The history of the institutions of the Vitebsk Governorate from 1802 to 1917 is presented for the first time in a reference publication

December 23, Vitebsk / Sergey Kochetov - BELTA /. The history of institutions of the Vitebsk Governorate from 1802 to 1917 is presented for the first time in the encyclopedic reference book "Vitebsk Governorate: State, Religious and Public Institutions (1802-1917)", which is a joint project of the National Historical Archives of Belarus and the State Archives of the Vitebsk Region. This was announced today by Dmitry Yatskevich, Head of the Department of Document Publication of the National Historical Archives of Belarus, one of the authors of the reference book, at the presentation of the publication at the regional archive, BELTA correspondent reports. The book is the second publication after "Minsk Governorate (1793-1917)" in a series of Belarusian reference books prepared during the research work of the National Historical Archives of Belarus on the history of institutions of the Russian Empire period. The rare edition (circulation is only 200 copies) presents a systematized and consistent history of institutions and associations of all levels - state, estate, confessional, public. "The reference book has been prepared taking into account the administrative-territorial reorganizations that took place since 1772 and contains information about the institutions that operated during the existence of the Pskov, Polotsk, Belarusian, and Vitebsk governorates," noted Dmitry Yatskevich. The next publishing project in this series will be a reference book on the Mogilev Governorate, he added. The materials of the Vitebsk reference book reflect issues of the creation of institutions, their structure, functions, main areas of activity, as well as the transformation and liquidation of a particular institution. Documents from the funds stored in the National Historical Archives, as well as the Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire, on the basis of which the institutions were formed, Memorial Books of the Vitebsk Governorate, and a number of other archival funds were used as sources of information. The 524-page reference book is illustrated with photographs of archival documents, and the cover of the publication features the coat of arms of the Vitebsk Governorate of 1856. The appendix provides information about the Vitebsk military and civil governors of that historical period. The main goal of the publication is to bring researchers and users closer to the documentary sources of the pre-Soviet period of the Vitebsk Governorate. The reference book will be of interest to a wide range of specialists studying the history of the creation of state institutions, as well as everyone interested in domestic history. As a result of the first partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1772), the eastern part of the Belarusian lands became part of the Russian Empire. It was then that the Pskov Governorate was created, which included the Polotsk and Vitebsk provinces. From 1776, they were part of the Polotsk Governorate with its center in Polotsk, which in turn, in accordance with the decree of Emperor Paul I of December 12, 1796, became part of the Belarusian Governorate. By the decree of the Senate of February 27, 1802, the Vitebsk Governorate was formed with 12 districts - Vitebsk, Velizhsky, Gorodoksky, Drissensky, Dünaburgsky, Lepelsky, Lyutsin, Nevelsky, Polotsk, Rezhitsky, Sebezhsky, and Surazhsky. In 1802, Polotsk, the center of the Dvina region, finally transferred its administrative, financial, and economic functions to the new provincial city of Vitebsk.-0-