Russian State Archive of Sound Recordings, Sound archive in Moscow, Russia

The Russian State Archive of Sound Recordings is a repository in Moscow holding an extensive collection of audio materials spanning music, speeches, interviews, and oral histories from different periods. The collection encompasses thousands of original recordings preserved on various media formats and systematically organized for research access.

The archive was created in December 1932 by a decree of the USSR Central Executive Committee as the Central Archive of Sound Recordings, housed in the Lefortovo Palace on what is now 2nd Baumanskaya Street. In 1934 it was merged into the Central Photo-Phono-Cinema Archive, and in 1967 a dedicated sound archive was re-established. Since June 1992 it has operated as the Russian State Archive of Sound Recordings; in 2024 it was merged into the Russian State Archive of Film and Photo Documents in Krasnogorsk.

The archive holds recordings of domestic and foreign literature and art performed by their authors, alongside leading theatre, music and folklore ensembles. From the 1960s and 1970s it received materials from the State House of Radio Broadcasting and Sound Recording, the USSR State Committee for Television and Radio, and the Melodiya record firm. It also builds personal funds from private collections donated by their owners.

The archive occupies the Lefortovo Palace on 2nd Baumanskaya Street, the former Koroviy Brod, where it has been housed since 1932. In 2024 it was merged into the Russian State Archive of Film, Photo and Sound Documents, now based in Krasnogorsk, so enquiries about holdings should be directed there. Some digitised recordings, mostly pre-revolutionary ones in the public domain, were uploaded to Wikimedia Commons from 2014.

On 24 March 2014 the archive began cooperating with Wikimedia RU to upload digitised recordings to Wikimedia Commons under free licences. By 26 April that year the relevant Commons category held 19 digitised recordings. Copyright restrictions limit the project to older recordings in the public domain, mainly from the Russian Empire period.