Opening KGB archives up to its chief – researcher

October 2, Pozirk. It is up to the State Security Committee (KGB) chief to decide on the procedure for using the documents stored by the agency, said Andrej Rybakoŭ, director of the Belarusian Records and Archives Research Institute.

At a press conference in Minsk, he was asked whether the country’s archives, particularly the KGB files of 1930–1949, were open to researchers and ordinary citizens.

Rybakoŭ said archivists determine how long to store a document depending on its importance. “It is perfectly clear to us and you that we cannot save everything,” he asserted.

Aleh Voinaŭ, director of the justice ministry’s archives and records department, added that individuals may access files concerning their relatives before the storage term of 75 years expires.

However, they should be able to prove relationship.

The Belarusian KGB has not opened its archive on the 1930s–1950s reprisals to the public. There was a public discussion of the issue when Ukraine and the Baltic countries started declassifying their archives.

The Belarusian KGB is a black box that does not even have a website since after it was taken down by the Cyberpartisans hacktivist group February 2024.

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