Copying archival files oneself was formally permitted as long ago as 2016, when the Supreme Court declared this restriction on archive visitors unlawful

Copying archival files oneself was formally permitted as long ago as 2016, when the Supreme Court declared this restriction on archive visitors unlawful. A copy of a page could cost five hundred roubles, and this was a weighty concession, finally adopted by Rosarkhiv last year, albeit with the proviso that no more than 100 pages a day may be copied independently. But the problem of paid services in the archives smiled with another part of its gap-toothed mouth: the copying of reference materials, cards and inventories of archival files was simply forbidden or made chargeable, since the court's ruling speaks of the archival files themselves, and not of the finding aids to them. Moreover, most archives have found a trick for getting round free access, by imposing the service of «organising and ensuring .. the work of independently producing digital copies of archival files .. in a specially equipped .. place, in the presence of an archive employee, who ensures the preparation of the files .. and their preservation .. supervision of compliance with the conditions of copying».