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Hejsan, Maria and www.vitryssland.nu! With warm regards, Andrej Andrej Kotljarchuk
11.11.2001: For www.vitryssland.nu/Maria Söderberg
The Public enterprise
At the end of the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century, Ivan Luckevic, an outstanding Byelorussian archeologist and a famous public person, made a collection of unique exhibits, books and documents related to the Byelorussian history. Just before his death, in 1919, he handed over the whole of his rich collection to the Byelorussian Scientific Society in Vilnius. In 1921, the Society established a museum in the name of Ivan Luckevic with the basic exhibits handed over by the famous Byelorussian archeologist. Anton Luckevic, brother of Ivan Luckevic, and an outstanding figure of the Western Byelorussia (this was the title of Byelorussia during these times when it was part of Poland) became director of the museum. Vilnius was the main cultural and spiritual center of the Western Byelorussian during these days. Anotn Luckevic was director of the Byelorussian Museum till 1939. During these 18 years, a substantial work was done by this person and the staff of the Museum- the collection of the exhibits expanded significantly, rare books were received, the archive of the historical documents was enriched significantly. The Byelorussian Museum became the most important historical museum of the city of Vilnius and the whole western Byelorussia during that time. The Museum played an important role in the cultural and historical education of the Byelorussian inhabitants of Poland, maintenance of their cultural heritage. In 1939, the city of Vilnius, as well as the whole of the Western Byelorussia, was occupied by the Soviet army. Almost all members of the Byelorussian Scientific Council, including the staff of the Byelorussian Museum, were arrested, and later on, either deported to Siberia or executed, including the execution of Anton Luckevic. At the end of the month of October 1939, Stalin returned the city of Vilnius to Lithuania (in exchange for dislocation of the Soviet military bases on the territory of Lithuania). In the year of 1940, the independent state of Lithuania was forced to become the "Soviet Socialist Republic of Lithuania". During that time, the Byelorussian Museum was not working, and later on the Lithuanian official reorganized it into a state museum under the supervision of the Lithuanian Scientific Academy. Under such a status, the Byelorussian Museum lived trough the German occupation and survived till the year of 1944. The staff of the Museum did everything for the continuation of the life of the Museum and its activities under such uneasy time of occupation. They risked their lives as to save the most valuable exhibits of the Museum, books and documents from their taking out to Germany. At the very beginning, when the Red Army entered Vilnius, it was allowed that the Byelorussian Museum could carry on its activities as a state institution of the Lithuanian SSR. But, just a little bit later on, Jan Shutovith, director of the Museum, was arrested and deported to Siberia for 15 years, and the exhibits of the Museum were split. A special joint Lithuanian SSR and Byelorussian SSR commission was established for undertaking the split of the Byelorussian Museum in Vilnius. As a result of this, the major and most valuable exhibits remained in Lithuania, and a minor part of them were handed over to Byelorussia. This was the end of the existence of the well-known Byelorussian Museum in the name of Ivan Luckevic in Vilnius. Until the early nineties, the official history of Byelorussia and Lithuania did not mention any facts bout the Museum, any mentioning of the names and works done by the staff of the Museum was strictly prosecuted. After Lithuanian reestablished its independence, the social and cultural life revived. The Byelorussians of Vilnius came to an idea of a re-establishment of the Byelorussian Museum. With this purpose, the Byelorussian community was carrying out negotiations with the Lithuanian officials regarding this issue during the last ten years. The result of these talks was fruitful. The Government of Lithuania adopted necessary decisions for the establishment of a new Byelorussian Museum in Vilnius. This should be obvious that the matter of the issue is not related with demands to return the exhibits that were taken earlier, but about their bringing out at museums, libraries and archives of the Republic of Lithuania and the Republic of Byelorussia with the purpose of their description and joint usage. In the year of 2000, with the purpose of implementation of the idea of the revival of the Byelorussian Museum in Vilnius, the leaders of the Byelorussian public organizations and representatives of the intelligence of Lithuania decided to, and registered an official structure of the Museum- a public organization "the Byelorussian Museum in the name of Ivan Luckevic". Besides that, the Scientific Council was established which is the scientific-advisory division uniting well-known historians and experts of the museum and archive spheres of Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia, Poland, and Russia (see the list of the Scientific Council attached).
Public enterprise Byelorussian Ivan Lutskevich Muzeum in Vilnius was registered in March 2001. The main aim of Byelorussian museum is to be engaged in research to benefit either of Byelorussians or of widest Lithuanian society. Our target is to establish a constently acting scientific centre for reseaching history, culture, politic activities of Byelorussians in Vilnius region; the centre would unify the specialists in Byelorussian phylology from different countries considered with this problem. On the one hand, the museum has to become the culture centre for Lithuanian Byelorussians, to foster the sence of patriotism, to develop the national consciousness. On the other hand, the activities of our museum have to develop sences of friendship, respect and solidarity with Lithuanian and other nations living in lithuania, to foster sence of good-neighbourliness between citizens of Lithuania and Byelorussia, reflect common historic past and traditions of joint struggle of our nations for democratic freedom and human values, to promote co-operation of humanitarian intellectuals, scientists of Lithuania, Byelorussia and other countries of Middle and Easten Europe. For implementation of determined targets the Academic board of Muzeum is created, it is formed from famous historians and professionals of museum and archives sphere from Lithuania, Byelorussia, Poland, Latvia, Russia; the scientific conception of museum is developed; the concrete work has been already implemented and is implemented now in preparing for collection, saving, researching, exhibition and popularisation of material and spirit values of Byelorussins living in Lithuania. We have already exposed valuable materials from private collections, have done their annotations and scientific description. For a long time the participants of our project publish the results of their researches in newspapers "Run", "Nasha niva" ("Our Cornfield") and others, they take part in creating programmes on TV and radio. The participants of our project were involved as consultants during the exhibitions on historic Byelorussian themes in Lithuanian National Mazhvidas Library, in Library of Academy of Science of Republic of Lithuania, in Vilnius F. Skorina secondary school.
The plans of our museum are:
Bank account number:
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