National Academy of Sciences of Belarus

05.02.2019

Academician Mikhail Pavlovich Kostyuk passed away

Mikhail Pavlovich Kostyuk, Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, passed away on 5 February 2019.

Mikhail Kostyuk was born to a peasant family in Mostyshche village, Novogrudok district, Grodno region. He graduated with honors from the Faculty of History and Philology of the Grodno Pedagogical Institute in 1963. He had committed himself to the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of the BSSR in December 1966. Outstanding organizational skills allowed him to make a great scientific career: from a graduate student to an academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. In 1989, Mikhail Kostyuk was elected a corresponding member, and since 1996 he was a full member (academician) of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. In 1998, Academician Kostyuk received a diploma of a full academician of the Central European Academy of Sciences and Arts and the International Academy of Sciences of Eurasia. The International Scientific Board of the American Biographical Institute and the Cambridge University recognized Mikhail Kostyuk as the man of the year in 1999, 2002, 2005, 2006 and 2007. On 8 September 2010, Academician Kostyuk was awarded the Medal of Francysk Skaryna that is one of the highest state awards of the Republic of Belarus.

During his scientific work, Mikhail Kostyuk created his own scientific school and was a scientific advisor for 4 doctors and about 25 Candidates of Historical Sciences.

Scientific search, seriousness, thoughtfulness, desire to understand the very essence of the problem and commitment were the distinguishing features of his professional life. More than 250 personal scientific publications and vivid and informative monographic research are striking evidence of this.

Mikhail Kostyuk was elected Director of the Institute of History in 1989. Within ten years, he had been as an outstanding organizer and coordinator of historical science not only at the Institute but also in the Republic of Belarus as a whole, consistently defending the national and state interests of Belarus. Academician Kostyuk is one of the leading developers of the national-state concept of Belarusian history, according to which the Belarusian people are either an object or a subject of the historical process, a true creator of their own history.

In 2010, Mikhail Kostyuk was elected an honorary citizen of Novogrudok and the district. Academician Kostyuk initiated the preparation of a fundamental publication dedicated to the thousand-year history of his native city. As a result, the author's team under the leadership of Mikhail Kostyuk in 2014 created the collective work "History of Novogrudok: From the Depths of Centuries to the Present Day.” The documentary basis of the book, its content, excellent printing design allowed this publication to be in a list of the TOP-10 most important achievements of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus in 2014.