World War I, the Revolution of 1917, and the Estonian War of Independence, all of which struck Estonia in succession, alongside everything else had a destructive effect on valuable archives in this country – on the one hand, archival records were thrown into disarray in damp cellars or they were used as fuel for stoves, yet on the other hand collections of documents were also deliberately destroyed, for instance the archives of the tsarist era gendarmerie in the days of the revolution.
Even though the War of Independence was still far from over in the autumn of 1919, alongside the imminent opening of the national university, active preparatory work was also being done to save archival records that were in danger of perishing. Since there was a shortage of archival experts in Estonia, it was quite natural that the Finnish historian Arno Rafael Cederberg, who started working at the University of Tartu as Professor of Estonian and Nordic History in January of 1920, became the head of Estonia’s archival system in charge of organising it.
Cederberg was elected Chairman of the Archival Commission that was formed on 3 February 1920. His proposals were based on his corresponding experiences in Finland and they played a decisive role in the nation’s subsequent organisation of its archives. For instance, he proposed that there should be two central archives in Estonia – the governmental archive in Tallinn (where documents would be kept for up to 20 years), and the historical archive in Tartu (where all historically important archival material would be gathered).
In parallel with saving archival records that were scattered about the country – and in many cases in danger of perishing – the Archival Commission also had to make sure that with the support of the Government of the Republic of Estonia, the future central archives would be given appropriate rooms in both Tallinn and Tartu. While rooms were found quite easily for the governmental archive (officially established on 9 February 1921) in Tallinn – in the archive of the former Province of Estonia in Toompea Castle – the situation was altogether more complicated regarding the central historical archive that was planned for Tartu. This is because regardless of the fact that the University of Tartu and A. R. Cederberg, who had in mind the possibilities for historical research in particular, wanted very much that historical archival records would start being located in the university town, serious difficulties emerged that hindered finding more permanent suitable rooms.
A former dormitory that was in the possession of the university was at least initially, and admittedly as an improvised measure, considered to be a satisfactory option, yet a rough road had to be travelled in order to place it at the disposal of the archive. First of all, the university itself was short of available rooms and at the same time, the Government of the Republic of Estonia also did not have any clear standpoint regarding the central archive or its location. It was only a chronic shortage of space in Tallinn (the governmental archive was inundated with archival records meant for the central archive) and Cederberg’s continuous pressure on the government that finally brought the issue to the point that a government decision in March of 1922 allocated the lion’s share of the former four-storey dormitory to the central archive. Thus the elementary conditions had finally been established for organising a large quantity of valuable archival records and for making them available to scholars and interested persons.