OREANDA-NEWS. May 19, 2008. The Russian Embassy to Belarus has donated 1,100 books to the Gomel Slavonic Library. Attending the official ceremony were the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia to Belarus, Alexander Surikov, the authorities of the Gomel oblast, poets and students of the region.

The collection features the books devoted to fine arts, famous Russian artists, encyclopedias and dictionaries. Over the past several years the library has received around 600 books from the Russian Embassy, Lilia Bulanova noted.

Founded in 1999, the Gomel specialized Slavonic library is a kind of a centre of the Cyril of Turov movement. The stocks of the library include more than 32,000 books; most of them have been presented by the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus and delegations from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro and other countries. The library is aimed at reviving the Orthodox spirituality and cultivating moral values.