A book of documents Minsk City Council of Deputies 1917-2012 has been released

In March 2012, the Minsk City Council of Deputies celebrated its 95th anniversary. To mark this date, the Department for Archives and Records Management of the Republic of Belarus, the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus, the Belarusian State Archives of Films, Photographs and Sound Recordings, the State Archives of Minsk Region and the Minsk City Council released a book of documents entitled The Minsk City Council of Deputies 1917-2012 (the publishing house Belorussky Dom Pechati). The compilers are V.I. Adamushko, Ya.N. Blazhei, E.M. Grinevich et al.

The book offers 396 documents, including 99 from the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus, 144 from the State Archives of Minsk Region, and 55 from the Archives of the Minsk City Executive Committee. An interesting information was taken from the newspapers — “Molot”, “Zvyazda”, “Sovetskaya Belorussiya” etc. Most documents have been published for the first time.

The published resolutions, decisions, minutes, reports, returns, certificates, internal documents etc narrate about the election campaigns, the number and composition of deputies, the organization of the Minsk City Council etc. The book shows how in the course of the revolutionary events the Minsk Council turned from a socio-political organization into the state authority.

Many documents illuminate the activity of the city council in the socio-economic and cultural development of Minsk and its role in the transformation of the provincial town into the capital. The book is illustrated with photographs and facsimile copies of records available from the state, agency and personal archives.

The book also includes short biographies of chairmen at the Minsk City Council and its executive committee, a name index, and a list of abbreviations.