History students completed an internship at the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus

On July 1 and 2, 2026, the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus (hereinafter NARB) organized an archival and museum training internship for second-year students of the Belarusian State University’s Faculty of History. This event was part of the long-standing collaboration between the archive and the Faculty of History and was aimed at providing practice-oriented training for historians.

Elena Aleksandrovna Stukanova, Deputy Director of the NARB, welcomed the students. In her address, she emphasized the importance of students completing an internship at the archive, noting that this form of practical training allows future historians not only to deepen their theoretical knowledge and master methods of working with archival documents, but also to develop a responsible attitude toward the preservation of the national documentary heritage. During the internship, the heads of the archive’s departments provided students with a detailed overview of the institution’s key activities, demonstrating the diversity and complexity of archival work. Particular attention was paid to the archive’s workflows, including document acquisition and scientific and technical processing, record keeping, preservation, development of a scientific reference system, document management, and the preparation and publication of collections of documentary materials on the history of the Belarusian state. The students also learned about the organization of the archive’s catalogs, the technological processes for repairing, restoring, and digitizing archival documents, and visited the archive’s repositories of documents from the Great Patriotic War, personal collections, and the archive’s reading room.

During the internship, the history students demonstrated an interest in studying all aspects of archival work in detail and actively asked questions on aspects of the archive’s work that interested them. NARB plans to further develop its collaboration with the History Department of the Belarusian State University, offering students the opportunity to complete internships at the archive and actively participate in preserving and promoting Belarus’s documentary heritage.

1. NARB Deputy Director E.A.Stukanova during her welcoming remarks

2. During an introduction to the organization of archival cataloging

3-6. During a visit to the archives of World War II-era documents and personal collections

7. Student interns during an introduction to archival document restoration

8. Student interns reviewing the archive’s printed publications