Central State Archive of Cinematic-Photographic-Sound Documents

Address: Tavricheskaia ul. 39 (the same building as ЦГАИПД - see entry for directions)
Metro: Chernyshevskaia

Web: https://spbarchives.ru/web/group/cgakffd
Email: cgakffd@cgakffd.spbarchives.ru
Phone: (812) 274-43-29
Fax: (812) 274-43-29

Archive director: Morozan Oksana Igorevna

Opening hours: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday: 0930-1600

Researchers should bring a letter from their organisation outlining their research (theme, dates, aims) and bring their passport.

The archive is very well organised, and you simply ask for the yashchik that relates to the topic you want to research. This might be either a particular district of St Petersburg (there are yashchiki for individual streets) or an organisation, or on the other hand some theme (markets, hospitals, orphanages). There is also a section called 'tipazh', of portraits. You keep a running chit of material consulted.

The head of the reading room, Liubov' Nikolaevna, is extremely helpful. The reading room has 10 places and a further 3 computer spaces where the archive can be consulted.

Photographs may be copied through (and only through) the in-house photography service, which is pricy but efficient (there is a special express service, which costs about 50 dollars an image for pre-Revolutionary photographs, smallest size, down to around 20 for images from the recent past. The prices include one-off publication rights. You have to pay the bills at a sberbank, adding a little for commission).