The new building of the National Library of Belarus is so beautiful, original and unique that it rightfully serves as the hallmark of the country. Any capital of the world can be proud of such a book depository - the richest funds are combined not only with the one-of-a-kind design and extraordinary architecture of the building built by the Republic of Belarus. The National Library is a multifunctional specialized research center that meets the latest science and technology in this area.
First library
There was no national library at all in the tsarist province, and although the republic continued to form territorially until 1926, already in 1922 the first national library of the Republic of Belarus was created at the State University, which was first called the "Belarusian State and University Library" (itself Republic had the abbreviation BSSR). The initial fund amounted to 60 thousand volumes. But it was quickly replenished by the efforts of the entire country and from private libraries.
First room
HistoryThe National Library of Belarus began in the Jubilee House - a building built in 1913 for the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty, where the church and archaeological museum was previously located as part of the bishop's residence. This building was erected in a retrospective-Russian style, rare for the city. It should be noted that the main library of the republic has always been located in the original conspicuous buildings.
In 1926, the storage fund grew to 300 thousand, and the number of readers increased 5 times. The library becomes an independent institution, and for its needs they decide to build a special building, which also went down in the history of the republic with its uniqueness, originality and purposefulness - the library becomes the center of not only scientific thought, but also cultural and national construction.
Purpose-built building
Georgy Lavrov's project was selected from the presented works. He proposed a completely new building for Minsk, in which he wanted to embody a mathematical coordinate system - to emphasize the contrast between the length of the reading rooms and the height of the book depository located in the depths. The main building was ready for the 10th anniversary of the republic - it received readers in 1932. The project was so good that in our time, the Council of the Republic of National Education is located in the restored architectural monument of the constructivism era, which are few, especially in Belarus.
Funds are growing
Great attention to the main book depository of the republicalways paid Belarus. By 1941, the National Library had about 2 million copies of books in its storerooms. The more difficult was the loss - Belarus lost about 83% of the funds. Priceless old manuscripts and scrolls were stolen, and much was burned along with the building.
But already in 1943, with the joint efforts of the country, the funds of the Belarusian library began to be restored. By the mid-1950s, the building of Georgy Lavrov could no longer cope with the influx of readers. But only in 1989, a competition for projects for a new building was held.
The emergence of the National Library of Belarus
After the "parade of sovereignties" the BSSR became officially known as the Republic of Belarus. The National Library could and should have become the hallmark of a renewed country. The “construction of the century” was approached more than seriously (5,000 people and 200 organizations were involved in the construction), although the country had enough other problems. The implementation of the project of architects Viktor Kramarenko and Mikhail Vinogradov, who won back in 1989, was started only in 2002. They worked with great enthusiasm, because the project “Belarusian Diamond”, symbolizing the pricelessness, we alth and inexhaustibility of knowledge with its form, conquered everyone.
Unique project
Everyone was fascinated by the ultra-modern design of the building, the central body of which is a complex geometric figure - a rhombicuboctahedron, and its faces are represented by 18 squares and 8 triangles. This extraordinary structure is covered with reflective mirror glass,put on a stylobate, a kind of stand-podium.
Construction proceeded at an accelerated pace - they worked around the clock, and often up to 3000 people were at the construction site at the same time. The building, which was opened with a grandiose, quite justified pomp, with the participation of the president, took place on June 16, 2006, justified all the costs, satisfied all the ambitions. This is a masterpiece that the whole of Belarus is rightly proud of. The National Library is not only extraordinarily beautiful, it is one of the few modern world book depositories that is simultaneously a research, information, socio-political and socio-cultural center.
National Library - national symbol
The sculpture of Francysk Skaryna, the Belarusian pioneer printer, stands in the foreground, in front of the main entrance, made in the form of an open book. It depicts plots on the theme of the development of writing, the statement of Francysk Skaryna himself about the human striving for perfection, for the likeness of God, translated into 19 languages of the world. The best artists and sculptors of the republic worked on the design of the central entrance. The whole complex is located in the central park of the capital. The National Library of Belarus (photo attached) is a real gem. Of the modern, equally unusual, but beautiful buildings, only the Sydney Opera House immediately comes to mind. You look and it takes your breath away.
Some dimensions of amazing structure
About the structure and size of the librarysay such data - 20 reading rooms make it possible to join the knowledge at the same time 2000 people. In addition, they have 1,500 workstations designed to work with the electronic catalog. The depository is designed for 14 million copies, and the total area of the entire library is 113,669 square meters. m. The figure is impressive even without comparison with the area of the entire Vatican, the fourth part of which it is equal to. The library is a national treasure of the republic, in order to popularize knowledge, excursions are constantly made here.
Belarusian Diamond today
The “Diamond of Knowledge”, as the library of Minsk is also called, today has in its funds about 9 million copies of books, manuscripts, microcopies of documents in 80 languages of the world. And although everything taken out by the occupiers has not yet returned to the storage funds (the search is ongoing, at all levels), the catalog of rare manuscripts, early printed books, ancient unique publications is more than 70 thousand copies. Only newspapers are stored here 4, 7 thousand titles, and magazines and other periodicals - 3 million copies. All this is located on 10 floors of the vault. Of the huge fund, about 500,000 items are freely available - reading rooms and a subscription.
In special places equipped with modern equipment, you can get access to digital storage. The electronic library of Belarus has a catalog, which is the main information retrieval system of the entire national book depository. Replenishment underwayconstantly, in normal mode.
Other Libraries
Besides the Diamond of Knowledge, there are other book depositories in the country. Large libraries of Belarus are represented primarily by the repository of the State Technological and Agrarian Technical Universities. The Belarusian Public Association and the book depository of the Belarusian State University have very large funds. The Presidential Library of the Republic of Belarus, which has existed for about 80 years, is very large. Every major university also has a decent book depository.
