Jan Riabinin was a prominent fi gure of cultural and academic life during the interwar period. He was an outstanding archivist and Polish history enthusiast, fond of the history of his hometown-Lublin in particular. As a documentalist, Riabinin won public acclaim and esteem even despite many obstacles such as foreign origin, disability (deafness) or the peculiar character of archive work, which was far from frequenting social and cultural meetings. However, it was Riabinin’s work that spoke for itself. His whole life was devoted to it. He understood perfectly the primary role that an archivist had to play, which was to combine academic and administrative activities as well as make the society aware of its national heritage. According to the contemporary archival terminology, the latter is known as the popularization of archival sources. Taking into account the biography of this emitent archivist and analysing his job-related interests, the author attempts to fi nd out characteristics of archive studies as defi ned by Jan Riabinin and answer the question whether it is possibile to examine Riabinin’s life separately from archive studies.