Metadata: People’s Commissariat of Nationalities (Narkomnats) of the BSSR
Collection
- Country:
- Belarus
- Holding institution:
- National Archives of the Republic of Belarus
- Holding institution (official language):
- Национальный архив Республики Беларусь
- Postal address:
- 220114, Nezavisimosti Ave. 116, Minsk, Belarus
- Phone number:
- +375 (17) 351-05-12
- Web address:
- https://narb.by/be
- Email:
- narb@narb.by
- Reference number:
- F. 782
- Title:
- People’s Commissariat of Nationalities (Narkomnats) of the BSSR
- Title (official language):
- НАРОДНЫЙ КОМИССАРИАТ ПО ДЕЛАМ НАЦИОНАЛЬНОСТЕЙ (НАРКОМНАЦ) БССР
- Creator/accumulator:
- People’s Commissariat of Nationalities (Narkomnats) of the BSSR
- Date(s):
- 1920/1922
- Language:
- Russian
- Yiddish
- Belarusian
- Extent:
- 16 storage units
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Scope and content:
-
The fond contains proceedings of commissions tasked with registering and investigating pogroms in cities and towns of Belorussia; these include materials on pogroms that had been perpetrated in Bobruisk, Borisov, Igumen, Mozyr’ and Slutsk counties (Minsk province) by Polish troops during the Soviet-Polish War of 1920 and by military units commanded by B. V. Savinkov, General S. N. Bulak-Balakhovich, and Ataman I. Galak (I. A. Vasil’chikov). These include lists of Jewish towns that had been destroyed, with the date of the pogrom and the total number of victims; and testimonial statements and eyewitness accounts of pogroms (1920-22); a commission report on pogroms committed in the city of Minsk and environs during the retreat of the Polish army on 9-11 July 1920; a report by Kh. Rosenberg, a member of the board of the Jewish Department of the BSSR People’s Commissariat of Nationalities, on banditry in Belorussia, with a listing of certain towns most affected by pogroms: Khoiniki, Kalinkovichi, Iur’evichi, Liuban’, Kovchitsy (Bobruisk county), Vizno (Igumen county), etc. (1921); a file on a case of fifty-four bandits accused of organizing a pogrom in the town of Bolshye Gorodiatichi (Mozyr’ county), including lists of persons killed, and minutes of a session of the Revolutionary Military Tribunal of the Western Front that dealt with this case (1920-21); requests submitted to the Jewish Public Committee to Aid Victims of the War, Pogroms, and Natural Disasters (Evobshchestkom) by the population of the town of Petrikov (Mozyr’ county) for assistance in obtaining weapons to organize self-defense (1921); etc.
Also housed in the fond are materials on pogroms in the Kiev, Poltava, and Donetsk regions, including minutes of commissions tasked with registering and investigating pogroms; lists of victims; witness statements; etc. (1921).
The fond also contains questionnaire forms of Belorussian Jews interested in emigrating to the United States (1921-22) and a log of shipments received from the US to assist the Jewish population of the BSSR (1921-22).
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The People’s Commissariat of Nationalities of the RSFSR was established in November 1917 and headed by Politburo and Central Executive Committee member Joseph Stalin. In 1918, commissariats tasked with implementing Soviet nationalities policy and liaising between the Russian government and the republics and autonomous regions began to be established for the country’s various nationalities (including the Belorussian Commissariat of Nationalities – Belnatskom). Organized along with other state agencies upon the establishment of the Belorussian SSR (31 June 1920) was the BSSR People’s Commissariat of Nationalities, which was subordinate to the People’s Commissariat of Nationalities of the RSFSR. The BSSR People’s Commissariat of Nationalities was tasked with collecting information on the national minorities of Belorussia and propagandizing Soviet power in national-minority languages. The BSSR People’s Commissariat of Nationalities consisted of several departments devoted to issues pertaining to a particular ethnic group (Poles, Jews, Latvians, Lithuanians). It was abolished in 1922.
- Access points: locations:
- Bolshye Gorodiatichi
- Kalinkovichi
- Khoiniki
- Kovchitsy
- Lyuban
- Minsk
- Petrikov
- USA
- Vizno
- System of arrangement:
- The fond includes a single inventory systematized chronologically and by structure.
- Finding aids:
- An inventory is available.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Theological Seminary