THE SOCIAL AND EVERYDAY CONDITIONS OF THE ACTIVITIES OF RABBIS AND CARVERS IN THE BYELORUSSIAN SSR IN THE 1920s – 1930s

Abstract

The study is devoted to the social and everyday conditions of rabbis and carvers in the Byelorussian SSR in the 1920s–1930s. Documents stored in the State Archive of the Vitebsk Region, the State Archive of the Minsk Region, the State Archive of Public Associations of the Mogilev Region, the Zonal State Archive in Orsha, the National Archives of the Republic Belarus.

The studied archival materials indicate that during the 1920s–1930s. the social and everyday conditions of the activities of rabbis and carvers in the BSSR were quite difficult. In general, they can be characterized by increasing tensions related to the reduction in the number of religious ministers and the simultaneous preservation of communities. The performance of duties by rabbis and carvers was complicated by the age factor: the largest age group were people over 50 years old. The material income of religious ministers, as a rule, was low, and most of it was spent on the maintenance of the house and family, without the ability to make any savings. Given the prevailing conditions, aggravated by Soviet anti-religious policies, the process of gradually weakening continuity in this profession is quite logical: the children of rabbis and carvers sought to gain a secular profession and move from places.