Museum of the History of Medicine of Belarus
The idea to create the Museum of the History of Medicine of Belarus belonged to Professor Grigory Romanovich Kryuchok — a prominent historian of medicine, organiser and chairman of the Belarusian Scientific Society of Historians of Medicine, founder of the scientific school of historians of medicine in Belarus.
Grigory Romanovich Kryuchok was born on 2 October 1918 in the village of Novoselki, Borisov district, Minsk region. In 1940 he graduated from Minsk Medical Institute, was a participant of the Great Patriotic War. In 1944 he was recalled from the army to work on the restoration of health care in Belarus.
A turning point in the fate of Grigory Romanovich was his training at the one-year courses for senior health care staff at the Central Institute for Advanced Training of Doctors in Moscow (1947–1948). Here he got acquainted with prominent scientists—health care organisers and historians of medicine: M. I. Barsukov (former Minister of Health of Belarus), M. P. Multanovsky, P. E. Zabludovsky and others, became interested in their scientific research and began to engage in research activities himself. Since 1949, G. R. Kryuchok started to work at the Department of Health Care Organisation of the Minsk Medical Institute, and from 1952 he headed the course on the history of medicine created by him at the department.
It is rather difficult to determine the exact date of the museum foundation. The first museum object was registered in the book of receipts on 8 September 1958. It was a photograph of the in-patient building of the Zaostrovech rural district hospital in Minsk region (taken in 1958). This date is considered to be the day of the organisation of the Museum of the History of Medicine of Belarus. In the same year a museum group (I. I. Vakser, M. N. Krasnoshchekova) started to work at the Department, the number of its staff gradually increased (A. I. Berlin, F. A. Sagalchik, N. F. Zmachinskaya, V. S. Eleynikova, A. F. Petrova, etc.). The museum group was headed on a voluntary basis by G. R. Kryuchok, and the Museum Council organised by him worked on the same basis. It included prominent scientists of Belarus: D. P. Belyatsky, V. P. Gritskevich, I. A. Insarov (Minister of Health of Belarus), A. K. Kosach, A. I. Mikhelson, B. Y. Elbert and others. They participated in the meetings of the Society of Historians of Medicine of Belarus, scientific conferences, discussion of exposition plans, edited the publications of the museum group (including the collections ‘Significant Dates of the History of Medicine and Public Health of Belarus’).
In the late 1950s, the main directions of the museum’s work were formed: collection, scientific processing and storage of museum objects, exposition, research and educational work. At each of the subsequent stages of the museum’s activity, one of the directions of its work became the leading one. In the initial period the primary task was the accumulation of museum objects. Many of them were received by the staff when visiting medical workers, including during business trips, some of them were received by mail as a result of correspondence. One of the ways to replenish the collections in the 1960s was to involve students in this activity. They collected an average of 1500–2500 museum items during the academic year. As a result of this work, by 1970 the museum’s collections totalled about 20,000 items, including unique medical instruments, documents, photographs, and printed publications.
The first exposition ‘Medicine of Belarus at the beginning of the 20th century (1901–1917)’ was opened at the end of 1965 and was located in one of the classrooms of the Department of Health Organisation. Later, two more expositions devoted to the medicine of Belarus in the first half of the twentieth century were placed in the classroom of the Department.
The expositions were carried out by Minsk art and design studios. The expensive design works were financed by the Minsk Medical Institute (rector—Professor A. A. Klyucharev), whose administration actively supported the endeavours of Professor G. R. Kryuchok.
The expositions were actively demanded, they were not only used in the educational process, but also constantly visited by the Institute staff and medical workers of the republic.
Since 1973 the management of the museum group was carried out by senior researchers Antonina Fedorovna Petrova (1973–1979), then Pavel Nazarovich Sviridenko (1980–1985). During these years all the main directions of the museum group’s activities continued to develop, but in smaller volumes. This was influenced by its transfer in 1972 to the Central Research Laboratory of the Minsk State Medical Institute, as a result of which the connection with the Department of Health Organisation and the History of Medicine course was considerably weakened. During this period, a number of large stationary exhibitions reflecting the history of the Minsk State Medical Institute were organised, as well as temporary exhibitions devoted to medicine during the Great Patriotic War.
In 1985, the museum group was headed by Associate Professor Alexander Konstantinovich Kosach (1985–1989), a student of G. R. Kryuchok. He started the work on the transformation of the museum group into an independent institution. The basis was the order of the Ministry of Health of the USSR from 07.03.1984 ‘On improvement of the activity of medical museums.’ In accordance with this order the Ministries of Health of the Union Republics were asked to take measures to create museums of the history of medicine and to improve the further work of the existing museums. On behalf of the Ministry of Health of the BSSR, proposals for the organisation of a museum of the history of medicine in the republic were developed. The developed measures were considered by the board and the Scientific Council of the Ministry of Health and sent to the Ministry of Health of the USSR by the established deadline. After generalising the materials received from the republics, the USSR Ministry of Health issued an order (No. 1401 of 04.11.1985) to open the Museum of the History of Medicine and Public Health in Belarus by 1990. It should be noted that at that time similar museums existed in Latvia (Riga), Ukraine (Kiev), Lithuania (Kaunas) and other republics. Thus, the Museum of the History of Medicine was organised on the basis of the museum group of Minsk Medical Institute on the basis of the order of the Ministry of Health of BSSR from 22.05.1990 №57. The museum was on an independent balance sheet, had the right of a legal entity and was directly subordinated to the Ministry of Health of the BSSR.
Tatiana Georgievna Svetlovich, a graduate of the sanitary-hygienic faculty of the Minsk Medical Institute, was assigned to the post of the museum director. Nine positions, including the director, the chief curator of the collections and 4 research assistants, were established to conduct all sections of the museum work. The museum was assigned as a teaching base of the medical institute for teaching the history of medicine. From the first days of work of the Republican Museum of the History of Medicine of Belarus the leading direction of its activity was the preparation of new expositions, which according to the order from 27.06.1990 № 80 of the Ministry of Health of BSSR were placed on the premises of the Republican Scientific Medical Library.
The museum staff (T. G. Svetlovich, O. A. Kulpanovich, T. P. Razumenko, I. V. Pantyuk) together with the artist P. N. Drachov (a member of the Union of Artists of the BSSR) created an exposition on the theme ‘The development of medicine in Belarus from ancient times to the beginning of the twentieth century.’ When working on this exposition there was a lack of exhibits from the past centuries. In order to recreate the historical picture of the development of medicine in Belarus, the museum staff turned to state libraries and archives. With the help of archeologists and collectors, a unique collection of pharmacy utensils of the 18th – early 20th centuries, hygienic devices, medical instruments was gathered.
The artist found an architectural and artistic solution that allowed to create additional exposition areas and ensure chamber-like perception of the unique historical material. The exposition made extensive use of moulages, models, dioramas, natural interiors were designed, and copies of unique documents were made. The grand opening of the exposition took place on 28 April 1993. In 1994 the museum staff started to create the next exposition—‘Medicine of Belarus of the Modern Time.’ In 2005 it was replaced by a new exposition ‘Medicine of Belarus during the Great Patriotic War.’
In the early 1990s international co-operation began to expand. In 1994 the museum became a member of the European Association of Museums of the History of Medical Sciences, under the aegis of which in August 1997, with the support of the Ministry of Health of Belarus, an international scientific and practical seminar on medical museology was held. The seminar was attended by specialists from Great Britain, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia, the USA and Ukraine. The museum staff actively participated in republican and international conferences and congresses on the history of medicine. Three employees prepared and defended their theses for the degree of Candidate of Sciences.
Along with exposition and scientific work, great attention was paid to the collection work. Since 1995, the museum has switched to computerised registration of museum items. In October 2005, the Ministry of Health decided to reorganise the Republican Museum of the History of Medicine of Belarus by merging it with the Republican Scientific Medical Library.
In the new status the museum continues to carry out collection, exposition, research and educational work.
With the assistance of the Library Directorate, many issues on improving the working conditions of employees and the placement of collections were solved, as well as the conditions of storage of museum items were significantly improved, and the material and technical base was optimised.
In 2013–2014, the premises were renovated and a new exposition was prepared. Additional space was allocated for it, which made it possible to reflect such topics as the formation and development of Soviet healthcare, medicine and healthcare in Western Belarus, the development of higher medical education, the development of research institutes, the history of trade union movement of medical workers and others. The opening of the exposition was timed to coincide with the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Republican Scientific Medical Library.
At present the museum offers excursions for doctors, students of BSMU, BSU and other higher educational institutions of our country, students of medical colleges and pupils.