The international scientific and practical conference "Current Issues of Source Studies" will be held in Vitebsk on April 23-24.

On April 23, 2021, at 13:00, as part of the VI International Scientific and Practical Conference "Actual Problems of Source Studies", a presentation of the collection of documents "No Statute of Limitations. Belarus: Crimes of the Nazis and their Accomplices against the Civilian Population in the Occupied Territory of the BSSR during the Great Patriotic War. Vitebsk Region. Collection of Archival Documents and Materials" will take place. It includes 213 documents (including the appendix), of which 181 are from the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus, 9 from the State Archive of the Vitebsk Region, 3 from the Central Archive of the State Security Committee of the Republic of Belarus, and 3 from the Zonal State Archive in Polotsk. Documents from the archives of Russia, Latvia, and the USA are also published.

Among them are wartime documents from two warring sides, German and Soviet. The former are represented by orders, directives, reports, summaries, dispatches, etc. The majority of documents from the latter are held in the collections of the Belarusian Headquarters of the Partisan Movement, underground party and Komsomol bodies, and partisan formations, stored in the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus. These include reports, certificates, dispatches, acts, etc.

On November 2, 1942, by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Extraordinary State Commission for the Establishment and Investigation of the Crimes of the German-Fascist Invaders and their Accomplices and the Damage Caused by Them to Citizens, Collective Farms, Public Organizations, State Enterprises, and Institutions of the USSR (ESG) was established. To assist in the work of the ESG of the USSR, republican, regional, city, and district commissions were organized in the BSSR. The collection widely features documents from these commissions. Among them are minutes, acts, certificates, information, etc. The materials of the ESG became the basis for bringing war criminals to criminal responsibility.

The documents in the collection are divided into two sections. The first section publishes documents on crimes committed by the Nazis in the occupied territory of the Vitebsk region, arranged chronologically. The second section

documents on the establishment and investigation of war crimes are included. The following principles were used in their systematization: administrative-territorial, alphabetical, thematic, and chronological.

The publication is intended for historians, scientific and museum workers, researchers, teachers of higher and secondary educational institutions, as well as for everyone interested in the national historical heritage of Belarus.