{"id":745529,"date":"2006-10-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-10-09T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/?page_id=745529"},"modified":"2026-01-27T12:42:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T09:42:21","slug":"bgakffd-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-belarusian-state-archives-of-films-photographs-and-sound-recordings\/bgakffd-description-of-holdings","title":{"rendered":"BGAKFFD. Description of holdings"},"content":{"rendered":"
\r\nContacts<\/a>
\r\nHistorical background<\/a>
\r\nFinding aids<\/a>
\r\nServices<\/a>
\r\n<\/div>\r\n

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

Amount of holdings:<\/b> \r\n

    \r\n
  • film documents: 60 190 items<\/li>\r\n
  • documentary photographs: 292 379 items<\/li>\r\n
  • sound records: 27 493 items <\/li>\r\n
  • video documents: 9 114 items <\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n

    Chronological scope:<\/b> from 1860 to the present \r\n\r\n

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

      \r\n
    • former Vilno (Vilnius), Vitebsk, Grodno, Minsk and Mogilev gubernias (provinces) of the\r\n Russian Empire <\/li>\r\n
    • Western Belarus as part of Poland<\/li>\r\n
    • Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR)<\/li>\r\n
    • Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR)<\/li>\r\n
    • Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic <\/li>\r\n
    • WWII Germany<\/li>\r\n
    • Republic of Belarus<\/li>\r\n
    • other countries (in the World Photos section, etc.)<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n

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

      The Archives holds films, photographs and sound records illustrating the history of Belarus throughout one hundred years. These are documentary photographs of the prerevolutionary period, World War I, World War II and the contemporary period, film documents since 1916, sound recordings since 1906. The earliest photographs (1860-1890s) are studio portraits made in photography studios of T. Epifanov, M. V. Strashuner and M. Nappelbaum from the family album of participant in the First World War G. A. Lukovnikov. Of exceptional value are film pictures and photographs taken on the edge of the 19th and 20th centuries, highlighting the construction of the Moscow-Brest railway, Kurlovski’s execution in Minsk in 1905, visit of Tsar Nikolai to Belarus, fraternization of soldiers in the First World War. The Archives holds a collection of photos and postcards (over 400) with the views of Belarusian towns before 1917 (Minsk, Nesvizh, Borisov, Vileika, Molodechno, Zaslavl, Kobrin, Gomel, Pinsk, Grodno, Vitebsk, Polotsk, Mogilev, etc.).<\/p>\r\n\r\n

      One of the most valuable photograph collections held at the Archives is that of the\r\ndukes Radziwill, one of the biggest noble families in Belarus. It contains 55 photographs\r\nfrom the Radziwill family album. The collection tells about Nesvizh Palace–Radziwills’\r\nresidence, Radziwill family members, their friends and visitors.\u00a0 <\/p>\r\n\r\n

      The Archives holds a great number of photographs relating to the Great October\r\nRevolution of 1917, the Civil War (1918-1921), and the Polish period, 1919-1939 (mass demonstrations, soldiers’ and local population meetings, food\r\ndetachments, Red Army groups) as well as photographic portraits of the state functionaries\r\nand public figures, painters, poets, writers and actors of this period<\/font> <\/font>(A. F. Miasnikov, M. F. Frunze, A. G. Cherviakov, etc.).<\/p>\r\n\r\n

      The World Photo page presents works by foreign professional photographers of the early\r\n20th century and the 1920s-1940s, that is, genre photos, landscapes, and the photographs\r\nof B. Show, F. Shaliapin, R. Tagor, C. Chaplin, I. Strauss, and more. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

      The Archives also retains documents reflecting the economic, social and political life\r\nin Western Belarus; the national liberation movement for the reunification with the\r\nBelarusian Soviet Socialist Republic. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

      The substantial part of the archives’ documents is represented by various film\r\ndocuments, that is, the scientific, educational & documentary films, feature films,\r\nanimated cartoons and news films. Many interesting documentary pictures are included in\r\nthe films “The finishing touches to the portrait”, “Prerevolutionary\r\nBelarus”, “The pages from the history of Minsk”, and more. The news reels\r\n“Soviet Belarus”, “Daily news”, “Belarusian arts”, “The\r\nPioneer of Belarus” dating from the years 1939-1993 reflect the most significant\r\nevents in the life of Belarus.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

      The years of the Second World War are depicted in the photographic documents and films\r\ncreated by the war reporters and operators M. Berov, P. Berstein, I. Veinerovich, M.\r\nSukhova, O. Reizman, and V. Tsesliuk. Of interest are the films “The combat\r\noperations of our troops”, “Belarusian partisans”; “In the Batka Minai\r\npartisan group”, “Nazis’ crimes in Belarus”, “Combat operations of the\r\nPartisans”, “The battle for Belarus”, “In the liberated Minsk”,\r\n“The liberation of\u00a0Soviet Belarus”, and more. Of great value are the\r\ncaptured German films, that is, the agitation and propaganda material shot by the German\r\ncameramen in Belarus during the Occupation, and also sixty three German photographic\r\nalbums brought from Germany in 1945. These photographs depict the WWII events in the\r\noccupied countries and in Germany as well. The most interesting for researchers are the\r\nphotographic documents on the following subjects: “The Nazi Occupation regime in the\r\ncaptured territories”, “Nazis’ crimes in Belarus”, “The destruction of\r\nBelarusian towns and villages”, “Combat activities of the Partisan groups”,\r\n“Partisans’ everyday life”, “Death camps” and “Jewish\r\nghettos”. The Archives also holds a collection of 508 photos made by V. I. Arkashev\r\nin World War II. His photographs reflect the events of the early days of the war, army\r\nlife, combat operations, medical work, etc. The Archives also preserves the captured\r\nGerman news reels and partisans’ film chronicle reflecting the very beginning of the war,\r\ncombat operations, battles and partisans’ everyday life.
      \r\n
      \r\nThe Archives preserves interesting sound recordings with the voices of the outstanding\r\npoliticians, scholars & the workers in Culture and Art of Belarus (Ia. Kolas, Ia.\r\nKupala, M. Lynkov, K. Krapiva, T. Ia. Kisilev, P. M. Masherov, B. I. Kozlov, A. Bembel, Z.\r\nAzgur, M. Savitski, S. Staniuta, and more), & also the musical and drama recordings.\r\nThe most significant among the sound recordings is a collection of the gramophone and tape\r\nrecordings of the famous Belarusian tenor Zabeida-Sumitski containing his various songs,\r\nromances and opera arias in Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Czech, Polish, German,\r\nItalian, English and Finnish. In all, the collection holds 40 items.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

      The Archives continues to enrich its holdings. The main sources of acquisition are the\r\nNational Film Studio “Belarusfilm”, the National State Television & Radio\r\nCompany of the Republic of Belarus, and also the photograph libraries of the central\r\nnewspaper and magazine editorial offices. <\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Contacts Historical background Finding aids Services Description of holdings Amount of holdings: film documents: 60 190 items documentary photographs: 292 379 items sound records: 27 493 items video documents: 9…","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":283279,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-745529","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/745529"}],"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=745529"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/745529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1022652,"href":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/745529\/revisions\/1022652"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/283279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=745529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}