Ms Lidyja Bizunova was born on April 21, 1936 in Swatovo (Ukraine) in the family of public servants.
World War II took her childhood away. Ms Bizunova's father, Vasil Vitkouski died at the front-line. Like many children of war, Lidyja had to grow up early. Having turned 15 and finished seven grades, she enrolled in the Kharkiv School of the Southern Railway. Three years later, she was sent to the medical and sanitary service of the South Sakhalin Railway, where she was immediately appointed to the position of Assistant Sanitary Doctor of the Paronaisk Sanitary Station.
Sakhalin made big changes in the young woman's life and gave her best moments: she got married, gave birth to a daughter.
In 1958, she began working as a Senior Nurse in a military unit located in the north of Sakhalin Island in the Okha city. Ms Bizunova was promoted to the junior lieutenant of the medical service.
A year later, Ms Bizunova's husband was transferred to Minsk. Here she decided to change her occupation and in 1960, she entered the Library Faculty of M. Gorky Minsk Pedagogical Institute (now – Maxim Tank Belarusian State Pedagogical University). After graduating and receiving a diploma of high-qualified librarian-bibliographer, in September 1964, Ms Bizunova came to the State Library of the BSSR named after V.I. Lenin (now the National Library of Belarus) as a librarian of the Scientific and Bibliographic Department.
Ms Aliaksandra Dzemchankava, Head of the Scientific and Bibliographic Department, wrote about her effort and desire to make maximum contribution in the workplace: "Ms Bizunova has proved herself as a good, conscientious employee. I think, it is counterproductive to use an employee with higher special education in mechanical work to prepare sets of annotated cards for the distribution in the future. Comrade Bizunova will be much more useful in the reference and bibliographic work…" The request was granted and since June 1965, the young woman was transferred to the Reference and Library Department.
In 5 years, when she was appointed Senior Bibliographer, Ms Lidyja Bizunova is described as follows in the appraisal sheet: “Comrade Bizunova manages files of magazine-newspaper articles on the issue of public education, gives talks on the promotion of bibliographic knowledge, performs bibliographic requests, and is on duty at the catalogues. The amount of work that Ms Bizunova does corresponds to the position of Senior Bibliographer…" Less than six months after the brilliantly passed certification, she was already in charge of the Sector of General Reading Rooms of the Service Department.
The library administration and colleagues noted such traits of Ms Bizunova as promptness and discipline, insistence on high standards. She paid a lot of attention to the training of young people, being a mentor for the youth of the sector.
Ms Bizunova knew and loved books. She read a lot, constantly expanded her horizons, and took interest in innovations in various fields of knowledge. The desire to constantly improve her professional level allowed her to easily meet the most complex information requests of readers.
Ms Bizunova repeatedly received words of gratitude from readers and library administration. Her name was twice put on the Board of Honour of the State Library of the BSSR named after V.I. Lenin; she was awarded the Honorary Certificate of the Ministry of Culture of the BSSR and the BRC of the Trade Union of Cultural Workers.
Ms Larysa Pradko, Ms Bizunova's chief, noted her among the "real professionals of the Service Department… With their direct participation, all our plans, ideas were carried out, the problems of the department were solved. Each of these employees have their own merits in their work, in their professional activities. They are united by common goals, objectives and their implementation..."
Ms Bizunova not only performed her direct official duties, but also actively participated in the public life of the staff. She was the commander of the library's sanitary squad, repeatedly elected to the Trade Union of the Library.
Having devoted 27 years of her professional life to the Library and reached retirement age, Ms Bizunova, went on a well-deserved rest on September 6, 1991.
Unfortunately, the fate of Ms Bizunova is not known to us. Not a single photo of this beautiful woman has survived. We would like to thank everyone who has any information and photo materials and will help to supplement the material.
Bibliology Research Department
