An exhibition entitled “The Unforgotten: Belarusian Memoir Literature” runs in the Belarusian literature reading room (205), from 4 April to 6 May.
Memoirs – memoria – memory. Memoirs are stories about the past, based on the author's personal experience and memory, the remembrance of events which he or heroes of his works participated and witnessed. Memoirs can be a full documentary material. Diaries, recollections, autobiographies, confessions, travel notes are sources of new unknown information about various events, phenomena and persons.
The exhibition opens with the publications dedicated to the formation of the historic-memoir genre in Belarus: The Monuments of Belarusian Memoir Literature of the 17th century (Помнікі мемуарнай літаратуры на Беларусі ХVII ст.), Belarus in the Mirror of Memoir Literature of the 18th century (Беларусь у люстэрку мемуарнай літаратуры ХVIIІ ст.) and How Our Ancestors Lived in the 18th century (Як жылі нашы продкі ў ХVIIІ ст.) by А. Maldzis, Roads Led through Belarus (Шляхі вялі праз Беларусь) by V. Gritskevich, Memoirs and Diaries as the Soursec on the History of Belarus (Мемуары і дзённікі як крыніцы па гісторыі Беларусі) by N. Ulaschik etc.
The exposition presents memoirs written in different historical times: Pielgrzymka do Ziemi Świętej of Nicolay Christophe Radzivill the Orphan, The Description of the Journey of Polish Embassy to Moscow in 1678 of Bernhard Tanner, The Adventures of My Life of Salomea Pilshtynova, The Memoirs of Christophe Zavisha, the Voevode of Minsk (1666–1721) etc. Visitors will be interested in the Historical Notes of the first Belarusian memoirist Fyodor Evlashovsky, and also the first memoirs in the modern Belarusian language From the Papers of Algerd Abukhovich (З папераў Альгерда Абуховіча).
The book series The Belarusian Memoir Library and Life of Outstanding People of Belarus acquaint with the memoirs of Y. Kolas, Y. Kupala, K. Chorny, L. Geniush, A. Kuleshov, V. Korotkevich and other known people, as well as with letters, archives and dedications.
A separate section presents memoirs of the Belarusian authors living abroad: Zora Kipel, Vasil Rogulia, Boris Kit, Piotr Sych, Yuri Veselkovsky. The books were published in London, Cleveland, Toronto, New York, Munich etc.
In recent years, the interest in the events of the Great Patriotic War has grown: people recall concentration camps, living under occupation and partisans’ everyday life. A separate exhibition section is devoted to this tragic time in the history of Belarus.
The exposition also features the publications of modern Belarusian authors S. Dubovets, S. Kiselev, А. Fedorenko, Z. Bartosik, V. Kipel, S. Chigrin, who have been awarded the Alexander and Maria Staganovich Prize for the best non-fiction books.
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