About us

The geography of the preserved archival documents encompasses the territory of the former Kaunas Governorate, and the current Kaunas, Alytus, and Marijampolė Counties. The oldest individual documents preserved in the Archive, originating from the Pažaislis Monastery, date back to the 17th century. However, the vast majority of preserved documents are from a later period – from the beginning of the 19th century to the present day. The document collections accumulated in the Kaunas Regional State Archive are widely used in preparing Archive certificates confirming various legal facts, in research of the various political, social, demographic, and cultural processes that took place in Lithuania, the history of rural districts, towns, and villages, Lithuanian national communities, and architectural heritage. The Archive's collections are constantly supplemented with documents from the activities of Municipality institutions and agencies, as well as legal entities and private individuals operating in the Kaunas, Alytus, and Marijampolė Counties.

We preserve in Kaunas:

The complex of documents from the institutions of the Russian Empire consists of the collections of tsarist Russian institutions that operated in the territory of the Kaunas Governorate (in the then Kaunas, Panevėžys, Raseiniai, Šiauliai, Telšiai, Ukmergė, and Zarasai Counties). These include the fonds of the Chancellery of the Kaunas Civil Governor, the Kaunas Governorate Administration and its departments, the Kaunas Governorate Drawing Office, the Kaunas Governorate State Property Administration, governorate and district courts, land management and military conscription commissions, the Kaunas Governorate Peasants' Affairs Commission, the Kaunas Governorate Societies' Activities Commission, the Kaunas City Duma and Administration, townspeople's, craft, and rural district administrations, district police institutions, and others.

The complex of documents from the period of the Republic of Lithuania (1919–1940) and the German occupation (1941–1944) consists of documents from local self-government institutions, educational and medical institutions, and private companies operating in the city of Kaunas and the then Kaunas County. These include the fonds of the Kaunas City and County Municipalities, the Kaunas City Municipality's departments of housing, finance, passports, construction, social security, health, education, supply, property, economy, water supply and sewerage, the Kaunas City and County Tax Inspectorates, the Inspector of Kaunas Primary Schools, state and some private gymnasiums operating in Kaunas, medical institutions, Kaunas industrial and commercial enterprises, and others.

The complex of documents from the Soviet occupation period (1940–1941 and 1944–1990) consists of the fonds of state and local Municipality institutions, courts, notary offices, industrial and agricultural enterprises, educational, cultural, scientific, and medical institutions, and public organizations that operated in the current territory of Kaunas County (in the city of Kaunas and the Jonava, Kaišiadorys, Kaunas, Kėdainiai, Prienai, and Raseiniai Districts). Among these are the activity documents of the largest Kaunas industrial enterprises, design and scientific research institutes, and higher education institutions.

The complex of documents from the period of Independence (since 1990) consists of the fonds of state institutions, public organizations, and individuals that operated and continue to operate in the current territory of Kaunas County, including the Kaunas Council of the Lithuanian Sąjūdis, the fonds of the signatories of the Act of Independence Egidijus Bičkauskas and Algirdas Patackas, and others.