The founding date of the Estonian National Archives is considered to be 3 March 1920, when the Archival Committee convened, headed by the Finnish professor of history Arno Rafael Cederberg, who can be considered the chief architect of Estonian archival administration.

The progress made by the National Archives over the course of a hundred years is described in this article, thereat distinguishing eight phases of development. The hundred years of Estonian archival administration includes everything: ups and downs, changes and stagnation.

Phase I, 1920–1939. These years were the time of the founding of the National Archives, and of the ripening and professionalisation of archival management as a field of activity. The end of this phase was marked by the adoption of the Archives Act, the publication of handbooks on the field, and the formation of its own professional association. Estonia’s own archival system was created almost from nothing, although impelled by different experiences. This was born partially from the Baltic German archival tradition, the stronghold of which was Tallinn’s City Archive. At the same time, it must be stressed that numerous elements were adopted from the Russian treatment of archives, and our archival staff learned from the modern approach at that time in Holland, England and Scandinavia by way of visits as well as the acquisition and translation of literature.

Phase II, 1939–1944. The second period of Estonian archival management began at the end of 1939 with the resettlement of the Baltic Germans in their so-called historical homeland (Umsiedlung) and ended with the great flight of Estonians in the autumn of 1944, when Soviet forces invaded the country and one occupation was replaced by another. It goes without saying that these years were some of the most grievous in all of Estonian history, although the archival collections fortunately escaped the most serious destruction. Historical archives were brought to the archive on a large scale upon the departure of the Baltic Germans. Practically the entire hitherto existing written heritage of the state and society was added after the overthrow of the government in 1940. Hence it can be stated that this is exactly when the older part of the National Archive’s collection conclusively took shape.

Soviet archival principles were copied into Estonian conditions in the autumn of 1940. The understanding of documentary cultural heritage as common property and the principle of centralised administration of archives were adopted as prevailing so-called Leninist ideas. The foundations of archival management that were in effect in the Republic of Estonia, including the principle of origin and the principle of adhering to the original order of the archive, fell out of favour. The Soviet standpoint that archival documents are by their nature secret was introduced. Estonia’s hitherto existing archival tradition was almost severed.

Phase III, 1945–1955. Estonian archival management operated under conditions of a shift in function in this period. The nature of the archive changed. The archive’s primary task became to cater to the state security institutions and hence also to support repressions against persons who seemed to be suspect in the eyes of the foreign regime. A campaign took place in the archives during this period, in the course of which an immense amount of archival material was allocated for recycling as wastepaper. In 1948, the use of archival documents by citizens for civil purposes was in essence prohibited.

Phase IV, 1956–1968. This period was a time of recuperation and recovery, when the archive was able to deal with the restoration of more or less normal archival administration, and the archive was disengaged from the system of identifying persons who were unsuitable for the Soviet regime. The regulation issued in 1956 that permitted the publication of directories of collections and of archival guidebooks, and alluded to the need for declassifying some documents, brought with it a certain change in direction in the archival field. Events in Czechoslovakia destroyed many social hopes and brought with them a new sealing off of archives.

Phase V, 1969–1987. Stagnation in society also meant a standstill in archival matters. Positive shifts can be observed in some aspects of archival work (for instance an increase in the number of source publications), but these changes remained feeble attempts to slow down the decline in the archival field under stale ideological and diminishing economic conditions.

Phase VI, 1988–1998. So-called perestroika brought with it public disclosure, which also reached Estonian archives with a certain lag time, and here in Estonia the total restriction of access to archival material was discontinued. The sixth period can be referred to as the era of de-Sovietising archival science. The Association of Estonian Archivists was re-founded in 1989. Hundreds of thousands of notices on subjects concerning real estate as well as citizenship were issued from archives in the first half of the 1990s. After passionate arguments that went on for years, the Riigikogu (Estonian Parliament) passed Estonia’s second Archives Act in 1998. This established the conditions that were necessary for transition from Soviet-style procedures and administrative practices to contemporary modern administration of documents and archives, and it defined the fundamental terms of the archival field. The National Archives were born as the country’s central archival institution. At the same time, a system was established for acquiring the profession of the archivist, and the basis for the operation of business archives was worked out.

Phase VII, 1999–2011. This is the phase of the organisational development and consolidation of the National Archives, and also of the establishment of the digital archival system and the transition to web-based archival services. It became possible to use archival sources on home computers starting in 2005 because that is when the Saaga web environment for digital images was opened along with the AIS electronic catalogue of archival directories. This was a revolutionary turn that increased the use of the services of the National Archives a hundredfold. Web-based access to historical films and sounds was opened in 2008, while access to photographs was added in 2010, with access to historical maps added in 2011. The adoption of Estonia’s third Archives Act in 2011 ends this period and at the same time launches the eighth and hitherto last phase of development that continues to proceed to this day.

Developmental Phase VIII starting from 2012. The digital turn characterises archival administration the most in the current decade – the continually growing digitisation of analogue media as well as the reception of material that has been born in digital form. The National Archives are visited 1.5 million times per year, whereas 99.5% of those visits take place on the web. Contemporary archival administration is also exemplified by the use of the methodology of macroappraisal, the transition of many of the archive’s workflows (customer service, cooperation with generators of archival records) into the electronic environment, the creation of infrastructure for digitising audio-visual heritage, joint creation projects for involving volunteers in the description of archival sources, the addition of archival pedagogy as a new primary task, the use of the possibilities offered by social media, and expanding domestic and international cooperation. The opening of the main building of the National Archives in 2017 was a historic event – 96 years after the first meeting of the Archival Committee, the oldest archival documents were moved into an environment with suitable conditions that ensure their optimal preservation.