The National Archives of the Republic of Belarus has prepared a virtual exhibition to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Arkady Afanasyevich Tolstik

November 15, 2025, marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Arkady Afanasyevich Tolstik – a party and public figure, Chairman of the Board of the Union of Journalists of the BSSR, Executive Secretary of the Central Committee of the Belarusian Young Communist League, Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper «Zvyazda», Honored Cultural Worker of the BSSR, and participant in the Great Patriotic War.

Arkady Afanasyevich Tolstik was born on November 15, 1925, in the village of Chikili, Glussky District, Mogilev Region, to a farmer’s family. He graduated from Glussky Secondary School in 1941. During the Great Patriotic War, he participated in the partisan movement, serving as a liaison officer for the Ordzhonikidze Partisan Detachment of the 37th Parkhomenko Partisan Brigade of the Minsk Division (June 1942 – July 1944). From July 1944 to May 1950, he served in the internal troops of the NKVD – the USSR Ministry of State Security.

After demobilization, he worked as an instructor for the Bobruisk Regional Komsomol Committee, first secretary of the Krasnoslobodsk District Committee of the LKSMB, and from 1952, executive secretary of the LKSMB Central Committee. In 1954, he graduated from the Bobruisk Teachers’ Training Institute and entered the philological faculty of the A.M. Gorky Minsk State Pedagogical Institute, graduating in 1957. From 1953 to 1960, he worked in the editorial office of the newspaper «Chyrvonaya Zmena», first as a department head, then as a deputy editor. From May 1960, A.A.Tolstik was involved in party work – instructor in the propaganda and agitation department, head of the printing, publishing, and printing sector, deputy head of the propaganda and agitation department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus. From March 1973 to October 1986, he worked as an editor of the republican newspaper «Zvyazda». Between 1975 and 1985, he was elected as a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the BSSR of the ninth, tenth, and eleventh convocations. From 1973 to 1987, A.A.Tolstik was the Chairman of the Board of the Union of Journalists of the BSSR. As a delegate from the Byelorussian SSR in 1974, he participated in the work of the XXIX session of the UN General Assembly.

After retiring in 1987, A.A.Tolstik was invited to join the Belarusian Cultural Foundation. For his services to the Motherland, A.A.Tolstik was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd Class, two Orders of the Badge of Honor, as well as 12 medals, including the Medals «For Courage» and «For Military Merit», five certificates of honor, and a certificate from the Supreme Soviet of the BSSR. In 1980 and 1985, he was awarded the Julius Fucik Medal of the International Organization of Journalists (IOJ). In 1979, A.A.Tolstik was awarded the honorary title of «Honored Worker of Culture of the Byelorussian SSR».

This virtual exhibition was prepared by the staff of the Personal Collections Department of the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus.

You can view the virtual exhibition by following this link.