Vitebsk Regional Library welcomes participants of the IX scientific and practical conference “Vitebsk region”

The topics of this conference surprised us with their diversity. The topics concerned exclusively the Vitebsk region, research into all spheres of its life, noted the director of the regional library Tatyana Adamyan. The participants showed interest in the history and culture of the Podvina region, ethnography and folklore, library and bibliographic, museum, church local history, excursion business, and touched upon the problems of archival science and archeography, literary aspects. Among the speakers are researchers from the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, the Belarusian State Archive of Film and Photo Documents, Grodno and Gomel State Universities, local historians from Moscow, St. Petersburg, the Pskov region, representatives of Vitebsk universities, museums, the regional archive, and teachers.

The chief specialist of the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts, Dmitry Feldman, conducted the latest research on the topic “Vitebsk Jews in the Patriotic War of 1812.” Russian military historian Vadim Gavrilov studied the history of monuments to the Patriotic War of 1812 on Vitebsk soil. Local historian from St. Petersburg Vadim Sedov dedicated his speech to the Lukishki estate that once existed in the Vitebsk region and its owner Peter Kossov.

The chief specialist of the main department of ideological work and youth affairs of the regional executive committee, Svetlana Dedinkina, presented the book “River of Memory,” co-written with Vitebsk journalist Sergei Kovalevsky. It is dedicated to a unique local history expedition along the Western Dvina - from the source to Vitebsk. The book is based on a travel essay “400 kilometers along the Amber River,” which includes materials about the natural and climatic features of the upper reaches of the Western Dvina, fascinating stories about our outstanding contemporaries, and interesting historical facts from the life of the Dvina hinterland.