13th Archival Readings dedicated to 25th anniversary of the Society of Belarusian Archivists

On 6 October 2015 the Belarusian State Archives-Museum of Literature and Art (BGAMLI) held the 13th Archival Readings dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the Society of Belarusian Archivists. The conference brought together historians and archivists from Minsk, Gomel, Grodno, Dzerzhinsk and other cities in Belarus. First Deputy Director of the Department for Archives and Records Management of the Justice Ministry Olga Biryukova welcomed the conference participants. Greetings and congratulatory messages were also sent from foreign scholars: the Belarusian Institute of Arts and Sciences in New York and the Ukrainian Research Institute of Archival Science and Documentation. Associate Professor at the Belarusian State University Mikhail Shumeiko delivered a speech on the role of archivist in the contemporary society and Director of the Belarusian Archives-Museum of Literature and Art Anna Zapartyko conducted a presentation of the Archive’s fonds processed in 2014-2015.

A part of the reports focused on the life and activities of prominent figures in the field of archives: “New sources and facts from the life and activity of archivists at the Nesvizh Archives of Princes Radziwill, “The head staff of the State Archives of Gomel Region in the 1920s-1930s”, “Honored Worker of Belarusian Culture, archivist A.N. Pleshevenya (1923-1993)”, “Documentary heritage of V.U. Skalaban, ”Documents from the personal archive of A.V. Vorobyov in the context of archival work in Belarus in the 2nd part of the 20th century”. Two reports discussed the archival collections in the studies of the architectural and historical heritage: records of the National Archival Holdings of the Republic of Belarus and records relating to amateur photographer V.A. Vasilenko. Other reports reviewed the papers with biographies of prominent figures: emigrant singer Piotr Konyukh, writer Vincent Dunin-Martinkevich etc.