By Yekaterina Minakova
The Editor-in-Chief of the Belarusian Encyclopaedia Publishing House, Larisa Yazykovich, notes that this modest edition unites all possible information on Belarus. “We’ve already released the Belarusian Encyclopaedia 18-volume book, and the Republic of Belarus 7-volume encyclopaedia but this one volume comprises 12,000 facts,” she explains.
The new reference book provides information on Belarusian history, its borders, industry, economy, culture and education, in addition to data on the country’s outstanding personalities — such as Soviet Union heroes, state figures and those awarded with high governmental awards.
It features about 120,000 articles — reviewed by Doctor of Philosophy Lev Krishtapovich. During the presentation, he said, “During this Year of Book, it’s truly topical to publish editions which reveal the historical truth. Some attempts are made to interpret our history in a manner which has nothing in common with the truth. It seems to me that this reference book comprises facts which adequately represent our Belarusian history and those who created it.”
It took over three years to prepare the book and, according to Ms. Yazykovich, even until the last minute, debates were common. She paid special attention to the illustrations, saying, “Importantly, the edition is compact, fitting inside a bag, but the 400-page book shows Belarus in the same way as a 6-volume universal encyclopaedia.”
