Belarusian Museum in the interwar period

The museum was founded in 1921 and named after the Belarusian cultural figure Ivan Lutskevich, who died in 1919.

The original exhibits were formed from the personal collection of Ivan Lutskevich, who, according to his will, gave them to the museum. Then it was replenished for many years. In total, the museum had five exhibition halls, which demonstrated such collections: archaeological, numismatic (coins, medals and orders), ancient clothes, ancient weapons, manuscripts and books, church icons, paintings, musical instruments, carvings and others. According to the inventory of 1941, the museum had 13,450 items of storage, and its library - about 14 thousand manuscripts and early printed books, among which, in particular, were part of the Prague Bible of Francysk Skaryna of 1517, a collection of laws, the Statute of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania of 1588, the Novogrudok Gospel of the XIV century, the first grammar of the Arabic language Al-Kitab, books of Belarusian cities printed in Belarusian, as well as other rare publications.

The director of the museum from the day of its formation until 1939 was the brother of Ivan Lutskevich - Anton, who was repressed in 1939 and died in 1942.

The museum was liquidated in late 1944 - early 1945. The exhibits that survived after the end of World War II were divided by a joint commission between the Lithuanian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR. Since the members of the commission from Belarus were persons not connected with Belarus, a significant part of the museum's exhibits remained in Vilnius or were sent to Moscow.