Zonal State Archives in Mozyr

Description of holdings

Amount of holdings: 1 207 fonds, 287 453 items

Chronological scope: 1917 – 2021

Geographical coverage:

• abolished Domanovichi, Kopatkevichi and Turov districts
• Elsk, Zhitkovichi, Kalinkovichi, Lelchitsy, Mozyr, Narovlia and Petrikov districts of the Gomel region

Contents:

The archives’ records illustrate the work of the region and district executive committees, militia, courts, prosecutor’s offices and food committees in the early postrevolutionary period.

The fonds of poverty committees, agricultural and statistical institutions contain data on the development of agriculture, the organization of collective and state farms, machine-&-tractor stations, land surveying and reclamation, the electrification and mechanization of agriculture, animal and livestock breeding, veterinary medicine, etc.   

Records of various land departments reflect the development of agriculture, the process of collectivization, the provision of the countryside with technical and agronomic equipment.

Records of public education illustrate the work of local institutions in the field of national and cultural development, work with homeless children, the liquidation of illiteracy among the adult population.

Records of courts and prosecutor’s office reflect the struggle against deserters, kulaks (wealthier peasants), counterrevolutionary elements, “embezzlers of socialist property”, contain sentences in criminal cases and decisions in civil cases.

Records of notary’s offices contain inheritance certificates, agreements of donation, purchase and sale, division of property, inheritance rights etc.

Records of district and okrug executive committees illustrate the struggle against foreign military intervention and counterrevolution, economic devastation, unemployment, hunger, and the strengthening of Soviet power in 1920-1928.

Of peculiar interest are records of the revolutionary committees of the 1920s. These reflect the armed struggle of Soviet power against counterrevolutionary formations, deserters and panic-mongers; there are data on the formation of militia units, work of poverty committees, one-week aid to the Red Army soldiers and their families, and helping the starving people in the Povolzhye (Volga Region).

The archive’s documents contain data on the organization of mass resettlement to Siberia, Crimea, Kaliningrad Region, and Far East in the 1920s and 1940s.

Of great interest is the fonds of the Extraordinary Commission for Investigation of Nazi Crime and Damage in the Polesie Region–transcripts of eyewitnesses’ testimony, photos and letters sent from Germany, lists of the individuals shot, hanged or sent to work in Germany, and other documents. 

In addition, the Archives contains a collection of memoirs written by the participants of the October Revolution of 1917, the Civil War, and World War II, including the Partisan movement in the Polesie area, as well as recollections by public figures and famous people (in all, 69 items).

There is also a collection of personnel records acquired from various institutions in the Elsk, Zhitkovichi, Kalinkovichi, Lelchitsy, Mozyr, Narovlia and Petrikov districts and in the town of Mozyr.