Documentary exhibition marking 500 years of the Charter of Prince Fedor Ivanovich Yaroslavich, one of the oldest records of Belarusian provenance in the Archives of Nizhny Novgorod, Russia

On 21 December 2007, the documentary exhibition marking 500 years of the Charter of Prince Fedor Ivanovich Yaroslavich, one of the oldest records of Belarusian origin preserved in the Archives of Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, was opened at the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus (now located in the newly constructed building of the National Library of Belarus).

The exhibition was organized by the Department for Archives and RM of the Republic of Belarus and the Committee for Archives in Nizhny Novgorod Region (Russia) with the assistance of the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus, the National Historical Archives of Belarus, the Belarusian State Archives of Films, Photographs and Sound Recordings, and the Central Archives of Nizhny Novgorod Region. The exposition was prepared under the Programme of Cooperation between the Republic of Belarus and Nizhny Novgorod Region, Russia for 2006 – 2010, and it was dated for 500 years of one of the oldest records of Belarusian origin preserved in the Archives of Nizhny Novgorod, «Charter of Prince Fedor Ivanovich Yaroslavich granting boyar Mikhail Dmitrievich, called Sherap, with land and peasants in his principalities of Pinsk, Slutsk and Kletsk…» (20 September 1507).

In addition, the exposition presents copies of other documents of Belarusian provenance preserved in the Central Archives of Nizhny Novgorod Region and the National Historical Archives of Belarus – charters of Prince Fedor Ivanovich Yaroslavich granting land holdings and peasants to various persons, royal edicts and letters, charters issued by clerics, Belarusian publications of religious character, the inventories and graphic descriptions of the towns of Kletsk, Slutsk and Pinsk. The documents presented at the exhibition span the years from the 16th to 19th centuries.