The largest book festival in Belarus – the 26th Minsk International Book Fair – opened on February 6.
The largest Belarusian book festival began with a particularly pleasant event. Vladimir Likhodedov, winner of the Belarus President’s Award “For Spiritual Revival”, donated rare editions and manuscripts from his private collection to the National Library of Belarus.
The collection includes old Cyrillic and Western European Belarus-related editions, cartographic materials, “confessional statements” and “marriage searches” of the Orthodox Church (19th century), documents about gently birth. Also, the manuscript of the Belarusian Tatars, the original version of the Sigismund III Vasa’s privilege (early 17th century) in the Old Belarusian language from the Tyshkevich collection, the Polotsk document (16th century), files of Grodno provincial gazette of the 1840s were transmitted to the National Library.
These books, magazines and archival materials are on display at the stand of the Ministry of Information of the Republic of Belarus, the exposition “In Search of the Lost”.
Traditionally, the National Library has prepared a rich program for the International Book Fair. On the first day, the library presented the world’s first Bukvar (Primer) facsimile (Evye, 1618).
Deputy Director of the National Library of Belarus Alexander Susha congratulated the audience on the opening of the book fair and told about the significance of the "Primer" for the Belarusian people’s book culture.
For the National Library, the facsimile reprint of the 400-year-old Primer was the main project of the past year. At the Minsk International Book Fair, the copies of the publication were presented to Olga Tirinova, Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor and author of the modern primer; Natalya Zhdanovich, Associate Professor of the Elementary Education Department, Belarusian State Pedagogical University, and also students of gymnasium No. 4 in Minsk and the best elementary school teachers of the Republic of Belarus.
The children’s magazine “Vyasyolka”, together with the National Library of Belarus, held an interactive game “Bukvar. The Mysteries of Four Centuries” at the playground. The author of the project is the deputy director of the National Library of Belarus, Alexander Susha. Over the past year, “Vyasyolka” published riddles and games introducing young readers to the primers of different times.
From the opening day till the end of the book festival, the exposition “Belarusian Primers: Four Centuries of History” will run at the stand of the National Library. The exposition presents the 400-year-old Primer facsimile , as well as its “descendants”: the primer of Spiridon Sobol (Kuteino, 1631), Primer of the Slavic Language (Vilna, 1767), primers of Tsyotka, Yakub Kolas, Karus Kaganets, Stepan Nekrashevich, Western Belarusian primers, as well as modern ones, written by the gold medalist of the Leipzig Book Fair, Anatoly Klyshka.
Material provided by the Public Relations Department.
