During the century-long history of the National Library of Belarus, a whole galaxy of highly qualified specialists worked within its walls, through whose efforts the institution has consistently occupied and occupies the main place in the information infrastructure of the republic. One of such important professionals, whose experience has taught more than one generation of librarians, was Iraida Aleksandrovna Korzenko.
She was born in 1919 in the city of Stalino, Stalin region (now Donetsk, Donetsk region). The military events of the first half of the twentieth century passed through Iraida's childhood and youth in a red line, more than once making unforeseen adjustments to her plans and dreams and leaving an indelible mark for the rest of her life. Her father Alexander Kuzmich was a participant in the Civil War of 1917–1922, during which he was seriously injured, and her younger brother Vladimir died at the age of 19, defending his native country from the invaders at the Great Patriotic War.
In 1937, Iraida graduated from high school and entered the Saratov Automobile Institute (now Saratov State Technical University named after Yuri Gagarin). After completing her first year, she got married and moved to Krasnodar, where she entered the Mining Faculty of the Krasnodar Institute of Chemical Technology (now Kuban State Technological University). But here the Great Patriotic War broke into Iraida Alexandrovna's life like a cold whirlwind, which forced her to leave her studies and evacuate with two young children to the village of Krasny Yar in the Saratov region. During the evacuation, she worked at the Red Front collective farm, was chairman of the village council, worked in the executive committee and the district party committee.
In 1946, I.A. Korzenko and her family moved to the village of Monino in the Moscow region. Here she first got acquainted with librarianship-she worked as a senior librarian at the library of the Air Force Academy, where her husband was studying at that time.
Like most of the military families, Iraida Alexandrovna's family often moved, changing the address of residence in accordance with the place of service. In 1950 they moved to the city of Pervomaisk, Odessa region, where Iraida Alexandrovna worked as the head of the library of the Communist Party's party cabinet. A few years later, she returned to the Latvian SSR, where she was initially the head of kindergarten No. 2 in Krustpils, and later headed the work of the local party library.
Iraida Alexandrovna continued to stay in the library field and in the Polish city of Brzeg, where they lived for almost a whole year. Here she was in charge of the officer's library of military unit No. 10377.
Soon the family returned to the USSR, from January to May 1957, I.A. Korzenko served as head of the reading room of the city library of Monchegorsk, Murmansk region.
Iraida Alexandrovna in the center
In the summer of 1957, Iraida Alexandrovna's family moved permanently to Minsk, where in October, from the position of assistant librarian, her professional history began at the State Library of the BSSR named after V. I. Lenin (now the National Library of Belarus).
Very soon she moved to the position of senior librarian of the periodicals and mass work reading room at the general reading room, and five years later, from September 1962, I.A. Korzenko headed the work of the book storage department, "the heart of the library", as she called it. She worked on this difficult and voluminous area of library work for the next 14 years.
From the materials of the personal file, "takes great care of the safety of book collections. Under her leadership, a lot of work has been done to assist the libraries of the republic in using and organizing the book collections of the libraries of the republic."
Iraida Alexandrovna successfully combined her official duties with obtaining special education: in 1959 she graduated from the annual library courses, in 1966 - the library faculty of the Minsk State Pedagogical Institute named after M. Gorky (now the Belarusian State Pedagogical University named after M. Tank), having received as a result of training the specialty of a librarian-bibliographer of the highest qualification.
Iraida Alexandrovna holds the flag
Easily coping with a number of official duties, Iraida Korzenko managed to take an active part in the life of the collective and social work: she was a member and secretary of the party bureau of the library, was repeatedly elected chairman of the local trade union committee, actively participated in the preparation and conduct of election campaigns for elections to the Council of Deputies.
Iraida Alexandrovna on the left
I.A. Korzenko's contribution to the development of the library and librarianship in general was marked by a large number of awards of various levels: a Certificate of Honor from the Ministry of Culture of the BSSR and the DBK of the Trade Union of Cultural Workers (1962, 1967, 1969, 1977), badge "For excellent work" (1968), Certificate of Honor of the Supreme Council of the BSSR " for active work in in the field of librarianship” (1972), the badge “Winner of the Socialist competition of 1973" (1974), medals “For Valiant Labor” (1970), “for labor merits" (1976) and “Veteran of Labor" (1976).
In October 1976 Iraida Korzenko went on a well-deserved rest.
The staff of the National Library of Belarus, who were lucky enough to work with Iraida Alexandrovna, brought love and respect to her years later. In addition to her outstanding professional abilities, they note her excellent human qualities: sensitivity, attentiveness, a manifestation of true maternal care for everyone in her team, because she always had a kind word, support and good advice for everyone.
"Grandma is self-control and external calmness in any situation. She never raised her voice at anyone. Grandmother was intelligent, tactful, could always find words and approach to any person," recalls Iraida Alexandrovna, her granddaughter, Yulia Borisovna Tverdokhlebova, who continued the family dynasty of librarians and since 1994 connected her life with the National Library of Belarus. Following the path of a loved one, she is also responsible for the rich collections of the country's main library, heading the work of the department of storage of specialized funds.
In December 2003, Iraida Korzenko's life path ended.
Read about veterans and employees of the National Library of Belarus in the section “Portraits: the history of the library in person”.
The material was prepared by Irina Kuketa, Chief Librarian of the Research Department of Library Science.
