September 548
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Importance of the Materials preserved at the Central Historical Archive

Importance of the materials preserved at the Central Historical Archive is immeasurable not only for the researchers of the history of Georgia, but the Transcaucasia as well. From the materials of the Central Historical Archive documents of the following thematic are important:

       1. The oldest documents of the Georgian History – Old Documents (9th-19thcenturies)

a) Originals of the old documents, where the books of donation, grace, divorce, terms, oath, and verdict are gathered. Collection of copies has the same content, though their originals are not preserves physically and these documents are mainly rewritten lately.

b) Manuscript books: church books of the 9th-19th centuries, Law Book of Vakhtang VI, rewritten copies of “The Knight in the Panther’s Skin”, different religious and church works.

c) Foreign documents: Persian, Turkish, Arabic and Greek documents. Among them especially important are beautifully decorated Persian documents. Collection of Turkish documents is also interesting which are issued in the period of ruling of different sultans.

      2. Documents depicting the History of Georgia and Transcaucasia (1801-1918)

a) Documents of this period in the point of view of volume are the biggest. Here are gathered all the documentary materials of all central and local state organs of the mentioned period. These documents represent the most important source not only for the researchers of Georgian, but the whole Caucasian history, because for that time Tbilisi was the center of Transcaucasia and the main documentary materials were gathered here.

b) Demographic documents: “Georgia-Imereti Synod Bureau”, where more than 140 000 act records (birth, marriage, death) books is preserved. Working on these fonds citizen can search for the information about the person living in the 19th and the beginning of the 20thcenturies. Besides the materials of Georgia-Imereti Synod Bureau demographical data should be investigated in about 20 fonds.

      3. The First Democratic Republic of Georgia (1918-1921)

Georgia was the first country declaring the independence in Transcaucasia. Act of independence and Constitution; Constituent Assembly elected by general voting. It was expressing the democratic will of Georgian People (It should be mentioned that women received a voice for voting in Georgia earlier than in USA); local self-government elected and based on democratic initials; Constitution of Georgia that was advanced democratic constitution in the world and that was worked out with the assistance of leading European experts; Economic importance of Georgia; The greatest manganese layer in the world, Baku-Batumi oil-pipe-line and railway; ports of Batumi and Poti; advanced Georgian culture: Opera, Theatre, Art etc.; Collections of “Harvard” and “Leuville” of the Central Historical Archive gives important answers to these questions. Fonding of the collections according to archival rules are already finished.