November 21 marks the 115th anniversary of the birth of Fyodor Stepanyuk, Director of the National Library of Belarus from 1961 to 1968.
Fyodor Stepanyuk was born in 1905 in the village of Chersk, Brest region of the BSSR. During the First World War in 1915, he and his parents moved to the village of Efimovka, Buzuluk district, Samara province. There, from the age of 11, Fyodor worked for 5 years as a shepherd for hire.
The family returned to Belarus in the city of Borisov in 1921. Stepanyuk was sent to the workers through the labour exchange to the match factory "Krasnaya Berezina" (now - "Borisovdrev"). From that moment, he was actively involved in the Komsomol and party work, at the same time being the secretary of the Komsomol organization, a member of the Factory Committee and the Borisov district committee of the Lenin Communist Youth Union of Belarus. At the same time, Fyodor Stepanyuk became a soldier of a special purpose unit and began to participate in the fight against banditry.
From 1925 to 1933, Fyodor Stepanyuk held the position of Secretary and Head of the Department of Regional LKSMB, also he was an Inspector and Head of the Sector of Political and Educational Work of the People's Commissariat of Education of the BSSR. Since 1933, for six years, he held managerial positions at machine and tractor stations in several settlements of the Vitebsk region.
Until the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Fyodor Stepanyuk served as Head of the Propaganda Department of the Lioznensky District Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus (CPB).
In July 1941, he was appointed responsible for the evacuation of industrial equipment in the city of Melekess (now Dimitrovgrad, Russian Federation), he remained there to work as the Head of the Propaganda Department of the Melekess Regional Committee of the CPSU. During the war years, Fyodor Stepanyuk also served as an instructor of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus in Moscow, headed the State Belarusian Song and Dance Ensemble in the city of Danilov, Yaroslavl Region.
In February 1945, after the liberation of Belarus, Stepanyuk was recalled to work at the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus in Minsk. ....... In 1948, due to family reasons, he was transferred to the city of Borisov as the Second Secretary of the City Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus.
In 1950, Fyodor Stepanyuk was sent to the city of Zhodino to build the Smolevichi power station, where he served as the Secretary of the Party Organization. Upon completion of construction, Fyodor Stepanyuk returned to Minsk and his further professional path, up to retirement, was associated with librarianship.
In 1952, he Headed the library of the Academy of Sciences of the BSSR (now - the Yakub Kolas Central Scientific Library of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus). As his contemporaries recalled, Fyodor Stepanyuk was convinced that the library played an important role in the training of scientists.
During his work as the Head of the Library of the Academy of Sciences of the BSSR, Fyodor Stepanyuk took part in various conferences and seminars, including international ones.
In 1961 Stepanyuk was appointed Director of the State Library of the BSSR named after V.I. Lenin (now the National Library of Belarus). During the years of his leadership, the library was actively developing. In 1962, the second building of the library was put into operation on the Kirov street, there was a book depository for 1,650 thousand volumes and reading rooms for 240 places. During this period, specialized reading rooms and offices were created and expanded, new forms and methods of individual and mass work appeared.
Fyodor Stepanyuk made a contribution to the development of the country's librarianship, acted as an editor of reviews of the activities of libraries and teaching materials for them.
For high professionalism and labour merits, Stepanyuk was twice awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor (in 1944 and 1949). In 1965, for many years of work in party bodies and cultural institutions and in connection with his sixtieth birthday, Fyodor Stepanyuk was awarded the Certificate of Honor of the Supreme Soviet of the Byelorussian SSR.
After working as Director of the State Library of the BSSR named after V.I. Lenin for seven years, Fyodor Stepanyuk in 1968 went on a well-deserved rest.
In 1987 Fyodor Stepanyuk ended his life.
Bibliology Research Department
