Websites of East European government ministries and agencies contain critical, primary sources for the study of all aspects of political, economic, and social life in the region. Much of the content on the sites is released exclusively in electronic format, and thus complements the Library of Congress print collections.

Besides capturing born-digital information and electronic publications, the intent of the collection is to provide researchers with a snapshot or time capsule of the structure of each government. The countries covered are Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine. All of the websites in the collection are federal level sites, with the exception of those from Bosnia and Russia. For Bosnia, the collection includes sites from both the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska. For Russia, the collection includes sites from all 89 federal subjects (republics, oblasts, krais, autonomous okrugs, and two cities with federal status, Moscow and St. Petersburg). Also included are the governments of three disputed areas of Ukraine – Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk, and two breakaway regions of South Ossetia (Georgia) and Transnistria (Moldova).

The collection aims to be comprehensive, but there is more retrospective depth with the larger sites, such as ministries of foreign affairs, economics, and defense. In addition to ministries and agencies, the collection contains sites of parliaments, statistical offices, and offices of presidents and governors. Out of scope for the collection are courts and prosecutors’ offices, unless they have a significant focus on human rights. The collection continues to expand, with more ministries added each year.

Collection Period: April 2014 to present (this is an ongoing archive).

Frequency of Collection: The majority of sites in the collection were targeted for capture quarterly, with fewer targeted for capture monthly, twice-yearly, yearly, or once.

Languages: Collection material in Russian, with English, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Serbian, and other languages.

Acquisition Information: Countries and ministries have been added incrementally since the project began, so some sites have more retrospective depth. Ministries will continue to be added as they are identified.