{"id":187774,"date":"2006-05-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-05-18T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/?page_id=187774"},"modified":"2026-01-13T13:32:34","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T10:32:34","slug":"narb-description-of-holdings","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/welcome-to-the-archives-of-belarus-website\/archives-and-records-management-authorities-and-the-state-archives-network\/central-archives-and-institutions\/the-national-archives-of-the-republic-of-belarus\/narb-description-of-holdings","title":{"rendered":"NARB. Description of holdings"},"content":{"rendered":"
\r\nContacts<\/a>
\r\nHistorical background<\/a>
\r\nFinding aids<\/a>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

Description of holdings<\/h2> \r\n

Amount of holdings: <\/b>1 323 fonds, 1 272 611 items, 1 445 documents<\/p> \r\n\r\n

Chronological scope:<\/b> from 1917 to the present (certain records from the 17th,\r\nlate 19th, and early 20th centuries)<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Geographical coverage: <\/strong>\r\n\r\n

    \r\n
  • former Vilno (Vilnius), Vitebsk, Grodno, Minsk, Mogilev and Smolensk gubernias\r\n (provinces) of the Russian Empire <\/li>\r\n
  • Western Belarus as part of Poland <\/li>\r\n
  • Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR)<\/li>\r\n
  • Republic of Belarus<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n

    Contents:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n

    The Archives embraces records related to all major aspects of the political, social,\r\neconomic and cultural life in Belarus. These reflect the struggle of the working people of\r\nBelarus for the formation of Soviet power, the events of the Russian Civil War (1918-1921)\r\nand the Second World War, the restoration and development of national economy and cultural\r\ndevelopment. Many records are concerned with the life of prominent politicians, state\r\nfunctionaries, workers in the realm of science, culture and art. \u00a0 <\/p>\r\n\r\n

    The period of the eve of the Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917 is illustrated\r\nin the records of chancelleries of the province and district commissars, social, land and\r\nfood committees, local self-government boards, and other institutions of the Provisional\r\nGovernment in Belarus.\u00a0 <\/p>\r\n\r\n

    The struggle of the Belarusian people against German invaders in the First World War,\r\nthe efforts to keep union with Russia, and the first steps in the socialist construction\r\non the unoccupied territory of\u00a0Western Region are reflected in the fonds of agencies\r\nand institutions of Western Region (1918) and in the fonds of the Belarusian National\r\nCommissariat (1918-1919). <\/p>\r\n\r\n

    The legislation process, the principles, forms and methods of the state management of the national economy, the social, cultural and governmental development of the country are represented by records of the highest organs of state power–the Central Executive Committee of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR), the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the BSSR, the Council of People’s Commissars – the Council of Ministers of the BSSR and the Republic of Belarus, the Permanent Mission of the BSSR to the USSR Government, the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

    The Archives also holds the fonds of judiciary, courts<\/font> and\r\nprosecution agencies–the Ministry of Justice (earlier People’s Commissariat) of the BSSR,\r\nthe High Court of the BSSR, the Supreme Court of the BSSR, the Prosecutor’s Office of the\r\nBSSR, and the State Arbitrage under the Council of Ministers of the BSSR. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

    Various information on transportation is held in the fonds of the Ministry of Motor\r\nTransport of the BSSR, the Main Highway Administration <\/font>of the\r\nBSSR, the Administration of the Belarusian Railway, the Main Administration of River Fleet\r\nunder the Council of Ministers of the BSSR, and the Belarusian Administration of Civil\r\nAviation. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

    The development of mail, telegraph, telephone and radio communications, radio and\r\ntelevision broadcast are illustrated in records of the Ministry of Communications of the\r\nBSSR and the State Committee on TV and Radio of the BSSR. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

    Records of public education\u00a0are represented by the fonds of the People’s\r\nCommissariat of Education of the BSSR, the Ministry of Education of the BSSR, the Ministry\r\nof Higher and Specialized Secondary Education of the BSSR, and individual higher\r\neducational institutions. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

    The development of culture and art is illustrated in the fonds of the Ministry of\r\nCulture of the BSSR, the State Committee on Cinema under the Council of Ministers of the\r\nBSSR, the Committee for Arts Affairs, and the Committee for Affairs of Cultural and\r\nEducational Institutions under the Council of Ministers of the BSSR.\u00a0 <\/p>\r\n\r\n

    The issues of health care are revealed in the records of the Ministry of Health of the\r\nBSSR (earlier People’s Commissariat of Health). <\/p>\r\n\r\n

    The Archives also retains records of trade associations and labour unions, social\r\norganizations, political parties and movements. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

    Documents relating to the Second World War are represented by the fonds of the\r\nBelarusian Headquarters of Partisan Movement, partisan brigades and groups, the Commission\r\nfor Issue of Certificate “Partisan of Belarus”, the Belarusian Central\r\nCommission for Investigation of Nazi Crimes and Estimate of Nazi Damage, the Commission on\r\nthe History of World War Two under the Central Committee of the Communist Party of\r\nBolsheviks of Belarus, and the Minsk City Underground Movement Committee. In addition, the\r\nArchives houses the collections of war letters sent from the frontline, leaflets,\r\nnewspapers and posters of Communist Party, Komsomol and anti-fascist organizations and\r\npartisan groups, and collections of microfilms of documents that are now kept in the\r\narchives of other countries. The resistance of the local population to Nazi invaders is\r\nrevealed in the fonds of the higher Party, Soviet, Komsomol and military agencies and\r\ninstitutions, and local underground Party and Komsomol agencies and institutions. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

    Records of the Occupation (1941-1944) are represented by the fonds of the German\r\noccupation administration, local self-government bodies, military institutions and units,\r\npolice structures, judiciary, prosecution and penalty agencies, population registration\r\nagencies, agencies of the economic development of the Occupied territories, agencies of\r\nthe communal and housing service of the economic entities, public education institutions,\r\nand information-propaganda and social organizations that functioned legally under the\r\nOccupation, as well as the professional, scientific, scholarly and cultural associations\r\namong others.\u00a0 <\/p>\r\n\r\n

    Fonds of the Central Committees of the Communist Party of Belarus and the Lenin’s Young\r\nCommunist League (Komsomol) of Belarus retain records relating to the Party construction\r\nand inter-Party struggle; the leadership of the Communist Party and Komsomol over the\r\ninstitutions of state government, public and youth organizations, national economy,\r\nculture, health care, and underground and partisan movement in the Second World War; about\r\nideological, political-educational, and military-defence work among the population. Among\r\nthe personnel records of the higher Party and Komsomol agencies are lists, mandates,\r\ncertificates, questionnaires, files on Party membership, personal files, and files of\r\nappeal. The history and activity of the Communist Party of Western Belarus are reflected\r\nin the fonds of the Embassy of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Western\r\nBelarus to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Bolsheviks of Belarus.\u00a0 <\/p>\r\n\r\n

    Records of the fonds of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Belarus from the years\r\n1992-1996 reflect the legislative process of making laws, law codes, and intergovernment\r\nagreements that regulated the political and economic life of the country after receiving\r\nindependence. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

    A separate group of records is represented by the personal fonds. These are papers\r\nrelated to Party leaders, state functionaries and public figures (Masherov P. M., Kisilev\r\nT. Ia., Aksenov A. N., Sliunkov N. N., Pritytski S. O., Mazurov K. T., Avkhimovich N. E.,\r\nVetrov I. D., Klimov I. F., Lobanok V. E., Surganov F. A., Papkov F. E., Snezhkova N. L.,\r\nPoliakov I. E., Shushkevich S. S., Zetiukov M. A., Smirnov V. S., etc.), Belarusian\r\nscientists and scholars (Fedorov F. I., Aleksandrov N. N., Gudimov B. S., Dominikovski F.\r\nN., Kancher E. S., Kopysski E. U., Sikorski V. M., Chepko V. V., Chimburg I. S., Trusov O.\r\nA., Shtyhov G. V., etc.).<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Contacts Historical background Finding aids Description of holdings Amount of holdings: 1 323 fonds, 1 272 611 items, 1 445 documents Chronological scope: from 1917 to the present (certain records…","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":439239,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-187774","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/187774"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187774"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/187774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1022484,"href":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/187774\/revisions\/1022484"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/439239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}