Documentary exhibition «Berezinsky Reserve: 100 years of preserving the future», dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Berezinsky Biosphere Reserve

Published: February 04, 2025

On January 31, 2025, the opening of the exhibition «Berezinsky Reserve: 100 years of preserving the future» took place in the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus.

The project was organized by: the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus (hereinafter – NARB), the Belarusian State Archive of Film, Photo, and Sound Documents, the State Institution «Berezinsky Biosphere Reserve», the National Historical Museum of the Republic of Belarus, the Museum of Nature and Ecology of Belarus, the magazine «Rodnaya Priroda».

The Berezinsky Biosphere Reserve is the pearl of the Belarusian Poozerie. It is one of the oldest and most beautiful corners of nature in the Republic of Belarus.

From the first years of the existence of the BSSR, the leadership of the republic, scientists, and the public realized the importance of this unique natural complex. On January 30, 1925, the government of Belarus decided to create the Berezinsky Reserve. Hunting, fishing, logging and timber rafting were banned on its territory, and serious scientific research of flora and fauna began.

The Berezinsky Biosphere Reserve is known not only in our country, but also abroad. Since 1979, it has been a member of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves of the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Program, as well as numerous European organizations that protect nature reserves.

The guests and participants of the exhibition were addressed with a welcoming speech by the Deputy Director of the Department of Archives and Records Management of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus A.E.Tsvetkov and the Director of the State Nature Conservation Institution «Berezinsky Biosphere Reserve» A.M.Prokoshin. They emphasized the importance of carrying out work to preserve nature, noted the importance of preserving and popularizing documents on the history of the reserve.

The following took part in the opening of the exhibition and spoke: the head of the Department of Natural Complexes and Industrial Production of the Administrative Department of the President of the Republic of Belarus A.A.Surta; Director of Research at the V.F.Kuprevich Institute of Experimental Botany of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus R.V.Tsvirko; Head of the Reserve Sector of the Scientific and Practical Center for Bioresources of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus V.V.Ustin; Deputy Director for Research at the Berezinsky Biosphere Reserve V.S.Ivkovich; Head of the Museum of Nature and Ecology I.A.Kurakevich; Editor-in-Chief of the journal «Rodnaya Priroda» A.P.Parshina.

Director of the NARB A.K.Demyanyuk presented copies of archival documents to the director of the reserve A.M.Prokoshin and the editor-in-chief of the journal A.P.Parshina.

The exhibition presents stuffed animals that were made more than half a century ago, as well as a herbarium of rare plants from the Berezinsky Reserve collected in the 1950s, photographs by the famous Belarusian photographer D.Ivkovich, as well as documents from the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus reflecting the history of the reserve: organizational and administrative documents of the highest bodies of state power and administration dedicated to its creation and development, letters and reports of Belarusian scientists and practitioners who conducted scientific research in the reserve, as well as acts on the damage caused to the reserve during the Great Patriotic War by the Nazi invaders.

The festive event ended with a performance by students of Secondary School No.77 in Minsk and tea drinking from herbs collected on the territory of the reserve.

1. Exhibition poster

2. Participants of the grand opening of the exhibition

3. Deputy Director of the Department of Archives and Records Management of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus A.E.Tsvetkov delivers a welcoming speech

4. Speech by the Deputy Director for Scientific Work of the V.F.Kuprevich Institute of Experimental Botany of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus R.V.Tsvirko