Włodzimierz Rudź – propagator archiwistyki w wymiarze regionalnym

In 2019 there is the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the state archive service. Many distinguished archivists appeared during this period. Undoubtedly, Włodzimierz Rudź, the founder of the Department of the State Archives in Tomaszów Mazowiecki, was one of them. He was born on November 20, 1925 in Radoszkowicze near Mołodeczno in the Vilnius province. In 1930, together with his mother and sister, he moved to Tomaszów Mazowiecki. Here he attended the Private Mainstream School at the Real Junior High School. In 1942 he was taken to forced labour. After his return to Tomaszów Mazowiecki in 1945, he began working in the City Board. On September 15, 1950, Rudź was appointed the head of the Tomaszów Mazowiecki Department of the Voivodeship State Archives in Łódź. This post provided him with many opportunities as based on the preserved documents he could learn the history of the town and its surroundings himself, and above all, make it popular among the society. The first challenge that Rudź faced as the head of the archives in Tomaszów was to acquire appropriate premises. Then he started to take over archival materials. There is no doubt that all credit goes to him for preventing the destruction of archive records. Therefore he used to inspect archive stores as well as check and visit company archives. The purpose of these inspections was to ensure that files were archived, stored and transferred to the state archives or for recycling in a proper manner. Włodzimierz Rudź was also restoring the acquired archive materials. In this area the Tomaszów archives were leading the way among all district archives subordinate to the State Archives in Łódź. Włodzimierz Rudź organized and described the fonds, shared files with users and carried out preliminary archival research. He managed to popularize the institution that he was in charge of. He had considerable popularizing and academic achievements to his credit. The bibliography of his works comprises 146 positions, including: short press articles, biographical notes, travel guides, articles, studies, exhibition catalogues, reviews and publications of source materials. W. Rudź retired in 1991. He died on June 8, 2002. What is unusual about him is that he was a selftaught person. Being devoid of both historical and archival education, he accomplished his goals on his own. Over the years, Rudź gained experience becoming a reliable historian and archivist. His invaluable merit was saving archival fonds of Tomaszów Mazowiecki and its surroundings.