Inter-republican seminar «Use of documents stored in the state archives of the Republic of Belarus and the Republic of Tatarstan. Experience exchange»

On February 1, 2024, heads of archival institutions of the Republic of Belarus, as well as structural divisions for archives and records management of the main justice departments of regional (Minsk city) executive committees took part in the Inter-republican seminar on the topic «Use of documents stored in the state archives of the Republic of Belarus and the Republic of Tatarstan. Exchange of experience», organized within the framework of cooperation between the Department for Archives and Records Management of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus and the State Committee of the Republic of Tatarstan for Archival Affairs.

Addressing the seminar participants with a welcoming speech, O.L.Voinov, Director of the Department for Archives and Records Management of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus, emphasized that fruitful cooperation had been established between Tatarstan and Belarus. As part of the joint work, documents on the history of the Tatar and Belarusian peoples have been identified and digital copies of archival documents are being exchanged. Today, archives, through various forms of using documents, solve the most important problems, implementing various functions in their work: scientific, cultural, educational and educational.

Chairman of the State Committee of the Republic of Tatarstan for Archival Affairs G.Z.Gabdrakhmanova noted the importance of the joint work of archivists of Tatarstan and Belarus. The meetings held in 2023 marked the beginning of close cooperation, which allowed the national archival collections to be replenished with copies of archival documents, and also showed that we have something to learn from each other.

During the seminar, speeches were made on the use of audiovisual documents. Director of the Belarusian State Archive of Film and Photo Documents A.N.Gonchar made a report «New forms of using audiovisual documents of the National Archival Fund of the Republic of Belarus. Experience of the Belarusian State Archive of Film and Photo Documents». Director of the State Archive of the Republic of Tatarstan S.N.Gorokhov told what forms of use of audiovisual documents are used in the State Archive of the Republic of Tatarstan.

N.V.Sokolova, head of the department for coordinating legal, control and archival work of the Main Department of Justice of the Gomel Regional Executive Committee, reported to those present on the development of new forms of using archival documents using the example of the activities of state archival institutions of the Gomel region.

Current problems of exhibition and publication activities based on the materials of the State Budgetary Institution «State Archive of the Republic of Tatarstan» were outlined in their speech by the Deputy Director for Scientific Research and Publications of the State Archive of the Republic of Tatarstan L.O.Kuznetsova and the head of the research sector of the editorial office of the scientific and documentary magazine «Gasyrlar Avazy – Echo of centuries» by L.I.Safiullina.

At the end of the seminar, the director of the State Archive of the Minsk Region, Yu.S.Romashko, presented a report «On the organization of identifying archival documents from the period of the Great Patriotic War and their use in exhibition projects of the State Archive of the Minsk Region».

The inter-republican seminar held became a platform for the exchange of experience between archivists of Belarus and Tatarstan and will serve as a new «impulse» in the search and implementation of new forms of using documents from the national archival collections of both countries.

After the end of the seminar, its participants attended the performance of the Film Actor Theater based on Ray Cooney’s play «No.13» (translation and editing by Mikhail Mishin, stage director Tatyana Troyanovich). A group photograph of the seminar participants was taken in the theater foyer.