On holding an international round table dedicated to International Archives Day between the institution «State Archives of the Gomel Region» (RB) and the Central State Archives of the Republic of Mordovia (RF)

On June 11, 2025, at the initiative of the Belarusian side, a ceremonial event was held via videoconference – an international round table «Let’s Preserve History Together» between the institution «State Archives of the Gomel Region» and the Central State Archives of the Republic of Mordovia.

The participants of the event from the Belarusian side were: First Deputy Representative of the Main Department of Justice of the Gomel Regional Executive Committee Andrei Anatolyevich Gurzhiy; Head of the State Archives of the Gomel Region Yuri Vasilyevich Shestopalov, Director of the State Archives of Public Associations of the Gomel Region Irina Vladimirovna Zhineva, Honorary Archivist of the Republic of Belarus Maria Adolfovna Aleinikova and archivists of state archives.

From the Russian side, participants of the round table: representatives of the Ministry of Culture, National Policy and Archival Affairs of the Republic of Mordovia; Saransk branch of the Representative Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia in Nizhny Novgorod; Mordovian Republican branch of the Russian Society of Historians and Archivists; Public Council of the Archival Department of the Ministry of Culture, National Policy and Archival Affairs of the Republic of Mordovia, archivists of state archives.

At the beginning of the event, the parties exchanged congratulations on International Archives Day.

Andrey Anatolyevich Gurzhiy opened the event with a welcoming speech, in which he congratulated the participants of Mordovia on the state holiday Russia Day and Saransk City Day, which is celebrated on June 12. Andrey Anatolyevich emphasized the special importance of archival work in preserving and enhancing the documentary national heritage of their region, their state, and therefore their history.

Head of the State Archives of the Gomel Region Yuri Vasilyevich Shestopalov in his speech on international archival relations spoke about the importance of joint archival projects in preserving the common documentary heritage. Cooperation between the archives of Russia and Belarus is aimed at popularizing documentary materials on significant events of states with a common history. This is especially important in a difficult international situation, when there is an attempt to distort historical facts.

Head of the Department of Accounting and Preservation of Documents of the State Archives of the Republic of Mordovia Svetlana Anatolyevna Primakova spoke about digitization as a form of preserving archival documents.

Category 1 archivist Victoria Rudenko presented a presentation of the virtual exhibition «Eternally Ancient Young Gomel» to the participants of the round table.

The presentation included archival documents on the history of the city, its architecture and modernity.

The speakers from Mordovia also addressed their congratulations to the archivists of Belarus and spoke about the directions of their research historical and archival work.

Head of the Central State Archives of the Republic of Mordovia E.B.Chinkova spoke about funds of personal origin and interesting facts from the biographies of historical figures of Mordovia.

Head of the Department of the State Autonomous Institution of the Central State Archives of the Republic of Mordovia N.N.Tereshina spoke about the popularization of archival documents through grant projects.

At the end of the event, the participants expressed confidence in the continuation of joint meetings and archival cooperation.

1. Speech by the Director of GAGO Yu.Shestopalov at the round table event «Let’s Preserve History Together»

2. Participants of the international round table of the Republic of Belarus listen to speeches by colleagues from the Russian Federation (Mordovia)

3. Head of the Department of Accounting and Preservation of Documents of GAGO S.A.Primakova talks about digitization

4-5. Speech by Russian colleagues at the round table event «Let’s Preserve History Together»

6. Speech by GAGO archivist V.Rudenko