Conference “Belarus: history and present day"

On 25–27 May, 2011, the International scientific and practical conference “Belarus: history and present day” took place.

The conference was arranged by: the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Belarus, the Belarusian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War, the Belarus President’s Academy of Management, the National Library of Belarus, the Russian Center of Science and Culture in Minsk.

The event had gathered more than 150 prominent Belarusian historians, sociologists, political scientists, and also lawyers,  librarians, museum employees from  Russia, Belarus, Slovakia, Germany; representatives  of legislative and executive bodies and civil society organizations,  and young scientists.  

Opening of the conference, a plenary session and a round table concerning interaction of various social structures in formation of historical consciousness and continuity of historical memory were held on 25 May at the National Library of Belarus. The conference sections worked on 26-27 May at the Belarusian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War and at the Belarus President’s Academy of Management.  

Representatives of the Council of Republic of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Culture and the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus welcomed participants of the conference at the opening ceremony. Deputy Director for Research Work and Publishing Activity Lyudmila Kiryukhina delivered a welcoming speech on behalf of the National Library of Belarus.

Director of the Central Museum of the Armed Forces (Moscow, Russia)  А.К. Nikonov presented to the Belarusian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War a copy of the Soviet Banner of Victory which had been raised over the Reichstag in May, 1945.

Reports delivered at the  plenary session: legislative bases of social policy  in Belarus (A.P. Morova, Chairman of the Permanent Commission of the Council of Republic of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus on education, science, culture and social development); the prospects of  the  Belarusian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War (S.I. Azaronok, Director of the Museum), the accents of historical memory at museum expositions and exhibitions (V.N. Skryabin, Deputy Director of the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War (Moscow, Russia), the state program on digitization of the most valuable museum collections and creation of an electronic national Slovak library (Stanislav Michev, Director of the Museum of the Slovak National Revolt, Banska-Bystritsa, the Slovak Republic), etc.

Participants of the round table: V.A. Ivanovsky, First Pro-rector of the Belarus President’ Academy of Management; M.A. Bespalaya, Head of the Faculty of History and Museum Science at the Belarusian State University of Culture and Arts; L.G. Kiryukhina, Deputy Director for Research Work and Publishing Activity; N.S. Shchekin, Director of the Institute of Public Service; A.K. Nikonov, Director of the Central Museum of the Armed Forces; Stanislav Michev,  Director of the Museum of the Slovak National Revolt; university professors and post-graduates;  employees of Belarusian and Russian museums and libraries.

Discussion topics: preservation of the system of patriotic education as a tool of formation of intellectual, spiritual and moral bases of Belarusian society; the aspects of interaction and cooperation between cultural, educational and research institutions in Belarus, Russia, Ukraine and other countries;  the questions of use of new information technologies for organization of museum expositions; Information and educational potential of libraries and museums in actualization of historical and cultural heritage and continuity of historical memory. During the round table work, the efforts of researchers of the Belarusian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War in the field of designing an exposition in a new building and creation of a concept of the museum as a social and cultural center were considered and approved.  

On 25 May, within the framework of the conference, co-chairmen of the organizational committee and heads of sections met with Belarusian journalists at the National Library of Belarus. Participants of the conference made an excursion to the Library building.

Employees of the National Library of Belarus О.А. Rynkevich and Т.А. Sapego delivered their reports at the conference section “The role of the museum and the library in the system of preservation of historical memory and development of historical consciousness”.

At the end of the conference participants adopted a resolution in which they expressed their undivided opinion on the profit of cooperation and a constructive dialogue between historians, librarians and museum employees, representatives of governmental bodies and civil society organizations for the development of historical consciousness as a basis of the society consolidation.