Opening of the documentary exhibition «Improvement of the country through the prism of time»
A documentary exhibition «Improvement of the country through the prism of time» has opened in the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus (hereinafter referred to as NARB). This is the first exhibition in the series dedicated to the Year of Improvement.
In our country, 2025 has been declared the Year of Improvement. The head of state A.G. Lukashenko launched a five-year quality plan. This decision was made in order to further improve the quality of life of the Belarusian people, stimulate initiative, form responsibility in society for the results of their work and a sense of involvement in the future of the country. Within the framework of the designated Year of Improvement of the country, a number of events are planned aimed at improving the sanitary condition of settlements, improving public spaces and creating a comfortable urban environment.
It is worth noting that Belarusians have long felt responsible for the fate of their country and restoring order in their native land.
After the end of the Civil War, with the beginning of the new economic policy, the Soviet government took up the task of overcoming the devastation in the urban economy. As part of the revival of the destroyed national economy, subbotniks emerged, the first of which took place on the night of Saturday, April 12, 1919, when 15 workers of the Moscow-Sortirovochnaya railway depot on the Kazan railway, on their own initiative, stayed in the workshop after their shift and repaired three locomotives. Soon, subbotniks became a mass phenomenon, including in Belarus.
After the establishment of peace in the Soviet Union, there was a huge need to urgently transfer the country to industrial rails in order to eliminate the industrial gap. During the years of the first five-year plans (1928-1937), over 6,000 new industrial enterprises were built throughout the vast country, new industries were created – including automobile, tractor, chemical and others, which allowed it to survive during the Great Patriotic War. After the reunification of Western Belarus with the BSSR in September 1939, reforms began in the annexed territories, during which peasants received land, and in the cities, temporary administrations took into account factories and plants abandoned by their owners, organized production in order to prevent a shortage of goods. By order of the temporary administrations, in the first days after the reunification, an 8-hour working day was established at enterprises, free medical care for the population was introduced, and tuition fees in schools were abolished. As a result, the workers of Western Belarus became full-fledged masters of their lives, active participants in the improvement of their cities and villages. NARB presented authentic archival documents for the 1920-1940s at the exhibition: Regulations on subbotniks of the Subbotnik Bureau under the Communist Party of Belarus; information on the subbotnik and Sunday of communist cells; a summary of the work carried out during the subbotnik at the Minsk railway station; lists of institutions and the number of people who participated in the clean-up days; a report to the Central Executive Committee of Belarus on the need to raise funds for the improvement of children’s institutions; a report from the Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Belarus P. Ponomarenko to the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) on the improvement of district centers in the western regions of the Byelorussian SSR; a report to the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Belarus on the issue of a plan for the construction and organization of collective farm markets in the city of Minsk, and other documents.
The exhibition was viewed by archive employees and numerous visitors to the reading room.
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| 1. Poster of the documentary exhibition «Improvement of the country through the prism of time» |
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| 2. Head of the NARB department M.A.Starostenko introduces NARB employees to the exhibition «Improvement of the country through the prism of time» |
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| 3. Head of the NARB department M.A.Starostenko introduces NARB employees to the exhibition «Improvement of the country through the prism of time» |
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| 4. Archival documents at the exhibition |
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| 5. Unique NARB documents |
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| 6. Photographs from NARB events on improvement |
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| 7. Photographs from NARB events on improvement |
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| 8. Leaflet about holding a mass Sunday work day on Svobody Square in Minsk |
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| 9. Report to the Central Committee of the Communist Party (bolsheviks) of Belarus on the state of improvement of collective farm markets in Minsk, 1940, p. 1 |
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| 10. Report to the Central Committee of the Communist Party (bolsheviks) of Belarus on the state of improvement of collective farm markets markets of Minsk, 1940, p.2 |
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| 11. Report to the Central Committee of the Communist Party (bolsheviks) of Belarus on the state of improvement of collective farm markets of Minsk, 1940, p.3 |