The Founder of Belarusian Studies

The Belarusian Literature Reading Room (room 205) holds the exhibition "The Founder of Belarusian Studies" dedicated to the 160th anniversary of the academician, ethnographer and Slavist Jaŭchim Karski from January 1 to January 24.

Jaŭchim Karski was born on January 1, 1861, in the village of Lasha of the Hrodna province (Hrodna Region) in the family of deacon Fiodar Navitski. But all his life the famous academic lived under the name of his mother, Marija Karskaja. Jaŭchim Karski graduated from the Minsk Theological Seminary and entered the Nezhynsk Historical and Philological Institute, where he studied Slavic-Russian philology. After graduating from the institute he taught at the University of Warsaw and later at the University of St. Petersburg.

During his life, Jaŭchim Karski wrote more than 1,000 scientific papers. But the main work of the researcher was "Belarusians." The work came out in three volumes, five books and became the scientific foundation of the development and formation of Belarusian philology. Due to the depth of scientific research and scientific thought, this work still forces researchers to come back to it again and again.

Besides philological research, Karski also studied the problems of ethnography and folklore, which were also covered in his scientific works. From 1905 to 1917, the researcher was Editor-in-Chief and publisher of the Russian Philological Gazette. Under his leadership, the gazette topped the list of scientific periodicals of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Later on, Karski became its official member in 1916.

The exhibition, consisting of two sections – "Slavist, Ethnographer and Publisher" and "Academician from the village of Lasha" – presents more than 200 editions, fully revealing the scientific, creative and life path of the scientist. Among them are the outstanding scientific papers: "Belarusians," "Slavic Cyrillic Paleography," "Western Russian collection of the 15th century, Belonging to the Imperial Public Library," "Grammar of the Ancient Church Slavonic Language in Comparison with the Russian," "Programs for Collecting the Features of Folk Talk" and much more.

The opening hours of the exhibition correspond to the library’s opening hours.
Admission is by a library card or by the Social and Cultural Center ticket.

For more info: (+375 17) 293 27 16.

Special Collections Service Department.

Read also: new online project of the National Library of Belarus "Through the Pages of the Belarusian Calendar"