International scholarly conference The World Wars of the 20th Century in Historical Memory of Russia and Belarus

An international scholarly conference The World Wars of the 20th Century in Historical Memory of Russia and Belarus was held in Minsk on 13-14 April 2017.

The conference organizers are the Association of Russian and Belarusian Historians «The Union State Initiative of Memory and Accord», the Institute of History of the Belarusian National Academy of Sciences, the Historical Memory Foundation for Actual Historical Research Assistance and the Representative Office of the Russian Center for the CIS issues and Cooperation in the Republic of Belarus (Rossotrudnichestvo).

The conference agenda included issues of international affairs in Russia and Belarus during world wars, social and political processes in Belarus and Russia on the eve of WWI and WWII, the occupation regime in Belarus, the resistance to the occupiers in world wars, religious confessions and national economy in 1914-1918 and 1941-1945, the restoration of life after the war, modern approaches to coverage of world wars in Belarus and Russia etc.

The conference brought together leading historians from Belarus, Russia, Italy and Poland. Mr Victor Kourash, Director of the Belarusian Department for Archives and Records Management delivered a report «The events of the First World War and the Second World War in documents of the state archives in the Republic of Belarus».