The Belarusian state archives offer both free and paid services in records preservation and in the use of records, except when prohibited by law.
These services are provided to government agencies, juridical persons, and individual citizens, including foreign citizens.
The services can be performed by the state archives, research institutions, special laboratories and other organizations included in the State Archival Service of the Republic of Belarus.
Free services
- Social-legal inquiries, including the confirmation of:
- length of service and wages
- military service
- participation in partisan groups and underground organizations in WWII
- participation in the liquidation of the aftermath of collective emergency situations
- election to various posts
- receiving of orders and medals, awarding with ranks and titles
- education
- medical treatment
- certificates on repressed individuals, dispossessed kulaks (better-off peasants), deprivation of voting rights, and rehabilitation of repressed individuals
- staying in the occupied territories or in evacuation in WWII, forced labour in Germany and other countries, staying in Nazi prison camps and other places of forced detention
- Inquiries made by the central and local government agencies concerning the activities of these agencies
- Inquiries made by the institutions included in the State Archival Service of the Republic of Belarus
- Inquiries made by records creating agencies concerning records created by them
- Delivery of documents to records creating agencies for temporary use in administrative purpose
- Work of users in the reading rooms, except for the copying of documents (the procedure of users' admission to the reading rooms, their rights and duties, the working routine with documents are specified in the Regulations for Work of Users in the Reading Rooms of the State Archives of the Republic of Belarus)
- Providing guidance and procedural assistance to records creating agencies in records management and archive administration
- Submission of information (information letters, thematic selection of document copies) to the government agencies
- Copying of documents for the needs of the Red Cross and the International Search Service, penal agencies who search for WWII criminals, and the joint projects between Belarusian archival institutions and foreign researchers or institutions.
Paid services
- Separate procedures aiding the preservation of records of the National Archival Fonds of Belarus
- Scholarly and technical processing of records
- Temporary preservation of records
- Development of normative and procedural documents on archival and records management
- Providing advice to juridical and physical persons in records management and archival affairs
- Translation of documents from foreign languages
- Copying of documents
- Delivery of documents for temporary use
- Preparing materials for use on TV and radio, scholarly research, literary and art works; providing guidance on the use of films, photographs and sound recordings
- Organizing documents exhibitions, lessons, and visits to the archives
- Thematic searches
- Biographical searches - research and confirmation of the dates of births, marriages and deaths
- Genealogical searches - research on family history
For biographical and genealogical inquiries click on Genealogy, the National Historical Archives of Belarus in Minsk and National Historical Archives of Belarus in Grodno for periods roughly before 1920, and regional and local state archives and the archives of civil registry offices ZAGS for periods roughly after 1920.
Fees are paid according to terms stipulated in the agreement. Fees for simple jobs that do not need much time may be paid upon execution without written agreement. For complex jobs needing a longer time for execution the inquirer should sign an agreement with the archive.
Fees for services are confirmed by the director of an archival institution. The terms and duration of performing an inquiry depend on the amount and complexity of work. Handling of inquiries takes from one day to a few months.