State Archives of Vitebsk Region

Historical background

The Archives was established in August 1919 as an archival repository of the Vitebsk Gubernia (Province) Archival Administration (from 1922 the Archival Bureau).

In 1924, the archival repository was reorganized as the Vitebsk District Division of the Central Archives of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR), which was reorganized into the Vitebsk Historical Archives in 1927.

In 1930, the Vitebsk Historical Archives was reorganized as a division of the Central Archival Administration of the BSSR. In February 1933, the Vitebsk division was renamed the North-Baltic division, and in April 1936 it was made the Vitebsk division of the central state archives of the BSSR. In 1938, the latter was reorganized as the State Archives of Vitebsk Region.

In the Second World War, during the German occupation of Belarus (from mid-1941 to mid-1944) the Archives did not function.

In 1947, the prerevolutionary documents were transferred to the Central State Historical Archives of the BSSR in Mogilev.

In May 1992, the Archives acquired records of the Party Archives of the Vitebsk Region Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus.

On November 1, 2001 the Archives received its present name of the State Archives of Vitebsk Region.