16 February 2010
The new building opened for the Local State Archives in Molodechno on 12 February 2010.Participants at the opening ceremony were Director of the Department for Archives and Records Management V. I. Adamushko, Head of Justice Administration at the Minsk Region Executive Committee A. A. Bachilo, Administrative Director at the Minsk Region Executive Committee I. S. Markevich, Chairman of the Molodechno District Executive Committee G. M. Kuchko, among others.
The Minsk Region Executive Committee helped solve the problem of finding a new site for the Archive, allocating 2.2 billion roubles from the Region’s budget.
The new building meets all requirements and provides optimal conditions for documents preservation as well as for work of archivists and researchers.
This year, the Molodechno Archive celebrates 70 years since its foundation on 11 February 1940, when the Council of People’s Commissars of the BSSR issued Resolution No 182 to establish the State Archive of Vileika Region. Since 1944, after the Vileika Region was renamed as Molodechno Region, the Archive has been located in the town of Molodechno.
Before moving into the new building, the archives were located in the building of the former prison constructed in 1935. The Archive holds records of various institutions that operated in Western Belarus when it was part of the Polish Republic (1919-1939) and records of the Soviet period for the former Molodechno Region and the districts of Vileika, Volozhin, Molodechno and Miadel in Minsk Region. As of 1 January 2010, the Archive holds 1,726 fonds totaling 256,570 items.