Zonal State Archives in Polotsk

Historical background

In December 1924, the Polotsk District Department of the Central Archives of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR) was formed.

On December 8, 1927, the department was transformed into a district department.

With the abolition of the district administrative-territorial division in 1930, the Polotsk District Department was liquidated, and its funds were transferred to the Vitebsk department of the Central Archives of the BSSR.

In 1937, a district state archive was formed in Polotsk.

During the Great Patriotic War, the archive was destroyed.

In December 1944, an archival department was formed in Polotsk, as the center of the Polotsk region, and in January 1945, a regional state archive. Since 1949, the archive has been located in St. Sophia Cathedral.

In connection with the liquidation of the Polotsk region, the regional archive was reorganized into the Polotsk city state archive on March 25, 1954, and in 1957, the district state archive was restored in Polotsk.

On November 11, 1963, on the basis of the abolished Verkhnedvinsk, Lepel, Polotsk, Rossony, Ushachsky district and Polotsk city archives, the Branch of the State Archive of the Vitebsk Region in Polotsk was created.

In September 1996, the branch was transformed into the Zonal State Archive in Polotsk. On May 24, 2001, the Zonal State Archive in Polotsk was renamed into the Institution «Zonal State Archive in Polotsk».