National Historical Archive of Belarus
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109 USD
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The National Historical Archive of Belarus (hereinafter - NIAB) is one of the largest repositories of documents on the history of Belarus. It contains historical sources covering a huge time period - from the end of the 14th to the first third of the 20th century. Many of these documents are unique monuments of the past, and their study allows us to trace the centuries-old process of formation and development of the Belarusian statehood, the formation of the Belarusian nation. The date of formation of the National Historical Archive of Belarus is July 5, 1938, when the Mogilev Historical Archive was transformed into the Central Historical Archive by the decision of the CEC of the BSSR. At the same time, the history of archival institutions in the Belarusian lands is much older. Back in the 15th century. the formation of the archive of the office of the Grand Duke of Lithuania began, the main part of which was the books of the Metrics of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Along with this state repository in the XV-XVI centuries. privately owned archives were born. First of all, collections of various documents (mainly of a property nature) were owned by the largest political figures and landowners - magnates. However, small sets of family documents were also kept by the ordinary gentry and some representatives of the petty-bourgeois elite. In the middle of the 19th century, already at the time when the Belarusian lands were part of the Russian Empire, the creation of specialized archival repositories began, which were initially completed with materials from the judicial authorities.
A new stage in the functioning of the archive began in 1963, when, in accordance with the Decree of the Council of Ministers of the BSSR of November 11, it was transferred from Mogilev to Minsk and placed in a building on the street. Kozlova, 26.
Since 2000, the archive has become known as the State Institution "National Historical Archive of Belarus". Since the 1990s The archive is housed in a specialized building at ul. Kropotkin, 55.
