On May 27th, the National Library hosted the presentation of books by Vyachka Telesh Cities of Belarus in Old Postcards and My Kin is From Here, and Here is My Berth.
Vyachka Telesh, Belarusian by birth, is the known artist from Riga. He was among the first to prepare and print rare old postcards about pre-Soviet Minsk and other cities of Belarus. In 1984, the first album Minsk in Old Postcards based on the author’s collection appeared. In 1998 his book Cities of Belarus was published, and since then it has been more than once reedited showing an extraordinary interest of Belarusians to the historical past of their country.
The fourth edition of the book appeared in 2014 (the publishing house “Belarus”) was presented in the National Library of Belarus. The book Cities of Belarus in Old Postcards includes about 800 reproductions of the most interesting old postcards from both the author’ collection and stocks of various museums, libraries and private collections. Many of them have been never published before.
Vyachka Telesh, who is very fond of the history of Belarus, notes that there is no book in the world which would include postcards with images of all, without exception, cities of a state, so only Belarus can be proud of such a treasure. The addition to a rich graphic material of the book is the author’s study of local lore placed in comments to postcards: as names of streets have changed, whether buildings are kept till present day, in what style they are constructed also other interesting historical supervision.
The new edition of Cities of Belarus in Old Postcards is the winner of the II Degree Diploma of the National contest “The Art of Book of Belarus”. It impresses with a non-standard format and beautiful design showing an excellent work on illustration retouch. The edition is a precious gift which Belarusians willingly and with pride hand over abroad.
The book My Kin is From Here, and Here is My Berth is Vyachka Telesh’s attempt to study his family tree and the history of village Krasnoselsky in the Volkovysk Region where the author was born. Studying of archival materials, gathering of memoirs of representatives of the Teleshes family have allowed the author to track a chain of one family from the XVIII century: the farthest ancestor, the memoirs about whom Vyachka Telesh has found, is his three-time great-grandmother Magdalena Telesh born in 1795. By approximate calculation, the book includes documentary witness on more than five hundred Teleshes! The author has managed to find 720 photos connected with the history of his family. Vyachka Telesh has published this in-depth study at his own expense so that each of modern Teleshes could receive a copy and know the history of their kin.
Vyachka Telesh became interested in an opportunity to recreate the family tree 20 years ago, but he still regrets that he has not made it earlier, that in fact many valuable materials are lost completely today. Therefore the author advises each Belarusian to start writing down the family tree immediately.
During the presentation a lottery was held, and three lucky readers received as a gift Vyachka Telesh’s books with autographs.
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