They say like century, like people. And if you want to know more about “centuries” and “peoples”, read newspapers. This is still as relevant as it was one hundred years ago. “Newspaper Age: Pages of Time” is a new co-project of the newspaper “Sovetskaya Belorussiya – Belarus Segodnya” and the National Library of Belarus, which offers a historical journey through newspapers’ pages and, conformably, an acquaintance with Belarus in the early 20th century.
What inspired this project? The director of the National Library, Roman Motulsky, says: "With the newspapers of 1917–1922, everyone can see and understand how our ancestors lived a century ago, how they perceived the landmark events of the era when Belarusian statehood emerged and formed, what they did in everyday life and what they worried and cared about."
A century is not so very long!
Speaking about historical research as a kind of a bridge from the past to the present is probably no longer very original. And yet, after all ... The number of those wishing to walk on this bridge does not decrease. So we decided to try another trip. For a century is not so very long! Especially when you have real magical sesame – the newspaper collection of the country’s main library. By now, thousands of documents, including those from the newspaper collection, have been digitized. Some of them are available to readers on the library Internet portal. Gradually, a real virtual reading room is being created. Moreover, from anywhere in the world, for a small fee, you can order a copy of the missing publication, which is stored in the National Library of Belarus. An electronic archive of periodicals is also being formed, where modern newspapers arrive at the time of publication. In general, the National Library of Belarus is also a scientific center, a leader in the return and promotion of old publications: books, newspapers, magazines. This year, the periodicals released on the Belarusian soil in 1917–1922 are to be digitized. A large and complex work has been done, in which the library specialists are assisted by colleagues from Lithuania and our National Archives.
At the news front
Let’s turn to the time when the newspaper page became the main and almost the only source of political, socio-economic, cultural and everyday information. The revolution of 1917 had brought a powerful storm drive to this already stormy river. It is difficult to believe, but on the territory of Belarus more than 1,000 names of periodicals were issued between 1917 and 1922. However, the lifetime of many of them was very short – one, two, three issues. Well, let it be ten. Circulation was the same. Anyhow they existed! And they managed to add their voice to the public choir. Among them there were, of course, notable and really significant socio-political publications like the newspaper "Dzyannitsa", the organ of the Belarusian National Commissariat, which was published first in Petrograd and then in Moscow. This was how "revolutionary consciousness" was formed and spread.
The main political and publishing center of the beginning of the last century was Minsk, where more than 30 newspapers were published. Belarusian newspapers were also published in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Smolensk, Vilna, Polotsk, Orsha, Bobruysk, Vitebsk, Mozyr, Grodno, Gomel, Mogilev and other places. Most of them were published by the parties that operated at the time: the Bolsheviks, the Mensheviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries, National Democrats, Bundists, Cadets... National minorities were widely represented. By the way, experts highly appreciate the design of newspapers in Yiddish, issued in Belarus: fonts, engravings as illustrations... Unfortunately, because of the war, not many of these issues survived. Now a collection of prewar rarities in Yiddish is kept in the newspaper section of the library. However, until now they have not been translated and remain practically unexplored. In total in 1917 in Belarus there were about 80 newspapers in the Russian, Belarusian, Polish, Jewish, Latvian and Ukrainian languages.
Military publications had a wide distribution: “Front”, the newspaper of the West Front; “Nasha gazeta” of a front division and others.
According to researchers, in the years 1918–1920, that is during the first German occupation, about 300 newspapers were published on the territory of Belarus. Wherever the Soviet power was established, the local press also developed, often in the form of “Izvestia Sovetov”. The first issue of “Izvestia” of the Mogilev Soviet was published on January 1, 1918.
Category: rarity
The National Library's Bibliology Research Department carries out keeping, scientific processing, description of early printed publications, manuscripts, rare books and periodicals. There are originals of the "Muzytskaya prauda" by Kastus Kalinovsky, the first Belarusian newspapers "Nasha dolya" and "Nasha Niva", and a unique collection of clandestine and partisan publications of the Great Patriotic War. The necessary storage conditions are created in the repository. The fire-fighting system is based on the action of gas, which displaces oxygen, so that combustion ceases. It is well known that many valuable exhibits in museums, libraries and archives were destroyed not by fire, but by water during extinguishing. The fight against mold is conducted here in the most decisive and modern way. But as regards the safety of periodicals, especially those that were released during crisis periods, the problem remains.
– Indeed, periodicals, newspapers can be lost in the first place because of their physical wear and tear. It is not hard to imagine the quality of news-print in 1917 or 1918, often horrible. Many newspapers of the 1920s are in a bad state, although we treat them extremely carefully and save them in all available ways. The same picture with newspapers, magazines, posters and leaflets, issued during the Great Patriotic War, – the deputy director of the National Library Alexander Susha says.
Some periodicals arrived at the library from private collections. For instance, here are periodicals from the private collections of Evfimiy Karsky, professors and teachers of Belarusian State University of the 1920s; the newspaper-poster "Razdavim Fashistskuyu Gadinu" ("Let Us Crush the Fascist Beast") from the private library of Kandrat Krapiva. By the way, the Radzivills’ library also includes periodicals in some European languages.
So let's flip through the pages of time together by reading old newspapers. We expect a lot of fascinating and unexpected discoveries.
