Vasily Bondarchik (1920–2009), Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, made a significant contribution to the development of Belarusian ethnographic science. He studied the issues of the origin and ethnic history of the Belarusian people, the historiography of traditional material, social and spiritual culture.
Basic biographical materials about V.K. Bondarchik, information about his works are contained in the collections and electronic information resources of the National Library of Belarus (E-Catalogue, consolidated EIR “National Bibliography of Belarus”, factual database “Belarus in Persons and Events” and the National Database of Authoritative Records).
V. Bondarchik was born in the Slutsk region, participated in the Great Patriotic War. He graduated from the history department of the Belarusian State University, completed his postgraduate studies at the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of the BSSR. He defended his candidate's dissertation in 1958 and his doctoral dissertation in 1965. From 1957 to 2005 he worked at the Institute of Art History, Ethnography and Folklore named after Kondrat Krapiva (and headed the institution from 1969 to 1976 ).
Vasily Bondarchik studied the main trends in the development of the Belarusian ethnography in the 19th – early 20th centuries, set out in the works of prominent scientists (E. Karsky, M. Dovnar-Zapolsky, N. Nikiforovsky, I. Nosovich, E. Romanov, A. Serzhputovsky) and scientific societies. He wrote monographs "History of Belarusian Ethnography of the 19th Century." (1964), "History of Belarusian Ethnagraphy, the Beginning of the 20th century." (1970), "History of Belarusian Soviet Ethnography" (1972), etc. V. Bondarchik was a co-author and scientific editor of the books "Family and Family Life of Belarusians" (1990), "Social Life and Culture of the Rural Population of Belarus" (1993), one of the authors of the encyclopaedia "Ethnography of Belarus" (1989), the first volume of the multivolume edition "Belarusians" ("Industry and Craft", 1995) and the author of the third volume ("Historical Ethnological Studies", 1999). Books and articles about monuments of architecture and ethnography, about the history of housing, clothing and agricultural equipment of Belarusians were published under his editorship.
Thanks to his successful scientific and organizational activities in the 1980s, the Belarusian ethnological school was created. Historical and ethnographic atlas of Belarus was being written and the ethnocultural ties of Belarusians with the Ukrainian and Polish peoples were studied under his leadership. The scientist was a member of the Bureau of the Department of Social Sciences of the Academy of Sciences of the BSSR, a member of the Presidium of the Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments of Belarus, Chairperson of the Ethnography Department of the Belarusian Branch of the Geographical Society of the USSR and the International Society of Ethnology and Folklore of Europe. For many years, he headed the boards for the protection of doctoral and doctoral dissertations.
In 1980, V. Bondarchic was awarded the title of the "BSSR Honored Employee of Culture." In 2000, he was awarded the Francysk Skaryna Medal. Scientific degrees and titles, numerous awards are evidences of the great talent and diligence of the scientist.
Bibliology Research Department
