Exhibition of BGAMLI Documents for Ivan Melezh’s Anniversary

On February 6, 2026, the Belarusian State Archives and Museum of Literature and Art (hereinafter referred to as BGAMLI) hosted the opening of the literary and documentary exhibition «Source of Inspiration – the Life of the People», dedicated to the 105th anniversary of the birth of Belarusian People’s Writer Ivan Melezh.

BGAMLI Director E.A.Makarenko addressed the audience with a welcoming address. She emphasized the relevance of the documentary evidence presented in the exhibition and stored in the archive-museum’s archives for communicating the writer’s memory to both contemporaries and future generations.

Exhibition curator and leading archivist N.A.Mizon introduced the exhibition’s conceptual design. She emphasized particularly valuable documents from the wartime period and drew attention to Ivan Melezh’s creative style not only as a master of large-scale epic paintings but also as a subtle lyricist and writer of psychological prose. Of particular interest to the general public at the exhibition were the plans and drafts for unfinished sections and novels from the «Polesia Chronicle», which the author conceived as a pentology.

In Galina Ivanovna Skrygan‘s story, the writer Ivan Melezh appeared before the assembled crowd as a real person who lived next door, in the «writers’ house» at 36 Karl Marx Street. Galina Ivanovna remembers how Ivan Melezh visited them to consult with her father, Yanka Skrygan, how he wrote letters expressing his experiences about the novel «People in the Swamp» from Yalta, and how Yanka Skrygan supported I.Melezh and praised his work. At the event, G.I.Skrygan donated the book «Goodness, What I Know», to the BGAML library collection. Among other things, it contains Skrygan’s memoir «My Neighbor Ivan Melezh», as well as correspondence between the two writers.

Melezh’s grandson, artist Ivan Semiletov, spoke to those gathered about family traditions perpetuating the memory of his famous ancestor. During the presentation, Semiletov presented the Melezh foundation with an image of the Melezh family tree, created by artist Anna Semiletova. Attendees were particularly impressed and moved by the live voices of Ivan and his father, Pavel Melezh, as well as his mother-in-law, Klavdiya Ivanovna, recorded by the writer himself, and his grandson, Ivan, revived the recordings for listening on modern equipment. The staff of the Belarusian State Archives and Museum of Literature and Art (BSAMLI) are grateful that the audio recordings were also donated during the event and added to the personal collection of the People’s Writer of Belarus, Ivan Pavlovich Melezh.

1. Curator of the exhibition «Source of Inspiration – The Life of the People» N.A.Mizon

2. Director of the Belarusian State Academy of Literature and Art (BSAMLI) E.A.Makarenko

3. During the presentation of the exhibition «Source of Inspiration – The Life of the People»

4. Speech by G.I.Skrygan

5. Speech by Ivan Semiletov, grandson of writer Ivan Melezh

6. N.Mizon and I.Semiletov