ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the function of the archive as an institution of active memory. The archive, which is a historically old institution with a variety of functions, is a part of the cultural and historical heritage of all countries. It is an indispensable source of historical materials. The documents, which are preserved in it, can be a repository of numerous stories, the construction and interpretation of which largely depends on the imagination of a particular historian. Reading archival documents from a historical, collective, psychoanalytic, and subjective perspective can change the established canonical views on this or that historical process and influence the new understanding of ancient, medieval, and modern history. The subject of this chapter is to discuss the role of the archive in the reading and interpretation of history.
