an institution dedicated to preserving the audiovisual memory of Yakutia. The efforts of the two film veterans Zharaev and Tomskii, however, were nevertheless met with success. They were unconditionally supported by President Nikolaev.
The first director of the archive was Vasilii Vasil’evich Pesterev. In the challenging perestroika period, the new leader had to build the material and technical infrastructure of the new archive from scratch: the first computers, the first legal documents, acquiring of a more-or-less functioning building, and hiring film specialists. Through several years of assiduous work with the active assistance of the People’s Deputy of the State Assembly (“Il Tümen” in Sakha), Aleksandr Nikolaevich Zhirkov, with the support of his senior colleagues at the RGAKFD, confidently introduced the Sakha Archive as a new and necessary institution in the world of visual culture.
In 1998, based on the president’s decree, funds were approved for the archive, which was recognized as a valuable object of national cultural heritage for the Republic of Sakha.
In 1999, the republic adopted the law “On the Mandatory Copy of Documents,” which outlined the procedure for transferring all film material made within in the republic, regardless of proprietorship, to state storage. Every relationship between film and television studios, as well as those between departmental archives and individuals, are predicated on this law, which Galina Konstantinovna Okhlopkova played an active role in creating.
Toward the end of 1999, the first competition, “Chronicling the Cinema of Yakutia,” took place within the republic. The winner of the Grand Prix was Iurii Ivanovich Vasil’ev for finding and transferring footage dating back to 1926 to state storage. Not only have eminent video journalists and filmmakers from Yakutia won the top prize at the prestigious competition but so, too, have amateur collectors and filmmakers. People win prizes for discovering the most valuable film and television material for state storage. This year, the “Chronicling the Cinema of Yakutia” competition will convene for the eighteenth time.
In 2000, the government of Yakutia approved a program called “For the Implementation of International Standards for the Quality and Storage of Film Documents in the Republic of Sakha.” Partnerships have since developed between the main Russian film archives and the Sakha archive. Archivists from all the different regions of Russian often gather both in Moscow an in Yakutsk.
In 2001, the Museum of Cinematography was created within the archive, which has become the epicenter for the preservation and display of video material. It became a very popular site among the locals and an excellent source of information for historians and journalists. From its very first days, the museum staff began advertising the archive’s activities. Over its twenty-five years of existence, the Yakutia film archive has published more than fifty books, brochures, and catalogs, many of which have been authored by Ivan Zharaev, whose name the archive now bears.
A seminar was held in Yakutia in which Noriko Aikawa participated, a representative of UNESCO, who is very supportive of the efforts of Yakutia’s efforts to preserve the audiovisual memory of one of the global North’s most traditional cultures.
A film expedition in 2001 also took place in the remote villages of the Nizhnekolymsk region to collect film materials about the spiritual culture of the Yukagir and Old-Russians (russkie starozhily), who live there.
In 2002, the first film festival, “Yakutia Film Chronicle,” was held in the Olekminsk district. The film festival has since traveled to other regions beyond the Olekminsk River. It has also gone to the Prilenskii and the Viliui districts.
In 2004, the Il Tumen State Assembly adopted the law “On Objects of National Culture Heritage of the People of the Republic of Sakha.”
In 2005, the Republic of Sakha adopted the first law “On Audiovisual Heritage” within the Russian Federation. It was announced that the UNESCO holiday for Audiovisual Heritage would be celebrated on October 27.
On the sixtieth anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory in the Great Patriotic War, the creative team at archive’s museum produced the documentary Yakutia in the Holy War (Iakutiia v sviaschennoi voine), which received a gold medal at the “All People’s Recognition” competition.
In 2006, a scientific conference was held in Yakutia called “Audiovisual Heritage of the Far Eastern Federal District of the Russian Federation as an Object of Storage and Historical Source.” The conference was attended by many notable individuals: Vladimir Magidov, the head of the Russian Academy of Sciences and President of the National Association of Audiovisual Archives of Russia; other representatives of the Russian State Archive of Film and Photo Documents and the Moscow Scientific-Research Institute of Cinematography; a professor at Sorbonne University in Paris, Boris Chichlo; and other well-known film critics and archivists. The renowned expert in the field of audiovisual archiving at UNESCO, Ray Edmondson, also addressed the conference, and the famous Russian film critic Kirill Razlogov was celebrated and hosted as the archive’s guest.
In 2007, Vladimir Spiridonovich Andreev became head of the archive. He expanded the network of film archive institutions throughout the republic, making it a top priority of his work. In collaboration with the Council of Municipalities, work actively began in many districts within the republic on the creation of their own audiovisual archives.
In 2009, a collaboration began with the Council of Municipalities of the Republic of Sakha having to do with the organization of film archives in districts throughout the republic.
In 2010, the Republic adopted the decree “On the Resource Base for the Formation of the Audiovisual Heritage of the Republic of Sakha.” This decree was the result of many years of work on a collection of memories and documents from veterans of the Great Patriotic War. It was released as a series of films entitled Living Voices of War (Zhivye golosa voiny)justin time for the 65th anniversary of the Soviet victory.
In 2012, the logo of the center, developed by Galina Okhlopkova, the head archivist, received a patent and was praised by the Russian Agency for Patents and Trademarks. The “Regulations of the State Registrar of Unique and Highly Valuable Audiovisual Documents” was also approved that year. Then, in 2013, work began on registering the materials of the archive into the Archival Fund of the Russian Federation.
In 2016, for its twenty years of activity, the audiovisual archive of Yakutia has firmly occupied its niche in the cultural sphere of the northernmost region of Russia. The newly appointed director Bergen Vasil’evich Parnikov began work by expanding the powers of the center and strengthen its material and technical base. Under his leadership, the institution was transferred to the Department of Archival Affairs of the Ministry of Culture and Spiritual Development of the Republic of Sakha. The institution also became the organizer of major international and regional events, such as the Yakutsk International Film Festival, which had already won a strong position, and the center became a major participant in the production of a large-scale feature film, Tygyn Darkhan (Nikita Arzhakov, 2020).
In accordance with the expansion of the archive’s activities in its twentieth year of existence, it was renamed into the National Center for the Audiovisual Heritage of the Peoples of the Republic of Sakha. One of the center’s priorities is professional development. The entire team underwent retraining in the specialization of “archival studies” led by top Russian archivists.
In 2017, on the eve of the 100th-anniversary for the Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic’s (YASSR) formation, a cooperation agreement was signed by the Council of Municipalities of the Republic of Sakha that promoted collaboration among all the regions of Yakutia.
A team of filmmakers at the center shot the film Cinema has Arrived! (Kiine kelle!, Galina Okhlopkova, 2017) dedicated to the work of the first projectionists in Yakutia. For a quarter of a century, the institution’s staff, with financial support from the center, have created more than thirty films on various topics having to do with Yakutia: public organizations, healthcare, political life, the army, crafts, national culture, and people who are proud of our people. These documentaries have repeatedly received awards at various competitions and festivals.
In 2019, the center’s financial documents were reorganized after passage of the law “Rules for the Organization of Storage, Acquisition, Accounting, and Use of Documents of the Archival Fund of the Russian Federation.” Rooms for their storage, along with a viewing hall complex, were made, while a new shelving system and film stock indexes were also implemented.
Over twenty-five years of searching for, making, and collecting film material about Yakutia, the number of audiovisual documents currently housed in state storage exceeds 36,000 units: a third of which is the result of “initiative archiving,” that is, works made by the center’s film specialists themselves. These materials are actively used by schoolchildren, students, scientists, historians, TV studios and filmmakers, as well as by individual citizens.
Also in 2019, the National Audiovisual Center was named after Ivan Spiridonovich Zharaev, the patriarch of cinema exhibition in Yakutia for whom cinema was his life’s main business.
In 2020, the center produced a cycle of films entitled 75 Moments of Victory: Soldier’s Stories (75 mgnovenii pobedy. Soldatskie istorii), which played on local and federal television for several months. Video content is also being prepared for the celebration of the 100th-anniversary of the YASSR’s proclamation. There is still much work ahead of us.
The rapid introduction of new digital media in our lives further impresses upon us a need for the long-term storage of images and videos about Yakutia. In order for the visual culture of Yakutia to be adequately represented in the global digital space, it is necessary to expand the center’s reach and support: to increase our storage capacities, to grow professionally, to acquire the most modern equipment, and, most importantly, to get a spacious, specialized building that will house our invaluable living memories about the past and present of a unique land called Yakutia.
As of today, there are more than one hundred funds of footage at the center, exactly one hundred and twelve. This material is collated from official producers of video products (film companies, television studios, etc.), but also amateur audiovisual practitioners. The largest of the funds are, of course, the East Siberian Newsreel Studio (Irkutsk) and the Sakha National Broadcasting Company television studio. We store the material on all audiovisual information available today. And, of course, we are open to all those who are interested. Scientists, journalists, historians, and archivists can always find what they need from us. There is also a search engine at the archive, and new catalogs are compiled every year because the number of films, reportages, and TV programs received by the state for storage increases on an annual basis.
At present, most of the center’s plans have been largely implemented, except for the construction of a specialized building. The video funds are classified as uniquely valuable objects of the national and cultural heritage of the people of our multinational Republic. The staff of the Center for Audiovisual Heritage, with the help of state bodies within the Republic of Sakha, takes all measures to identify, record, store, and study the moral and aesthetic ideals, the national traditions, customs, and languages, and life history of the peoples and nationalities of the Republic of Sakha captured in these audiovisual documents.
The footage of the past is more in demand than ever in our present moment when information is almost impossible to understand or present without visual accompaniment. In the global digital space, the task of collecting and professionally storing an audiovisual record of the history of the Republic for the future is an increasingly important one.
Translated from Russian by Raymond De Luca
Works cited
Zharaev, Ivan. 2006. “Kak sozdavalos’ Goskinokhranilische.” Ilin 1(48).
Romanov, Petr. 2021. “Kak sozdavalsia kinoarxiv Iakutii.” Natsional’nyi tsentr audiovisual’nogo naslediia narodov Respublika Sakha (Iakutiia) imeni I.S. Zharaeva.
Liubov’ Lobanova and Petr Romanov © 2022