A List of Standard Documents for enterprises, institutions and organizations of Turkmenistan and their activities has come out. Prepared by the Central Archive under the Cabinet of Ministers, it determines how long the records and documents should be kept. The publication is a reference book, which provides information on how to estimate the value of documents, and standardizes their retention period. The List enables to regulate assessment procedures, and simplifies the selection of documents, which have political, economic, scientific and cultural significance and should be transferred to state archives for permanent storage. The enlarged edition of the List contains amendments and additions, including the ones, relating to the extension of a retention period for a number of records, accounting, financial, personnel and other documents. Much work has been done to analyze records management, decisions of the Central Expert Commission of the Central Archive on the determination or modification of the retention period for some documents as well as to follow recommendations from experts. The edition is intended for organizations, which record functional activities, irrespective of the designated purpose, level and scale in the sectoral system and the type of ownership. It will help to safely store documents in archives of institutions and will have a beneficial effect on the qualitative composition of the National Archival Collection of Turkmenistan.