IASA 2022 Annual Conference

After Latvia regained independence in the 1990s the secret archives of the Committee for State Security of the Latvian SSR – the local KGB offices – could finally come to light. After years’ long discussion on how to best make available to public these sensitive documents, in 2018 the digitation process began with financing from the European Regional Development Fund. Along with the notorious card index of KGB agents and informers, the secret archives also included some video and audio tapes recorded by the KGB employees from 1970s to 1990. These recordings included investigation materials – interrogations with suspects and witnesses in cases ranging from contraband and profiteering to anti-Soviet agitation and spying. However, before the information could be accessed the archive employees had to crack the case of retrieving the content due to many technical issues with the materials, arising from their physical state of preservation and damages. In our presentation we will speak about the importance of digitizing and making accessible the KGB documents and how we managed to solve the challenges of their digitation in collaboration with film studio “Locomotive”.