Joint photo documentary exhibition «Restoration of the Industry of Belarus 1944-1950»

On July 31, 2024, the opening of the photo documentary exhibition «Restoration of the Industry of Belarus after Liberation from the Nazi Occupation» took place at the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus. This is a joint project of the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus, the Belarusian State Archive of Scientific and Technical Documentation and the Belarusian State Archive of Film, Photo and Sound Documents.

As a result of military operations, and especially during the Nazi occupation, Belarus suffered enormous human and material losses. Human losses were terrible. The BSSR lost every third of its inhabitants. 209 out of 270 cities and district centers were destroyed, more than 12 thousand villages and hamlets, more than 10 thousand enterprises were destroyed and damaged. The enemy destroyed more than half of the national wealth of the republic. In terms of economic development, the BSSR was thrown back to the level of 1928, and in such important sectors as industry and energy – to the indicators of 1913. Only 2% of the pre-war energy capacity operated in the liberated republic.

The first steps towards restoration were taken immediately after the expulsion of the Nazi invaders from the eastern regions of the republic in September 1943. First of all, defense enterprises and those that supplied the population with essential goods were restored. Already in May 1944, the Gomel locomotive repair and brick factories were put into operation, and in August – the Gomselmash plant. A month after the liberation of Minsk, 13 capital enterprises began to manufacture products.

A feature of the restoration period was that the BSSR, as part of a single union state, received a significant part of the resources for the deployment of restoration work from all-Union sources. The government of the USSR allocated significant funds for the restoration of the national economy of Belarus and assistance to the population (for example, in 1944 the Soviet government allocated 490.7 million rubles for the restoration of the economy of the BSSR, in 1945 – 1,200 million rubles), our republic received a lot of machine tools, metal, building materials, clothing, footwear. Aid to Belarus was provided by other republics of the USSR that avoided the Nazi occupation. Reparations were sent to the BSSR.

In September 1946, the Supreme Council of the BSSR adopted the Law on the Five-Year Plan for the Restoration and Development of the National Economy of the Republic for the Fourth Five-Year Plan (1946–1950). By the end of the Five-Year Plan, the industrial output of the BSSR was to not only reach the pre-war level, but also exceed it, with the most significant growth expected in mechanical engineering, energy, and peat production. The Five-Year Plan took place under the conditions of a centralized planned economic system, with the main focus being on the development of heavy industry – the means of production: mechanical engineering, metalworking, and electric power engineering. Thanks to the launch of MAZ, MTZ, and other large plants, the production of automobiles, trailers, tractors, and bicycles was mastered for the first time. The pre-war level of electricity production was exceeded by 47%. New large enterprises of the light industry were created, including the Vitebsk Carpet and Plush Factory and Silk Weaving Factory, the Minsk and Grodno Fine Woolen Factories. At the cost of great efforts, by the end of 1950, the industry of the BSSR in terms of GDP exceeded the pre-war level by 15%, and in the western regions of Belarus – almost 2 times.

At the exhibition, you can see documents from the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus: certificates on the state of industry in the liberated regions of the republic; the order of the Committee for the Registration and Distribution of Labor under the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR on the mobilization of the population for the restoration and work at light industry enterprises; on the electrification of collective farms of the republic; on the progress of restoration work at the Bobruisk confectionery factory «Krasny Pischevik», at the BelGRES; performance indicators of the industry of the BSSR for 1940 and 1944-1948; lists of workers awarded the title «Hero of Socialist Labor», and other documents.

The Belarusian State Archive of Scientific and Technical Documentation presented at the exhibition projects of the residential area of the Minsk Automobile Plant, the plant of mathematical machines in Minsk, schemes and general view of the MMVZ motorcycle, MTZ tractor, MAZ-500 car, assembly drawings of the automatic refrigerator «Minsk», a general view drawing of the combined TV «Belarus».

Numerous photographs reflecting the stages of construction, restoration, opening of city-forming enterprises of our country were taken from the archival funds of the Belarusian State Archive of Film, Photo, and Sound Documents.

Having overcome the difficulties of post-war recovery, the BSSR became the most economically and culturally developed republic in the USSR over the next decades. During this period, a solid foundation of Belarusian national statehood was laid, which stood the test of time and created a reliable basis for the construction of the sovereign Republic of Belarus.

1. Exhibition banner

2. Exhibition of archival documents in the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus

3. Archival documents at the exhibition

4. Archival documents at the exhibition

5. Archival documents at the exhibition

6. Documents of the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus at the exhibition in the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus

7. Order of the Committee for the Distribution and Accounting of Labor under the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR (1944)

8. Information on the progress of restoration work at the Bobruisk confectionery factory «Krasny Pischevik» (1945), p. 1

9. Information on the progress of restoration work at the Bobruisk confectionery factory «Krasny Pischevik» (1945), p. 2

10. Information on the progress of restoration work at the Bobruisk confectionery factory «Krasny Pischevik» (1945), p. 3

11. Information on the progress of restoration work at the Bobruisk confectionery factory «Krasny Pischevik» (1945) g.), p.4

12. Resolution of the CM BSSR and the Central Committee of the CP(b)B on the issues of construction of the Minsk Tractor Plant (1946), p.1

13. Resolution of the CM BSSR and the Central Committee of the CP(b)B on the issues of construction of the Minsk Tractor Plant (1946), p.2

14. Resolution of the CM BSSR and the Central Committee of the CP(b)B on the issues of construction of the Minsk Tractor Plant (1946), p.3

15. Resolution of the CM BSSR and the Central Committee of the CP(b)B on the issues of construction of the Minsk Tractor Plant (1946), p.4