Information on the publication of the second volume of the collection of documents «Russia and the Belarusian Lands in the 17th-18th Centuries», prepared by the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts and the National Historical Archives of Belarus

The second volume of the collection of documents «Russia and the Belarusian Lands in the 17th-18th Centuries» has been published in Moscow. The collection was prepared by the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts and the National Historical Archives of Belarus as part of the Joint Action Plan of the Department of Archives and Records Management of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus and the Federal Archival Agency of the Russian Federation.

The collection was created as part of a joint program between Russian and Belarusian archivists to publish documents on the relationship between the Russian state and the Belarusian lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 17th-18th centuries. The first volume, published in 2020, was compiled from documents from 1619 to 1663, stored at the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts. The second volume is devoted to the relationships between the Russian authorities and various classes and influential figures of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania who swore allegiance to the Russian state during the military operations of 1654–1667.

Primarily, it focuses on military units and their service in the tsar’s armies; the documents provide a significant amount of information on land grants, benefits, and privileges of the sworn gentry, townspeople, and other classes. The published sets of documents are supplemented by a reference book on the history of Lithuanian sworn military units, compiled according to territorial and administrative principles. This collection is intended for historians, local historians, genealogists, and anyone interested in the history of Russia and Belarus.

Cover of the publication «Russia and the Belarusian Lands in the 17th-18th Centuries».