On the IV Skalaban Readings

On November 20, 2025, the IV Skalaban Readings, «Understanding the Past and Present through Documentary Evidence», were held at the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus (NARB).

Welcoming remarks were addressed by: O.L.Voinov, Director of the Department of Archives and Records Management of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus; S.N.Khodin, Head of the Department of Source Studies at the Faculty of History of the Belarusian State University (BSU), Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor; P.V.Skalaban, Head of the Department of Ideological Work at the Academy of Public Administration under the President of the Republic of Belarus; and A.K.Demyanyuk, Director of the NARB.

The plenary session featured reports by M.F.Shumeika, Professor of the Department of Source Studies at the Faculty of History of BSU, Candidate of Historical Sciences, («Archives in the Context of Preserving Historical Memory»); Leading researcher in the sector of research, publication and exhibition activities of the department for the use of documents, information and publication activities of the National Historical Archive of Belarus (NIAB), Ph.D. O.V.Volkova («Documents from the Fund of the Kamisiy pas atsentsy i likvidatsyі war strata, inflicted by the First World War on the population, the Polish Central liquidation government as krynitsa pa History of the German Acupation of Belarus (below the Dziarzhaunaga Archive of the Brest Region and the Zalnaga Dziarzhaunaga Archive of the town of Maladzechna)»); Deputy Director of the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus, PhD in History S.V.Kulinok («The Information Potential of the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus’ «Partisan Collections» for the Study of the History of the Great Patriotic War»).

Representatives of republican (NARB, NIAB, the National Historical Archive in Grodno, the Belarusian State Archive-Museum of Literature and Art), regional (State Archive of the Vitebsk Region), zonal (Zonal State Archive in Glubokoye) archival institutions, higher education institutions (BSU, Vitebsk State University named after P.M.Masherov, Mogilev State University named after A.A.Kuleshov), the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (Institute of History, Center for the Study of Belarusian Culture, Language, and Literature), the Yakub Kolas Central Scientific Library of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, the National Library of Belarus, local historians, and researchers participated in the sections.

The international component of the event included speakers from the Higher School of Social Sciences of the Humanities Institute of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, Samara State Technical University, the Documentation Center for Public Organizations of the Sverdlovsk Region, and the State Archives of Administrative Bodies of the Sverdlovsk Region. A total of over 30 people participated in the conference.

Ahead of the readings, staff from the NARB Publications Department visited the burial site of V.V.Skalaban and laid flowers.

1. Welcome address by O.L.Voinov, Director of the Department of Archives and Records Management of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus.

2. Welcome address by S.N.Khodin, Head of the Source Studies Department of the History Faculty of BSU, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor.

3. Welcome address by P.V.Skalaban, Head of the Ideological Work Department of the Academy of Public Administration under the President of the Republic of Belarus.

4. Welcome address by A.K.Demyanyuk, Director of the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus.

5. During the plenary session.

6. During the plenary session.

7. During the plenary session.

8. NARB Publications Department staff lay flowers at the burial site of V.V.Skalaban.