The influence of former Soviet and contemporary Russian archival studies on university-level archival education in Vietnam

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Introduction

Following the attainment of independence, the conditions for national development in Vietnam in general, and for the Vietnamese archival sector in particular, faced numerous difficulties and obstacles. The Vietnamese archival sector, despite prior exposure to advanced and traditional archival systems—such as the French system during the pre-1945 colonial period and the American system under the Republic of Vietnam in South Vietnam from 1954 to 1975—remained, in practice, underdeveloped compared to those of many other nations, both in terms of theoretical research and the training of professional personnel. Consequently, as Vietnam began to establish its field of Archival Studies and train its workforce — especially personnel with university and postgraduate qualifications — the achievements and experiences in theoretical research on Archival Studies, the organization and management of the archival sector, and the training of personnel from the former Soviet Russia and the contemporary Russian Federation have had a very significant influence on the Vietnamese archival sector as a whole.

Over the past decade, scholarship on archival education has increasingly foregrounded the role of international collaboration as a driver of curricular innovation and professional capacity building. Katuu [2015], in his analysis of archival training across Africa, observed significant disparities in quality and scope, underscoring the need for comparative research and global standards to strengthen professional education. Abioye, Lowry, and Lynch [2019] extended this conversation through a comparative study of programs at the Universities of Ibadan and Liverpool. Using the DigCurV framework—a competency model designed by the European Union to articulate skills in digital curation—the authors identified curricular gaps and argued for the systematic sharing of teaching resources across borders. Technological infrastructures have also shaped recent debates. Chisita and Tsabedze [2021] examined the promise of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) as a cost-effective mechanism for intercontinental collaboration in archives and records management education. While acknowledging persistent barriers in connectivity and infrastructure, their findings highlighted MOOCs’ potential to democratize access to archival knowledge globally. At a strategic level, Anderson, Bastian, Flinn, and Samuelsson [2013] called for the articulation of a common “core curriculum,” yet noted structural and linguistic barriers that continue to complicate implementation. More recently, Tsabedze and Ngoepe [2020] addressed the quality assurance dimension of open distance e-learning in Eswatini, offering a framework that could facilitate cross-national engagement. Taken together, these studies suggest that collaboration—whether through shared frameworks, online delivery, or curriculum design—is central to advancing archival education in an interconnected world.

 Within the scope of this article, we will address specifically an aspect: the influence of Archival Studies (Archival Science) from former Soviet Russia and the contemporary Russian Federation on university-level archival education in Vietnam, manifested in three primary areas: (1) the development of training models and curricula; (2) the system of theory and learning materials for education; and (3) the training of university-educated archival personnel, including university lecturers.

Influence on the development of training models and curricula in archival studies

Nearly 60 years ago (in 1967), the Minister of Higher and Professional Secondary Education (the predecessor of the Ministry of Education and Training) authorized the establishment of an Archival Studies major within the Faculty of History at the General University of Hanoi (now the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi). One of the critical factors in establishing a university major is the development of a training model and the design of a curriculum. The selection of a model and the design of a curriculum at that time were fraught with difficulties due to severely limited access to information. To establish the Department of Archival Studies within the Faculty of History at the University of Hanoi, exceptional history graduates from the 1963-1967 and 1964-1968 cohorts were sent for practical internships at the Archives Department under the Prime Minister's Office for the purpose of "continuing their self-improvement to enhance their theoretical proficiency and practical knowledge, gradually developing lesson plans, compiling textbooks, and refining the academic subjects" [Vương Đình Quyền 2015]. Later, it was they who laid the solid foundation for university-level education in Archival Studies in Vietnam.

During their practical internships, the first university lecturers, tasked with developing the curriculum for the Archives-History specialization within the Faculty of History's training structure, were exposed to the training model and curriculum of the Moscow State University for History and Archives through exchanges with archival officials trained in that friendly nation. Recognizing the suitability of the training model and the richness of its subjects, the curriculum of the University for History and Archives was carefully examined to select the most practical training model and courses. Many models that could be implemented in Vietnam’s context at that time, such as program structures of 3+1, 2.5+1.5, etc., were considered. The final choice was the 3+1 model, meaning that for the first three years of the course, students would study general and foundational knowledge subjects, followed by one year of specialized major subjects. This was also the model used at the Moscow State University for History and Archives, with its design philosophy based on the organic relationship between the two specializations of archives and history, positioning archives as an auxiliary discipline of historical research. This choice was rational for several reasons, as at that time, preparing to teach in-depth archival subjects required a period of intensive research, while the university's lecturing staff was still being established.

Regarding the curriculum, when the program for the Archival Studies major at the Faculty of History, University of Hanoi was developed, core courses were selected and adapted from the curriculum of the Moscow State University for History and Archives to be taught to specializing students. These included classic courses inherited from the Soviet foundation of university-level archival education, such as:

• Records Management
• Acquisition of Archival Materials
• Arrangement of Archival Documents
• Appraisal of Archival Documents
• Preservation Techniques for Documents
• Archival Statistics
• Access and Use of Documents
• History of State Administrative Organizations
• Publication of Archival Documents…

This constituted the fundamental knowledge provided to students of the Archives-History specialization during the first years of university-level archival education in Vietnam, and some of these courses continue to be taught to this day. In response to scientific and technological changes, especially the development of digital technology and artificial intelligence, the university-level curriculum for Archival Studies in Vietnam has undergone many changes to meet the era’s demands. Several new courses have been created and taught since 2010 at the Faculty of Archives and Office Management, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, building upon an inheritance of the modern and academic curriculum of the Russian State University for the Humanities, which was established on the foundation of the Moscow State Institute for History and Archives. Courses containing in-depth, updated, and contemporary knowledge — such as digital archives, archival services, private archives, and oral history archives, among others — have all been developed with reference to the curricula currently in use at the Russian State University for the Humanities as well as at comprehensive universities in the constituent republics of the Russian Federation.

Selective inheritance of the theoretical system and learning materials of Soviet Archival studies for university-level education

The theoretical foundation and learning materials are a vital element for any university-level academic discipline. This was a fundamental deficiency during the initial phase of establishing the Archival Studies major in Vietnam. The role of the university-educated archival personnel trained in the former Soviet Union, who had a very significant role and influence on the development of the archival sector in general and archival studies in Vietnam in particular, is irrefutable. The knowledge acquired at training institutions in the former Soviet Union and the contemporary Russian Federation was "imported" back to the country and subsequently, was creatively studied and applied to the Vietnamese context. Many foundational theories are still applied today, including core concepts such as archival records, archival fonds (phông), and archival work; theories on the management of archival work, such as the principle of centralized and unified management of archival records; and archival practices such as the collection, arrangement, and appraisal of archival records, and the development of finding aids and archival statistics. Along with fundamental theoretical knowledge, issues of archival studies methodology and specific research methods, which were highly valued by Soviet scientists and are by those in the Russian Federation today, were also transmitted to Vietnam. The form of a basic discipline named Archival Studies became increasingly clear and specific.

Furthermore, an indispensable part of the intellectual belongings for the generation of archival studies personnel returning from the Soviet Union after completing their courses was the treasure trove of theoretical books on archival studies. This unofficial source of "imported" books, along with books officially exchanged between the archival agencies of the two countries, served as invaluable reference materials for our research, teaching, and learning. For instance, the book “Theory and Practice of Archival Work in the USSR” , published by the General Department of Archives of the USSR in 1958, was translated and published in 1969 by the University of Hanoi in collaboration with the Archives Department of the Prime Minister's Office [Belov G.A. et. al. 1969]. This book was the official textbook taught at the Moscow State University for History and Archives and at the Department of Archival Studies of the Faculty of History, General University of Hanoi, during the first years of university-level archival education in Vietnam. Subsequently, the books “Theory and Practice of Archival Work in the USSR” [Belov, Nikiforov 1966], published by "University" Publishing House, Moscow, in 1966 and reissued with additions and revisions by the same publisher in 1980, remain fundamental textbooks for the Vietnamese archival field to this day. It can be said that hundreds of books and journals, such as “Soviet Archives” and “Archives of the Fatherland” from former Soviet Russia and the contemporary Russian Federation, have had a significant influence on university-level archival education in Vietnam over the past years and will continue to do so in the years to come.

Some other textbooks and monographs that researchers, lecturers, and practitioners in the archival field have paid close attention to for reference include:

• History and Modern Organization of Soviet State Agencies [1974]; The use of Scientific and Technical Documents in Soviet Agencies and Enterprises [1984]; Issues of Classification in Archival Studies and Documentology [1987].
• In the specialized field of publication of archival documents — an important branch of Archival Studies — the Soviet Union, since the 1950s and 1960s, had books on the "principles" of publishing documents that remain valid for use today, such as: “Principles of Publishing Archival Documents of the Soviet Period” [Những nguyên tắc… 1960]; “Principles of Publishing Historical Archives in the USSR” [Những nguyên tắc… 1969], through the collaboration of the General Department of Archives of the USSR, the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Documentology and Archival Affairs, the USSR Academy of Sciences, the Institute of History of the USSR, the Marx-Lenin Institute of the Central Committee of the Soviet Union’s Communist Party, the State Committee for Publishing, and the Moscow State University for History and Archives. Monographs in this field were also widely distributed, such as “Theory and Method of Soviet Archeography” [Xeleznev 1974] and “Fundamentals of Archeography – Theory and Application” [Kozlov 2008].

Later, books such as “Archival Studies”, Professional Education Publishing House (M., 2002); “Principles of Archival Work of the State Agencies of the Russian Federation; Basic Principles of the Operation of Agency Archives” [Những nguyên tắc… 2002; 2003]; “Russian Science of Archives” [Khoa học… 2003]; “Archival Studies - Theory and Method” [Burova et al. 2012] were also successively translated and became valuable reference materials for undergraduate students, master's students, and doctoral candidates in “Archival Studies” [Lê Tuyết Mai 2021].

It can be said that few countries in the world have conducted such profound and comprehensive fundamental research on archival studies as the former Soviet Union and the contemporary Russian Federation. And the result is a foundational theoretical system transmitted through monographs and research that has had an extremely powerful, profound, and long-lasting influence on many nations, particularly China and Vietnam, during the Cold War and beyond. Based on the shared ideology of Marxism-Leninism, this approach aimed to ensure centralized control over information for political stability, viewing archivists as the guardians of the 'political memory of the proletariat.' An analysis of archival education in China and Vietnam reveals similarities in how they initially adopted these theories, but significant differences in how they developed over time. In China, the first formal archival training program established in 1952 was deeply rooted in Soviet theory and practice. The curriculum clearly reflected this close relationship, covering specialized subjects such as Soviet archival history, preservation techniques, and scientific records management. The primary goal was to equip Chinese students with professional skills based entirely on the Soviet model [Sun 2025].

However, this strong influence began to decline in the mid-1950s as Sino-Soviet relations deteriorated, leading to the withdrawal of Soviet experts. By 1955, the faculty consisted mainly of Chinese instructors. A clear shift away from the Soviet model occurred later, following the Reform and Opening-Up policies after 1978. This era allowed for the introduction of international standards and practices, marking a significant departure from the previous exclusive focus on Soviet methods [Sun 2025]. In terms of theoretical system and curriculum, Vietnam directly inherited and institutionalized core disciplines, key concepts and the principle of archives management based on the Soviet model, many of which remain influential up to the present day.

Training the first generation of university-educated archival personnel for Vietnam, including university lecturers

Following the victory in the nine-year-long resistance war against French colonialism in 1954, Vietnam’s archival field underwent significant development. Alongside organizing the takeover of records and documents from agencies in newly liberated areas, centrally collecting and preserving documents from the state agencies of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam formed during the resistance period (1946–1954), and receiving records and documents transferred from the South by Party and government agencies, the Party and Government also prioritized training and developing archival personnel. This effort was crucial to meet the demands of archival work in the years that followed.

The focus on personnel development began with a decision by the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Vietnam in May 1958. A delegation, led by Mr. Vu Duong Hoan — the first Director of the Archives Department under the Prime Minister's Office (now the State Records and Archives Department of Vietnam) — and including officials from the Party Central Office and the Prime Minister's Office, was sent to China. Their mission was to study and survey the organization and activities of the archives of the Communist Party of China and the People's Republic of China. The insights from this mission provided the Government with a deeper, more comprehensive understanding of the importance of training highly qualified archival personnel for the nation’s archival work.

To further assist the Vietnamese in researching and developing professional regulations for records management and archival work, as well as training personnel, the Party Central Office and the Prime Minister's Office invited a Soviet expert, Emilin, to work in Vietnam from May 1959 to May 1961. In 1963, the Archives Department of the Prime Minister's Office continued this collaboration by inviting expert I.N. Kuntikov to support the Vietnamese archival sector. During their tenures, both experts conducted numerous training and professional development courses, significantly enhancing the expertise of officials involved in administrative records and archival work at the Party Central Office, the Prime Minister's Office, and various other ministries and sectors.

From 1976 to the present, four expert delegations from the Soviet Union (from 1976 to 1990) and four expert delegations from the Russian Federation (from 1991 to the present) have come to Vietnam to provide training and guidance on archival practices. The number of delegations, the number of experts, and their specific tasks are summarized in the statistical table below:

 

Table 1. Summary of expert delegations from the former Soviet Union and the Russian Federation to Vietnam for teaching, exchange, and guidance on archival practices during the 1967-1983 period

No.	Number of Experts	Nationality	Time Period	Topics of Exchange/Guidance
1.	02	Soviet Union	Oct. 6, 1976 - Oct. 23, 1976	Exchanging experience in the field of preservation and restoration of archival records and some other issues in archival studies.
2.	02	Soviet Union	Nov. 30, 1977 - Dec. 15, 1977	Providing guidance on measures to combat mold and insects that damage paper, and on the preservation of films and photographs.
3.	02	Soviet Union	Oct. 13, 1983 - Oct. 20, 1983	Exchanging archival practices and discussing the training of archival personnel.
4.	03	Soviet Union	Apr. 18 - Apr. 28, 1990	Lecturing on specialized topics for postgraduate classes; working with the State Archives Department and universities on personnel training.
5.	03	Russian Federation	Oct. 30 - Nov. 6, 2001	Exchanging work experience; lecturing on the Federal Archives of Russia and the organization of document use for officials.
6.	02	Russian Federetion	Nov. 28 - Dec. 5, 2003	Exchanging experience in the management of archival work, management of economic archival records, and Russian personnel training.
7.	02	Russian Federation	Nov. 21 - Nov. 28, 2006	Exchanging experience in developing the Law on Archives.
8.	05	Russian Federation	Nov. 15, 2010	Exchanging experience on the socialization of archival records, management of archival records, management of electronic records, and digital statistics.

Source: [Lê Tuyết Mai 2021]

 

Through sending experts to Vietnam, former Soviet Union and contemporary Russian archival studies have helped the Vietnamese Archival Studies sector to acquire valuable experience and update its knowledge on archives.

Particularly, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Party and Government selected and sent a number of officials and students to study at the Moscow State University for History and Archives. Vietnam began sending students abroad for university-level archival studies in the 1960s. Before the establishment of the Archives Department of the Prime Minister's Office, the recruitment of students for archival studies abroad was carried out by the Ministry of Higher Education according to the state's international cooperation plan. However, immediately after the Archives Department of the Prime Minister's Office was established in September 1962, the Department also coordinated with the Ministry of Higher Education to "select a number of officials and students to propose to the Government for study at the Soviet University for History and Archives, so that this group would later become the core personnel of the Archives Department and lecturers at domestic university and intermediate-level archival schools" [Báo cáo về… 1982].

By 1966, the first six students who graduated with a degree in archives from the Soviet Union were assigned by the Prime Minister's Office to work at the Party Central Office and the Archives Department of the Prime Minister's Office. According to the signed agreements, every year, Vietnam sent officials and students to study at the Moscow State University for History and Archives in the Soviet Union and some other Eastern European socialist countries. In the following years, Vietnam continued to send students for undergraduate studies and, from the 1976-1977 academic year, began sending them for postgraduate and internship programs at this university. According to statistics from the State Records and Archives Department of Vietnam, from 1960 to mid-1984, the archival sector had 128 personnel who received university-level archival training abroad, of whom 101 were trained in the Soviet Union... [Báo cáo về… 1984]. After graduating, these students who had studied in the Soviet Union returned home and were assigned to work at the Archives Division of the Party Central Office, the Archives Department of the Prime Minister's Office, and several other ministries and sectors. Among the 101 returning officials, three became university lecturers for the Archives-History specialization at the General University of Hanoi. Some officials, although assigned to other agencies, also actively participated in developing training programs, compiling textbooks, and teaching at the archival studies training facilities at the University. This was not only an activity for training professional human resources but was also strategic in forming the first cohort of university-level archival personnel for the Vietnamese Archival Studies sector, with the dedicated support of the Soviet Union. Furthermore, these officials, after graduation, actively participated in policy-making, organizational structuring, and the development of Vietnam’s national archival system.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the change in political regime in 1991, the number of Vietnamese students at the Moscow State University for History and Archives, now known as the Russian State University for the Humanities, was not large. In the early 2000s, some personnel who graduated with a degree in Archival Studies from the Russian Federation returned to Vietnam. They further supplemented the teaching staff for several universities offering Archival Studies programs, including the University of Social Sciences and Humanities under Vietnam National University, Hanoi, and the National Academy of Public Administration, now known as the Academy of Public Administration and Management.

Over the past few decades, personnel trained at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels at the Moscow State University for History and Archives have played a crucial role in advancing Archival Studies education in Vietnam, particularly during the discipline's initial operational phase. It can be asserted that the systematic and comprehensive support from the former Soviet Union and the contemporary Russian Federation laid a solid foundation for establishing and shaping university-level archival education in Vietnam during its early stages, and this influence remains profound to this day.

Directions for university-level archival studies education in the new context

Today, with Vietnam’s robust integration into the global community, Vietnamese Archival Studies has gained deeper engagement with archival traditions worldwide. Benefiting from a later start, it has absorbed and advanced the achievements of global archival studies, including those from the former Soviet Union, the contemporary Russian Federation, and Western archival studies, notably from France and the United States. Vietnamese Archival Studies represents a confluence of advanced archival traditions from around the world.

This confluence is evident in Vietnam’s university-level Archival Studies training, encompassing content, curricula, and modern training methods. The legacy of Soviet and Russian archival science in Vietnam presents a complex mix of academic strengths and modernization challenges. The most significant contribution of the Soviet model was the establishment of a comprehensive and rigorous theoretical foundation. This framework provided the necessary structure for the emerging profession in Vietnam, emphasizing systematic organization and solid foundational knowledge. The foundational theory from former Soviet and later Russian archival studies remains a consistent thread in the curricula of many Vietnamese institutions, such as the University of Social Sciences and Humanities under Vietnam National University, Hanoi, and the National Academy of Public Administration and Management. Academic topics — such as the concepts, nature, characteristics, principles, and professional processes of archival records and archival work — adopted from Soviet Archival Studies and tailored to Vietnamese practice, continue to be researched and taught at this level.

However, heavily influenced by the highly academic and theoretical nature of the Soviet — and to some extent, the contemporary Russian—training models, archival education in Vietnam currently lacks significant practical applicability. Amidst the rapid changes driven by digital technology, research and training have failed to keep pace with, let alone guide, professional practice. Furthermore, the pedagogical emphasis on strict confidentiality within the Soviet archival workflow has resulted in limited institutional openness. This approach stands in sharp contrast to the growing demand for information access within modern Vietnamese society.

In order to address recent practical challenges in the Vietnamese Archival Studies sector, university-level training has embraced an applied theory perspective, a hallmark of Western archival studies. Consequently, Vietnam’s current training content and methods for archivists blend fundamental theory with practical handbook approaches, facilitating solutions to real-world issues. The integration and mutual reinforcement of Soviet and Western archival studies in Vietnam’s university-level curriculum have proven effective and well-suited to the current demands of the Vietnamese archival sector. This is reflected in the consistently positive rate of graduates finding employment in their field and meeting the requirements of employers.

Furthermore, a new trend, influenced by Western archives and, to some extent, contemporary Russian archival studies, approaches Archival Studies from an interdisciplinary perspective. Previously, Archival Studies was primarily viewed through legal and historical lenses. However, with societal development, it now requires perspectives from such fields as economics, sociology, technology, and information. This interdisciplinary approach has been incorporated into Vietnam’s Archival Studies training programs at both undergraduate and higher levels. This direction not only enhances the appeal of these programs but also meets society’s increasing expectations for the archival profession.

Conclusion

The influence of former Soviet and contemporary Russian Archival Studies on university-level archival education in Vietnam in particular, and on the Vietnamese archival sector in general, is indisputable. The characteristic academic nature of the Soviet scientific community has always been studied and selectively absorbed by Vietnamese academic disciplines, including Archival Studies. The achievements of the Vietnamese Archival Studies sector over the past 50-plus years, particularly in university-level archival education, all bear the hallmarks, to varying degrees, of former Soviet Archival Studies. In today's developing world, it is believed that the historical relationship between the Archival Studies disciplines of the two nations will be further strengthened and will achieve even greater success, contributing to the further consolidation of the friendship between the Russian Federation and Vietnam.

About the authors

Anh Tuan Cam

Vietnam National University, University of Social Sciences and Humanities

Author for correspondence.
Email: tuanqtvp79@gmail.com
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-8649-2629

Ph.D. in History, Dean of Faculty of Archival Science and Office Management

Viet Nam, Hanoi

Van Ham Nguyen

Vietnam National University, University of Social Sciences and Humanities

Email: tuanqtvp79@gmail.com
ORCID iD: 0009-0006-1958-2137

Associate Professor

Viet Nam, Hanoi

References

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