Zonal State Archives in Slutsk

Description of holdings

Amount of holdings: 722 fonds, 160 997 items

Chronological scope: from 1944 to the present (certain personal papers from 1906)

Geographical coverage:

  • abolished Gresk, Krasnaia Sloboda and Starobin districts
  • Kopyl, Liuban, Slutsk, Soligorsk and Starye Dorogi districts of the Minsk region

Contents:

The Archives holds records created by the activity of local administrative and executive authorities and other government institutions.

The fonds of the administrative, judicial and financial institutions contain materials that illustrate the postwar economic and political condition in the districts included in the area of the archives’ acquisition. There are data concerning the Soviet construction, the administrative and territorial division of the districts and selsovets.

The economic characteristics of the towns and districts, data concerning the condition of industrial enterprises, and plans for housing, cultural and welfare development are represented by the fonds of statistical and planning institutions.

The fonds of industrial enterprises and institutions contain business schedules and reports, as well as data concerning production growth, reconstruction of factories and plants, and socialist competition. There are also data concerning the application of new technologies and innovative proposals.

The fonds of agricultural institutions, collective and state farms, and machine-&-tractor stations contain data concerning the creation of collective farms and the creation and work of various agricultural artels and communes. There are lists of best  workers in agriculture and lists of specialists with complete biographical particulars.

Forest inventories and scheme maps, land-surveying registers, forestry schedules, documents on the condition of public forest resources are represented by the forestry fonds.

Documents illustrating the development of Soviet culture, the postwar restoration of schools and cultural institutions, and the development of public education are held in the fonds of public education departments, culture departments, secondary and vocational schools, and cultural and educational institutions.

The materials of the post-Soviet period are represented by documents of various enterprises and institutions, the most significant of which are the Belaruskalii Production Amalgamation, the Soligorskpromstroi Open Joint-Stock Company, the Slutsk Meat Processing Plant, and the Slutsk Sugar Refining Plant among others.

Of the most valuable among the archive’s materials are the documents concerning the postwar restoration of the national economy; the brief economic descriptions of the towns of Kopyl and Slutsk; the economic passports of the Kopyl, Slutsk and Starye Dorogi districts as of July 1944; the economic description of the town of Slutsk as of July 31, 1944; plans for the restoration and development of national economy for 1948-1954; documents on Nazi damage in the Kopyl, Krasnaia Sloboda, Liuban and Slutsk districts; lists of those killed by the Nazis; inspection certificates for the burial sites in the territory of the former prison camp for Soviet prisoners-of-war and civilians in Slutsk, as well as certificates for the places of mass execution and burial of the civic population of the town of Slutsk, the townships of Urechie and Lenino, the tracts of Gorovakha and Grabelki in the Slutsk district, and more.

The Archives holds collections of personnel records, personal papers, and small-size fonds of various agricultural institutions.

The collection of personal papers contains autobiographies, characteristics, honorary diplomas, award certificates, and photos related to WWII participants, members of the Partisan movement, workers in the field of culture and economics in the Minsk Region. The earliest documents in the collection date from 1906.