The Route of Courage and Fame

The library has arranged a book-documentary exhibition “The route of brevity and fame,” dedicated to the Victory Day which our country celebrates on May 9th. This event receives specific significance on the celebration of the Year of Historical Memory and on the 100^th anniversary of the National Library of Belarus.

The Great Patriotic War touched all fields of the society life. It also corrected the library activity. The people of a peaceful profession of a librarian have passed their way with dignity at troubled years. Many people served in the Red Army, joined the people’s volunteer army, worked in sanitary institutions and at the enterprises on the home front, participated in the defense activity. The librarians continued to fulfil their mission even during the war time – retaining a book heritage, promoting public awareness and maintaining a fighting spirit.

With the help of archive documents, awards and personal photographs, the fighting route of employees of the State-owned library of the BSSR-participants of the Great Patriotic War displayed at the exposition. Among them are medals and awards papers of A.Sakolchic, A.Dukora, Ya.Svezhencova, N.Vataci. The book-albums of a fighting and labour fame telling the life stories of the library employees are also valuable.

Being the keeper of the knowledge and the national culture, the library became the main bibliographical institution and educational center of the country in the field of the library activity in the beginning of the war. The invaders robbed it during the wartime as many other cultural institutions. The restoration of the book treasury began in 1942. The personnel did remarkable feats of labour within a short period.  The self-sacrificing labour on collecting the fund, searching the exported items, restoring the reader’s service displayed on resolutions, archive documents, reports, after-war library publications, as well as in the articles of periodicals and from memories of employees.

Noted by the enemy and returned to the fund, the pre-war publications of the masters of the Belarussian art words Yanka Mavr, Mikhas Lynkou, Andrei Aleksandrovich present specific interest. The sample of publications by Pavlyuk Trus with an inscription, certifying that the book was found in Berlin in 1945, is valuable. Returned to the motherland in 2010, the samples from the book collection on phytology and geography are present.

Documentary monuments are valuable evidences of war events and a bright reminder to keep memory about brave and unselfish people who made it possible for us to exist. Thanks to their efforts, the State-owned library of the BSSR became the National Library of Belarus – the largest information and sociocultural center of the country.

The Book Exhibition “The Route of Brevity and Fame” operates from May 6th to August 17th, 2022 in the ringed gallery of the second floor.
The end date of the exhibition is subject to change.

The opening hours of the exhibition corresponds to the library’s opening hours.
Entrance to the exhibition is available by the library ticket or ticket of the library's social and cultural center.