Metadata: State Committee on Religious and Nationality Affairs of the Republic of Belarus
Collection
- Country:
- Belarus
- Holding institution:
- National Archives of the Republic of Belarus
- Holding institution (official language):
- Национальный архив Республики Беларусь
- Postal address:
- Nezavisimosti Ave. 116, Minsk, 220114, Belarus
- Phone number:
- (017) 272-67-78
- Web address:
- http://narb.by/eng
- Email:
- narb@narb.by
- Reference number:
- F. 136
- Title:
- State Committee on Religious and Nationality Affairs of the Republic of Belarus
- Title (official language):
- ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ КОМИТЕТ ПО ДЕЛАМ РЕЛИГИЙ И НАЦИОНАЛЬНОСТЕЙ РЕСПУБЛИКИ БЕЛАРУСЬ
- Creator/accumulator:
- State Committee on Religious and Nationality Affairs of the Republic of Belarus
- Date(s):
- 1965/1996
- Language:
- Russian
- Belarusian
- English
- Extent:
- 271 storage units
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Scope and content:
- Materials pertaining to Jewish history and culture are concentrated mainly in ops. 1 and 3. Documents housed in op. 1 may be provisionally divided into the following thematic groups: 1) Statistical and other data on “Jewish religious associations” by region of the BSSR; on the number of working synagogues, with descriptions of the buildings they occupied, including the year of construction, material, area, utilities, etc.; data on synagogue attendance and the Jewish population’s performance of “Jewish rites” (1967/1988); lists of Jewish worshippers, with indications as to which were members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and of the All-Union Komsomol; petitions to party and Soviet bodies requesting the opening of synagogues and Jewish houses of worship; etc. (1966/1984). 2) Information about clergymen, among them rabbis, including information on how many there were, their biographies, sources of income, and intelligence reports on their political attitudes and the content of their sermons, their lifestyles, and contacts with various persons, in particular, with foreign religious figures; and information on visits by representatives of Jewish religious organizations to the BSSR. There are also transcripts of discussions between rabbis and officials, primarily plenipotentiaries of the Council on Religious Affairs; etc. (1968/1980s). 3) Information, reports, and memoranda on violations of the law on religions committed by rabbis and lay worshippers, in particular, on a citation issued to “citizen L. I. Zubarev for speaking in the synagogue on issues not related to religious activities”; information on fines imposed for violations of the law; etc. (1984). 3) Complaints filed by worshippers regarding religious persecution: instances in which the authorities rejected the registration of Jewish religious communities, synagogues, or houses of worship, or shut them down (appended to these materials are minutes of meetings of worshippers); complaints regarding the political repression of religious leaders and lay worshippers, in particular, regarding cases in which these persons were subject to administrative punishment; judicial and investigative documents pertaining to cases involving Jewish believers, materials on their expulsion from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, or from educational institutions. (1966/1988). 4) Materials on the conduct of propaganda campaigns against the Jewish religion, including reports, analytical memoranda, rulings, and decisions of party and Soviet organs; etc. (1960s-88). Op. 3 includes documents on contacts between the State Committee on Religious Affairs and Jewish religious organizations to discuss issues of “state-church relations” (1998, 1999, 2001), including correspondence on the implementation of a program by which the state would promote Jewish historical tourism in Belarus (1999); correspondence with the Union of Jewish Religious Congregations of the Republic of Belarus on returning a synagogue to the Jewish community of the city of Baranovichi, on protecting Jewish cemeteries and taking measures to counter acts of vandalism there, and on other issues (1999); a letter from the Jewish Revival Charitable Mission regarding a program to import and distribute humanitarian aid in the Republic of Belarus, as well as correspondence on these issues from the Department for Humanitarian Affairs of the Belarusian President’s Office (2001); correspondence with the Union of Jewish Religious Congregations in the Republic of Belarus regarding the return of the building of the Choral Synagogue of Grodno to the city’s Jewish community (2001); materials on the discussion surrounding an interview on the Russian-language Israeli radio station “REKA” in which Iu. M. Dorn, chair of the Union of Jewish Religious Congregations in the Republic of Belarus, alluded to an increase in antisemitic incidents in the country, with a response by representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Main Administration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on this subject 2000/2001); a letter from the East European Jewish Heritage Project (an organization based in the United Kingdom) on supplying the Jews of Belarus with matzah (2001); newspaper clippings of articles on Jewish life in Belarus, etc. (2001); etc. The inventory also includes documents on the registration of the charters of Jewish religious organizations in Belarus (1999).
- Administrative/biographical history:
- In 1944, in accordance with the USSR Council of People’s Commissars decree (29th May 1944) “On organizing the Council on Religious Cults,” the post of BSSR plenipotentiary of the USSR Council of Ministers’ Council on Religious Cults was established. Per this ruling, the council placed plenipotentiaries in all republics, territories, and regions; these persons were formally independent of the local authorities, but in reality worked closely with party and Soviet bodies, including the KGB and Ministry of Internal Affairs. The plenipotentiaries maintained strict administrative control over the activities of religious organizations and associations, including Jewish ones. On 8th December 1965, the USSR Council of Ministers ordered the merger of the Council on Religious Cults with the Council on the Russian Orthodox Church (a body likewise under the jurisdiction of the USSR Council of Ministers that had been established on 14th September 1943) to create a new body to monitor the activities of religious organizations: the Council on Religious Affairs. This new institution’s mission was to “consistently implement the Soviet state’s policy regarding religions and monitor compliance with legislation on religious cults.” That same year, the post of BSSR plenipotentiary of the USSR Council of Ministers’ Council on Religious Affairs was established. The Council on Religious Affairs was reorganized as the State Committee on Religious and Nationality Affairs of the Republic of Belarus in connection with the republic’s declaration of state sovereignty (adopted 27th July 1990).
- Access points: locations:
- Baranowicze
- Grodno
- System of arrangement:
- The fond includes three inventories systematized according to the chronological-structural principle.
- Finding aids:
- Inventories are available.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Theological Seminary
