Topic: Archives
On 7 August 1921 the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet published an article by the Finnish historian A. R. Cederberg (1885-1948) about the arrival in Tartu of the old "Swedish archive", which during World War I had been evacuated from Riga to Ryazan. In the article Cederberg, who was heavily involved in the organization of the Estonian archival system, focuses on some of the most important correspondents from the time of the Great Northern War (Henning Rudolf Horn in Narva, Carl Gustaf Skytte in Dorpat and Wolmar Anton Schlippenbach). Cederberg notes that there unfortunately are "almost no" letters from Horn during 1700, a statement which would appear to be correct even today if he by "almost no" meant "one letter". Unfortunately Cederberg gives not figure for the total amount of Horn letters in volume XX:7, which according to Bienemanns catalogue in 1908 contained 220.
Some weeks earlier (17 July 1921) Cederberg had written a similar article about documents from the first half of the 17th century. In this he noted that the volume (XVIII:9) which according to the Bienemann catalogue should contain 15 letters from Field Marshal Torstenson turned out to be notably thinner.
One of the first Swedish historians to use the old "Swedish archive" after Bienemann's catalogue was Hugo Uddgren, who came to Riga in 1909. In the first volume of his biography of Adam Ludvig Lewenhaupt Uddgren notes that "despite the brief interval between the cataloguing and my arrival some particularly valuable documents had disappeared". Unfortunately Uddgren gives only one example - the Swedish copy book for January-May 1705. He then goes on to suggest that the second volume for 1705 is kept in Krigsarkivet (Stockholm). This is clearly wrong, as the Krigsarkivet volume originates from Lewenhaupt's field chancellery, and nothing in Biemenann's catalogue suggests that the copy book for 1705 was divided in two parts. Be as it may, the missing volume is present today - but "hidden" in the series of German copy books (LVVA, fond 7349, op. 1, vol. 56).
However, Uddgren's conclusion may not be entirely wrong. As Cederberg noted some documents does appear to have been lost between 1908 and 1921. How and when did this happen? Well, part of the explanation would seem to be that the Gesellschaft für Geschichte und Altertumskunde in Riga had wanted the Russian authorities to hand over the "Swedish archive" to them and was rebuffed, but still managed to acquire some volumes (some of those that are in fond 7349 today are not included in the Bienemann catalogue, but bears the bookplate of the Gesellschaft - which proves that they had managed to take over some even before 1900). But this is not the whole explanation...
