Exhibition The Soviet Society and the War 1941-1945 at the Belarusian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War, 1 Oct 2010

1 October 2010, the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus and the Federal Archival Agency of the Russian Federation together with the Belarusian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War present an exhibition The Soviet Society and the War 1941-1945 staged at the Belarusian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War.

Many previously unknown documents and archival complexes have been identified and introduced into scholarly practice for the last few decades as a result of studies conducted by archives and research institutions in Russia and Belarus. This made possible to develop new and more objective approaches to the history of the Great Patriotic War, reassess many of its heroic and tragic pages.

The displayed records are focused on the social and spiritual aspects of an individual’s life in the ordeals of the war years. The central part of the exhibition are the witness evidences, the previously unknown documents pertaining to the daily life at the fronts, in the Soviet rear, besieged Leningrad, the conquered districts of the USSR, the mass heroism of the Soviet people, and the costs of the Victory. The documentary evidence of the Nazi punitive regime and the heroic resistance of the Partisans demonstrate the massive scale of the tragedy and the struggle in the enemy’s rear.

The rare archives show how the Soviet leadership used emergency measures in the economic administration in the war, the complex process of economic transformation on a war scale, industry evacuation to the East, construction of aviation plants, production of weapons and military equipment. Previously unknown facts, data and statistics help reassess the economic life of the country in the war years.

The lend-lease problem outlined the complexity of relations between the allies, their political and ideological contradictions in the first months of the war. The economic aid provided to the Soviet Union by the USA and Great Britain has long received a high assessment in Russia.

The exhibition organizers are the Department for Archives and RM at the Ministry of Justice of Belarus, the Federal Archival Agency of the Russian Federation and the Russian State Archives of the Economy.

The exhibition was held successfully in Moscow during the celebration of the Great Victory. In Minsk, the unique archival records, which show new perspectives in the study of social policy and public awareness in the war time are on display from October to December in the rooms of the Belarusian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War.