The paper deals with the issue of forming a system of local archives in Russia on the example of functioning of district (city) archives of the Sverdlovsk region from 1934 to 1991. The subject of the study is the network of the lower level archives in the Middle Urals. Based on the historical-institutional approach, an attempt is made to reconstruct the state policy in the field of archiving. The article provides a comprehensive analysis of archival policy, the institutional system of the local archives management and the activity areas as well as the dynamics of the change in the number of archival institutions. Separate consideration is given to the special role of the departments and branches in the regional archival systems. The stages of creating an archival network are dealt with sequentially: the search for a model of a local archival system in Soviet Russia, its implementation (1919-1934), the beginning of the formation of local archives in the Sverdlovsk region (1934-1938), the subordination of the archives to the NKVD-MVD (1939-1956) and their reassignment to the district executive committees (1956-1991). The article concludes on the specific features of the information culture in the USSR, the essential principles of the Soviet archival system and the contradictory trends in the development of the key element of the Russian archival system. The research was carried out on the basis of the documents from the State Archives of the Sverdlovsk Region.