Record Atlas
40 FamilySearch collections · 3 archives · 1,064 places · 1226–2005

Russia

Where the records of Russia are, who holds them, and what it costs to look. 154,396,998 indexed records reachable through FamilySearch alone.

Where to start in Russia

None of the 2 checked sources here can be opened from a keyboard. 2are catalogue cards or paper in a building — a letter, not a click. On top of that, 9 worldwide services reach Russia without a subscription.

1 more institution is listed here and has never been checked — nobody has opened it, written to it, or found out what it holds. They are on the map as grey because that is what they are, and the honest reading of this page is 0 known-open, 1 unknown.

Write to Bundesarchiv, Государственный архив Российской Федерации (GARF), Российский государственный архив древних актов (RGADA) for what is not online. FamilySearch has 40 collections covering it, running 1226–2005, 154,396,998 indexed records. 3 pieces of this ground are mapped for jurisdiction, so the atlas can say whose archive held it in a given year.

1,064 places placed, 2 volumes walked. Open Russia on the map, or tell us what is missing.

Whose archive this ground was

Record regions mapped in Russia — which empire held the ground, and therefore which archive holds its paper.

  • East Prussia 4 eras Königsberg (Kaliningrad), Memel (Klaipėda), Allenstein (Olsztyn)
  • Livonia, Estonia and Courland 5 eras Riga, Tartu (Dorpat), Tallinn (Reval), Jelgava (Mitau)
  • Finland 4 eras Helsinki, Turku, Vyborg, Ostrobothnia, Karelia

The archives

  • Bundesarchiv catalogue Koblenz, Germany

    The German Federal Archives. Civil and military administration of the Prussian provinces, the wartime records, and the card indexes of the expelled — much of it for ground that is no longer German.

  • Государственный архив Российской Федерации (GARF) onsite Moscow, Russia

    The State Archive of the Russian Federation — the central holder of the Russian and Soviet state record. OPENED 2026-09-29: the site is a reading-room archive, not an image portal. Its own front page is notices about reading room No. 1, delays issuing files from the storage of central administrative, political and state-security bodies, and — dated in the notice itself — the relocation of part of the holdings to Obninsk, closing the federal legislative, executive and judicial fonds entirely from 07.09.2026 to 15.11.2026. Anyone planning a visit or a written request in that window should read those notices first. This is the row Russia did not have: until today the atlas's only Russian source was the GERMAN Federal Archives, tagged for ground the Prussian empire once held — true, and silent about Moscow, the Volga and Siberia.

  • Российский государственный архив древних актов (RGADA) unsurveyed Moscow, Russia

    The Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts — pre-1917 fonds, the deepest of the Russian state collections and the one a genealogist working before the revolution is sent to. Named and located from its own Wikidata item; NOT yet opened, so no claim is made here about what a visitor can reach.

And 12 worldwide providers reach Russia too — the full list.

40 FamilySearch collections

Grouped by the ground each one covers, nationwide. A free account opens the images; some are restricted to a Family History Centre.

Russia — nationwide 40

27 more collections, contributed

A directory David assembled, sorted by what kind of record each one is. Read this differently from the rest of the page. The descriptions are his, not an archive's catalogue, and nobody here has opened the volumes behind them. Every link was tried on 2026-09-20 and answered; the ones that did not are not listed.

Church and parish registers 13
Censuses and population lists 11
Probate, land and notarial 1
Military and wartime 2
General historical archives 1

1,064 places, 2 volumes

The 250 carrying the most collections are listed; 814 more are in Russia and on the map. Every place lists them all.

Every country · The map