Belarusian archivists prepare for publication a book of documents and materials Belarus and the War of 1812

Belarusian archivists are currently preparing for publication a book of documents and materials entitled Belarus and the War of 1812. The book includes documents from the National Historical Archives of Belarus in Minsk and the National Historical Archives of Belarus in Grodno. The use of a great number of new documents introduced for the first time in scholarly research makes possible to look closely at the important events of the Napoleonic War of 1812 that took place on Belarusian soil and its aftermath for Belarus.

The book offers documents created by the provincial and district authorities, local self-government, the economic, financial, legal, medical, military and other institutions that worked in the provinces of Vitebsk, Grodno, Minsk and Mogilev in the Russian Empire. The documents contain data on the political situation in Belarus on the eve of the war, preparation for military actions in imperial Russia, the use of human and material resources in Belarus, care about the persons who became victims of military operations, the fate of the French PoWs who remained in Belarus after the war, commemoration of the events of 1812 in Belarus.