National Archive of the Republic of Belarus

In 1922-1926, the formation of the funds of the Central Archive of the October Revolution began. Documents of 61 institutions (mainly disbanded military units and Belarusian national organizations) and documents of cooperative and trade union organizations were deposited. The archive is located in the Church of the Holy Spirit of the former male Orthodox monastery.

On May 28, 1927, the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the Byelorussian SSR legally approved the creation of the Central Archive of the October Revolution of the BSSR . The tasks of the Central Administrative District of the BSSR included the storage of documents of central, state, professional, cooperative, public organizations and institutions of Belarus that had been operating since the February Revolution of 1917. The documents of the People’s Commissariats of Education, Agriculture, Internal Affairs, Finance, Workers and Peasants Inspectorate, Health, Post and Telegraphs, Labor, Food, Justice, the Supreme Council of the National Economy, the Central Statistical Office, the Belarusian Directorate of the Main Customs Administration, and cooperatives were concentrated in the archive. organizations (Centrobelsoyuz, Belselssoyuz, Belvoenpotrebsoyuz), insurance and credit organizations (Belgosstrakh, Industrial Bank), trade, supply esko-sales organizations, trusts and syndicates (Centrospirt, Tsentrobumtrest, Belgosreklamy, Tekstiltorg, Soyuzkhleb, Avtopromtorg, Kamvolsbyt, Sakharotrest, Himugol), educational institutions, Belgosizdat and others. Also, a separate group included documents of military units and organizations: 7th cavalry Division, 2nd Belarussian Territorial Division, Military Tribunal of the 3rd Cavalry Corps, the Joint Military School named after the Central Executive Committee of the BSSR. In 1927/1928, the reading room of the archive received the first researchers ^[1] .

Since Minsk in those years was not far from the border, the Central Executive Committee of the BSSR in August 1929 adopted a resolution on the transfer of the Central Administrative District of the BSSR to Mogilev , which was implemented in 1930-1932. in Mogilev, the archive is located in the former buildings of the Epiphany Monastery and the Stanislavovsky Church . In October 1930, an archive of film and photo documents and a secret archive were created at the Central Administrative District. In the first half of the 1930s, the archive concentrated the archival materials of the people's commissariats, central institutions and organizations of the BSSR and the archival materials of the institutions, organizations and enterprises of 50 regions of Belarus. In July 1938, the Central Archive of the October Revolution of the Byelorussian SSR (TsAOR BSSR) was reorganized into the Central State Archive of the October Revolution and Socialist Construction of the Byelorussian SSR (TsGAOOR BSSR).

In 1941, during the attack of fascist Germany, in the archive building, located in the Brotherhood Church, a significant part of the materials burned (in particular, all documents of the secret funds department, the remaining part was plundered). Stanislavovsky Church in the winter of 1941-1942. by order of the German command, it was transferred to believers, and archival funds were transferred to other premises (a barn and a club of garment workers on Lenin St.). In January-February 1944, documents were transported to Riga in the building of the Central State Archive of the Latvian SSR. In January 1944, the archive resumed its activities in Gomel , and after the liberation of the capital of Belarus in July, it moved to Minsk. During the war years, most of the documents were destroyed, the entire scientific reference apparatus for them, the library fund was hardly preserved ^[1] . In the second half of 1944, the documents of the occupying institutions and organizations, military and paramilitary units, and Belarusian collaborationist structures that operated on the territory of Belarus during the years of occupation were archived. These were the funds of the General Commissariat of Belarus, Gebitsomissariat , regional and city administrations, the Belarusian People’s Self-Help, the Belarusian Central Council (BCR), the Union of Belarusian Youth (SBM), the Vostok Center, the TODT organization and other printed materials for this period. The archive was placed in the building of the Minsk Regional Archive on the street. Bakunin, 4. In September 1945, the building of the former Peter and Paul (Catherine) Church on ul. Ostrovsky, 4.

In the late 1940s - early 1950s, the archives were classified as archives - the funds of the Central Executive Committee of the BSSR and the SNK of the BSSR were kept secret, since the personal files of A.G. Chervyakov , V.M. Ignatovsky were stored there. Up to 50% of documents were classified. In March 1956, declassification of documents began.

At the III International Congress of Archives, which took place on September 25-29, 1956 in Florence , the Archival Service of Belarus became a member of the International Council of Archives ^[1] . Since 1958, microfilming of documents began at the Central State Autonomous Regional Administrative Organization .

In 1960, the archival service from the authority of the Ministry of Internal Affairs became subordinate to the Council of Ministers. In 1961-1962, the funds of the leading republican institutions were archived: the Council of Ministers for 1942-1950, the State Planning Commission (1946-1956), the Ministry of Education (1939-1955), the Ministry of Justice (1944-1953), and Belsovprof (1945-1957) and others .. In 1968 TsGAOOR BSSR moved to the building on the street. Bakunin, 4, where until 1963 the State Archive of the Minsk Region was located. In 1980, the archive began to improve the systematic catalog. In 1983, declassification of the archive funds began. In the early 1990s, researchers gained access to the funds of the secretariat of the Belarusian People’s Republic ^[2] .

In 1984, TsGAOOR BSSR was awarded a diploma of the II degree of the Exhibition of Economic Achievements of the USSR , and the head of the department of use and publication KF Plahotnikova was awarded the silver medal of the exhibition ^[2] . In 1989, he began creating the first automated information retrieval system.

In 1991, the archive moved to a newly built building on the street. Kropotkina, 55. In May 1993, TsGAOOR BSSR was renamed the Belarusian State Archive ^[3] . In the early 1990s, international archive relations began to develop.

In June 1995, the documents of the former Central Party Archive of the Communist Party of Belarus were transferred to the archive, and the archive was reorganized into the National Archive of the Republic of Belarus ^[4] . In 2006, the NARB allocated 17-21 floors in the building of the new National Library of Belarus . In 2007, the archive was completely moved to a new building ^[4] .

Archive Directors

• 1959-1969: M. M. Lemeshevsky
• 1970-1978: N.K. Korzun
• 1978-1982: L.F. Lemes
• 1982—2010: V. D. Selemenev
• 2010–2014: N.K. Rudakovsky (acting)
• 2014—2015: A. L. Samovich
• 2015—2017: V. I. Kurash
• 2017: E.V. Kushnova (acting)
• from 2017: A.K. Demyanuk

The archive issues to users of the reading room archival files; in the case of a user ordering particularly valuable cases, copies of them are issued from the use fund in the form of microphotocopies or digital copies (if any). Thematic, biographical and socio-legal requests are fulfilled ^[5] . The archive prepares for publication and publishes several collections of documents annually ^{[6] [7]} . Exhibitions of documents (including virtual ones) are held, dedicated to significant historical events, as well as timed to the anniversaries of fund-makers - socio-political and cultural figures whose personal documents are stored in the archive ( Pyotr Masherov ^[8] , Vasily Korzh ^[9] and others) ^[10] .

Since September 2018, the archive has been working on the creation of an online portal about the participants in the partisan and underground movement “Partisans of Belarus” (with the participation of the publishing house “Belarus Today” , BSU , BSPU and the Academy of Sciences and other organizations). At the first stage, it is planned to digitize the personnel records of the awarded partisans and underground workers stored in the NARB and launch a publicly accessible database with the prospect of further additions with new archival documents ^[11] .

• National Archives of the Republic of Belarus: achievements and prospects // Science and Culture: Journal. - Mn. 2007-07-23. - S. 63–66 . Archived March 3, 2014.

• Official site
• Partisans of Belarus Internet portal (digitized documents on the history of the partisan movement)