A book of documents, “Small ethnic groups in Gomel Region in the 1920s-1930s. Analytical materials and documents issued by the State Archives of Gomel Region”

A book of documents, “Small ethnic groups in Gomel Region in the 1920s-1930s. Analytical materials and documents issued by the State Archives of Gomel Region” came out in 2008.

Published for the first time are122 original documents relating to the history and culture of small ethnic groups in the Gomel Region, i.e. Ukrainians, Germans, Latvians, Lithuanians, Czechs, Assyrians, and Gypsies.

The book illustrates the political and ethnoconfessional diversity of the Dniepr Region at this time, that is the Gomel Province and Eastern Polessie. In the 1920s-1930s, this area had the highest concentration of ethnic communities in the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR). These are the main ethnic group (Belarusians) and non-Belarusian ethnic groups (national minorities, ethnic diasporas).

The research into the history and culture of small ethnic groups in the region contributes significantly to the correction of the historiographical distortion that resulted from the predominance in research and published information on the history and culture of the main ethnic group (Belarusians) and the larger national minorities such as Russians, Jews and Poles on this territory.

Of especial importance are the documents that make possible to study the life of small ethnic communities in terms of the history of everday life.

In production now and the next to be published is a book of documents titled “Gomel Province. 1919 – 1926”, a joint initiative by the archivists from Belarus, Gomel region, and from Russia. The intent of this book is to present documents issued by the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus, the Russian State Archives of Socio-Political History, the State Archives of Gomel Region, and the State Archives of Social Organizations in the Gomel Region.