The opening and first meeting of the Vitebsk Scientific Archival Committee (VSAC) took place on May 31, 1909. It became a scientific, cultural, educational centre, around which local intellectual society was grouped.
The Committee, which lasted until 1919, was actively studying and popularizing the history of the native land, conducting archaeological research and excavations, collecting museum collections, protecting monuments of history and culture, identifying ancient manuscripts and documents, and organizing excursions. On its initiative, the Vitebsk Teacher’s Institute and the Vitebsk branch of the Moscow Archaeological Institute were opened. A library, an archive and a museum operated under the VSAK. Theses on the history, geography, ethnography, archaeology of the Vitebsk region, periodical collection “Scientific work of the Vitebsk Scientific Archival Committee” (book 1, 1910), “Polotsk and Vitebsk Antiquity” (3 issues, 1911–1916).
The staff of the Committee (chairperson, honorary and full members, associate members, as well as other persons related to the organization) comprised more than 400 people. These were famous people of their time (scientists, statesmen and public figures, military leaders, priests, landowners, collectors), as well as local scientists, teachers, local historians, officials. Among the members of the committee were V.S. Arseniev, K.I. Tikhomirov, A.P. Sapunov, V.K. Stukalich, I.I. Dolgov, S.P. Sakharov, K.A. Zmigrodsky, N.Ya. Nikiforovsky, M.V. Antsev, D.S. Leonardov, V.G. Krasnyansky, V.P. Fedorovich, N.I. Zorin and many others.
VSAK kept in touch with a large number of scientific organizations. More than 100 institutions sent in publications, including the Imperial St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, University of California, New York Public Library, Moscow University, the Rumyantsev Museum Library, a number of provincial statistical committees and scientists of archival committees.
The Committee at one time played an important role in the development of national archival studies, archaeography, source studies, museology, historical bibliography, bibliography and library science.
This is diversely reflected in the multimedia publication “Activities of the Vitebsk Scientific Archival Committee (1909-1919): Documents and Materials” (Minsk, 2017). The CD contains a variety of materials: a chronicle of events, the main milestones of the history of the VSAK; articles on its structural divisions (committees, library, museum, archive, etc.); bibliographic index of the committee's works and publications about it; digital copies of publications, archival documents, museum exhibits; curriculum vitae of almost all persons associated with the activities of the institution; images, photographs and other interesting materials. The work on the publication was carried out by the National Library of Belarus in collaboration with the V.I. Lenin Vitebsk Regional Library , Source Study Department of the Faculty of History of the Belarusian State University, National Historical Archive of Belarus, Vitebsk Regional Museum of Local Lore within the framework of research work “Virtual Reconstruction of Documents and Materials on the Regional History of Belarus”.
Bibliographic information of the documents related to the Vitebsk Scientific Archival Committee is also reflected in the E-Catalogue of the National Library of Belarus and in the union EIR “National Bibliography of Belarus”. The factual information is contained in the database “Belarus in Persons and Events” and the National Database of Authority and Standard Records.
Bibliology Research Department
