To the Days of Belorussian culture in Saint-Petersburg: The exhibition “Belorussian book from ancient times to the present day”

29 September 2014
Source: The National Library of Russia

September 29, 2014 in the Main building of the National Library of Russia (Saint-Petersburg) as part of the Days of Belorussian culture in Saint-Petersburg is opened the book-illustrative exhibition “Belorussian book from ancient times to the present day”.

The retrospective of the Belorussian book – from Polotsk Gospel of the XII century until contemporary Belorussian printers is presented for the first time.

Cultural ties of Belorussia and Saint-Petersburg are diverse and inseparably connected with the National Library of Russia. The presented at the exhibition the first in history dictionary of the Belorussian language was edited by the Director of the Imperial Public library Athanasius Bychkov, and among specialists were famous Belorussians – revolutionary man Kastus Kalinovky and scientist-orientalist Cayetano Kossovich.

The basis of the exhibition is publications, preserved in a single copy. Among such rarities are not only books from medieval printing offices of Mogilev, Lyubcha, Vilna, Nesvizha and Brest, but also children's books published in the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic before the Second World War. In 1920 – 1930s the State Public Library in Leningrad received their legal deposit and kept in its collections, in Belarus they disappeared.

One of the sections of the exhibition is devoted to textbooks for junior officers of the Red Army (the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army), published in Minsk before the war.

The exhibition is complemented with drawings and posters from the collection of the Department of Prints of the NLR.

Every year the NLR hosts the Scientific Conference "St. Petersburg and the Belarusian culture". The exhibition presents the "Belarusian compilation" in 5 volumes with the publication of conference materials.

The exhibition is organized by the National Library of Russia together with the Inteparliamentary Assembly of the CIS countries and will run until October 30.