TO THE 90TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE OPENING OF THE GOVERNMENT HOUSE
On October 31, 2023, in the foyer of the Oval Hall of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly, a photo-documentary exhibition «Government House: History and Modernity» was opened, prepared by the Department of Archives and Records Management of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus with the participation of the National Archive of the Republic of Belarus, the Belarusian State Archive of Film and Photo Documents, the Belarusian State Archive of Scientific Research -technical documentation and the Presidential Library of the Republic of Belarus.
Today the exhibition was visited by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Belarus Roman Aleksandrovich Golovchenko, the Chairman of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus Vladimir Pavlovich Andreichenko, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Belarus Igor Viktorovich Petrishenko, the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Belarus Sergey Nikolaevich Khomenko.
The Government House was the first large administrative building of Belarus during the Soviet era, a shining example of constructivism. Its construction laid the foundation for the central development of Minsk, designed into a single architectural ensemble. Back in 1929, an All-Union competition was held for the design of the Minsk government residence, the winner of which was Joseph Langbard, a native of the Grodno province.
Construction of the Government House in the early 1930s. became a kind of construction project of the century, in which the whole country took part. The work took place in difficult conditions: the builders were limited in both technology and materials. Therefore, the entire burden of construction work fell on the shoulders (literally and figuratively) of ordinary participants in the construction of the monumental structure. The limited choice of materials (brick and plaster), according to Langbard, «played a positive rather than a negative role», since it gave the building a noble restraint. In 1933, in front of the Government House, a seven-meter bronze monument to Lenin was erected on a black labrador pedestal, which became the tallest in the entire USSR.
The Government House miraculously survived the Great Patriotic War. Just before the retreat, the Germans prepared it for an explosion, but the decisive actions of the Red Army and the partisans prevented the tragedy, and on July 3, 1944, sappers defused 184 time bombs in the building.
Today, the Government House has become a symbol of Belarusian statehood; it is here that the most important decisions in the life of our country are made at meetings of the government and parliament.
For the first time, the National Archive presented unique documents: An extract from Minutes No. 10 of the Executive Meeting of the Presidium of the State Planning Committee of the BSSR on the construction of a building for the highest state institutions of the BSSR, the Report of the Construction Commission on the construction of the Government House of the BSSR, the Competition Program for drawing up the project of the Government House of the BSSR, the Resolution of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People’s Commissars BSSR on the ceremonial opening of the monument to V.I. Lenin and the Government House, a memorandum by the head of the military department of the Council of People’s Commissars of the BSSR I. Kuteynikov on the progress of demining the Government House, etc. The Belarusian State Archive of Scientific and Technical Documentation, which stores the personal fund of I. Langbard, presented at the exhibition Projects of the main and side facades of the Government House of the BSSR, Axonometry of the Government House of the BSSR in Minsk, an alphabetical list of workers of the Office for the construction of the Government House of the BSSR, Certificates of acceptance of completed construction work for 1933 and other interesting documents.
The State Archive of Film, Photo and Sound Documents presented numerous photographs reflecting the construction, opening and modern history of the Government House. In addition, the Belarusian State Archive of Film, Photo and Sound Documents prepared and presented the documentary film «Government House: History and Modernity (on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of its opening)».
