National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine

“From the archives of the VUChK–GPU–NKVD–KGB” – is the Ukrainian scientific historical journal founded in 1994. The initiative to set up journal belonged to the main editorial board of scientific-documentary book series “Rehabilitated by history”. At that time the idea to create such journal was supported by Institute of history of Ukraine of National Academy of Science of Ukraine, Security service of Ukraine, State committee of archives of Ukraine, All-Ukrainian union of local lore. Since 2018, the founder of the journal is Institute of history of Ukraine of National Academy of Science of Ukraine.

The name of the journal consists of the abbreviations of Bolshevik secret service – the All-Ukrainian Extraordinary Commission (VUChC), and its successors – the State Political Department (GPU), the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) and the Committee of State Security (KGB). In the Soviet period the access to the documents of these institutions was impossible. Archival funds were classified and marked as "top secret" or "secret". The collapse of the USSR and the restoration of Ukrainian statehood contributed to the declassification of files stored in archival institutions. The necessity to inform the Ukrainian public about the crimes of the Soviet totalitarian regime caused the emergence of the journal "From the archives of the VUCHK-GPU-NKVD-KGB".

The first issue was published in August 1994. It contained articles devoted to political repressions of the 1920s–1930s, the persecution of national communities in the USSR, biographical sketches of repressed political figures as well as to archival documents from the KGB funds. Then the following column were established: "From the history of secret services", "State terror in the Soviet period", "The church and the power", "The person in the context of the history", "From the history of the Second World War", "Historiographical and source study research". In the process of publication of the journal took part not only historians-scientists, but also members of the dissident movement and public figures – Semen Gluzman, Yevhen Zakharov, Ivan Dzyuba.

The aim of the journal is to highlight little-known pages of Ukrainian history, to study the problems of state terror of the Soviet period as well as to publish documents from the archives of secret services. The focus of the publication is human fates in the context of a totalitarian period. The editorial board and the authors of the journal are trying to find out the way of life of a particular person by verifying of specific state security materials with the help of "civil" sources from central and regional state archives as well as printed publications, access to which was limited in Soviet times, personal correspondence, etc.

In 1994–2005, the editorial board of the journal was headed by the candidate of historical sciences Yurii Danylyuk, from 2005 till now – Doctor of Historical Sciences, professor Olexandr Rublev.

The journal is biannual and distribute in Ukraine and abroad. The issue is recommended for scientists, teachers, graduate students, students and anyone interested in the history of secret services and state terror of the Soviet period.