Visit to the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus by Students of the Mechanics and Mathematics Faculty of the Belarusian State University

On October 7 and November 4, 2025, first-year students of the Mechanics and Mathematics Faculty of the Belarusian State University visited the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus (hereinafter NARB) as part of the «Archives for School» campaign.

As part of their course on «History of Belarusian Statehood», the students participated in a class on the topic «The Great Patriotic War – a Key Event in Modern History». Leading archivist of the Personal Collections Department, Tatyana Igorevna Brileva, discussed significant war events, the policies of the occupation authorities, the creation of underground organizations and the development of the partisan movement in Belarus from 1941 to 1944, and the Belarusian Strategic Offensive Operation Bagration. She also introduced the students to the history and publication activities of the NARB. During the class, students were asked to conduct a comparative analysis of several documents from the NARB collection «No Statute of Limitations. Belarus: Crimes of the Nazis and Their Collaborators against Civilians in the Occupied Territory of the BSSR During the Great Patriotic War. «Winter Magic»: The Nazi Punitive Operation in the Belarusian-Russian-Latvian Borderland. February–March 1943: Documents and Materials».

During a screening of the documentary «Belarus – a Partisan Republic», produced by the Belarusian State Archive of Film, Photo, and Sound Documents, the students identified the main activities of partisan detachments and named famous figures of the Great Patriotic War.

Based on documents prepared for students from the NARB collections, T.I.Brileva spoke about the deportation of Belarusians to forced labor in Germany from 1941 to 1944, the history of individual partisan brigades, and the exploits of partisans who were Heroes of the Soviet Union, and also answered questions.

1. BSU students watching a documentary

2. BSU students familiarizing themselves with NARB publications

3. BSU students studying documents of partisan movement participants

4. BSU students studying documents of partisan movement participants

5. Leading archivist of the NARB Personal Collections Department, T.I.Brileva, introduces BSU students to documents of partisan formations