Archives of dioeces bodies of Christian confessions in Belarus in the late 18th – early 20th century

Abstract

The author of the article conducts a comparative analysis of the organisation of the archives of the bodies of administrative-territorial leadership and the spiritual court of Christian denominations in the Belarusian lands in the late 18th – early 20th century. Based on the changes in the regulations, two general periods of development of the consistory’ archives and the Lithuanian Synod are distinguished. It’s connected with the development of the Statute of spiritual consistories for Orthodox and instructions on the records management of consistories for other Christian denominations based on first mentioned in the 1840s. The second period can be divided into stages according to the development of the confessional leadership of each of the confessions. Based on a wide source, the author of the article concludes that archives in the bodies of the confessional leadership of Christian denominations in the late 18th – early 20th century corresponded to the legislation of the Russian Empire, and the attention of the confessional leadership and the scientific community of the 19th – early 20th century allowed to preserve significant documentary complexes of high information potential. The results would help expand the source base and diversify scientific research.