History of the Archive

Order No 109 of 29 December 1992 of the General Directorate of the Lithuanian Archives under the Government of the Republic of Lithuania establishes the Document Setting and Record Keeping Division of the General Directorate of the Lithuanian Archives as a structural unit of the future State Archive of Recent Documents from 1 January 1993. It is to have 4 posts: the Head of the Division and 3 Chief Archivists, and an office at 8 Mindaugo Street, Vilnius.

The Document Setting and Record Keeping Division is reorganised by Order No 157 of 19 October 1993 of the General Directorate of the Lithuanian Archives, establishing the Lithuanian State New Archive (hereinafter referred to as the LVNA). The same order entrusted the LVNA with the task of collecting and preserving the documents of the State authorities and management bodies, Vilnius local authorities and management bodies, other State institutions, as well as documents of non-state legal entities in permanent storage, created after 11 March 1990, and documents of the activities of natural persons having lasting historical value. From the end of 1993 until September 2019, LVNA was headed by Irena Kasciuškevičiūtė. In the same year, 1993, the first documents of the 1993 presidential elections were accepted for preservation.

Today, the mission of the Lithuanian State Modern Archive is to collect and preserve documents on the activities of the government of the Republic of Lithuania, elections, judiciary, control, environmental protection, finances, taxes, culture, education, national security, national defence, social security, communications, communications, health care and supervision, law and order, law enforcement, agriculture, and other institutions (from 1990 to present). Within the scope of its competence, supervise the implementation of the requirements for the management and use of documents and archives laid down in the legislation, provide methodological assistance to State institutions, bodies and enterprises in the field of document management; issue certificates, extracts and other documents on the basis of the stored documents, in order to confirm legal facts.

The archives shall receive and store not only written but also electronic documents. According to the data of 2023, the New State Archive of Lithuania holds 218 document collections, consisting of about 160 000 accounting units, recorded in 359 files, including electronic documents. The paper documents stored occupy about 4020 m of shelves. New document storage facilities have been opened at 25 O. Milašiaus Street and are currently being expanded with new document holdings.

The archive holds documents of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Lithuania-Seimas-in-Recreation, the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, the President of the Republic of Lithuania, municipal election documents, documents of liquidated and reorganised ministries, documents of the state power and management, political and public organisations. One of the most important documents stored in the Archive is the document of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Lithuania of 11 March 1990. The Act on the Restoration of the Independent State of Lithuania (with signatures of the deputies), which was adopted by the Lithuanian National UNESCO Commission on 30 March 2006. Documents of liquidated and reorganised ministries, state authorities and management, political and public organisations: Lithuanian Sąjūdis, Lithuanian Nationalist Union (LTS), Lithuanian National Union of America, Citizens' Charter of the Republic of Lithuania, Independence Party, Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP), Lithuanian Democratic Labour Party (LDDP), the political party "Lithuanian Christian Democrats", the Union of Modern Christian Democrats (MKDS), the Union of Poles of Lithuania (LLS), the New Union (Social Liberals), the Independence Party, the Lithuanian Secular Culture Society (LPKD), the Lithuanian Peace Forum.

The complex of personal fonds in the Lithuanian State Modern Archive consists of the fonds of 11 March 1990. The documents of the political and professional activities of the signatories of the Act of November 11, Lithuania, Vytenis Povilis Andriukaitis, Kazimieras Antanavičius, Virgilijus Juozas Čepaitis, Bronislovas Genzelis, Bronislovas Juozas Kuzmickas, Kazimieras Motieka, Saulijus Pečeliūnas, Aleksandras Ambrazevičius, the documents of the political and professional activity of the Lithuanian Catholic priest Monsignor Alfonsas Svarinskis, the sculptor Jonas Jagoela, and the journalist and politician Algimantas Deguitis.

 The Chancellery of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania makes the scanned documents (texts, diagrams, photographs, etc.) of the fonds No 9 'Collection of documents "Events of 13 January 1991"', which is kept in the Lithuania State Modern Archive, available on the Internet (https://www.lrs.lt/).