Belarus marks Archives Day

6 октября 2017

By Elena Bormotova: The largest archive of documents on the history of the country is the National Archives. Its funds are replenished annually. Ahead of the professional holiday of the country’s archive workers, a new collection of rare documents of the first post-war decade was presented.

The collection is called "Reborn from the Ashes. Restoration and development in Minsk". It includes over 150 documents from the Belarusian and Russian archives.

This is the first collection of documents dealing with the post-war revival of Minsk. It was the time when the city was actually built from scratch after the war had left it in ruins. The best architects from Moscow and Leningrad worked to restore the capital.

The earliest document on the state of the economy after the liberation of Minsk dates back to 11 July 1944. The restoration works started with the city’s center – Soviet Street and Lenin Square, which today are Nezavisimosti Avenue and Nezavisimosti Square.

The style of the city center is what we now call Stalinist Empire style, and it took nearly a decade to fully restore the city.

The series of documents includes important papers issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party, and the government kept them secret until recently. This is the first time that such a complete documentary base is published.