Zachar Šybieka
Dr. Prof. Zachar Vasiljevič Šybieka (, ; born July 30, 1948) is a Belarusian historian and professor. Biography. Šybieka was born on July 30, 1948 in the village of Asinauka, Belitskiy Rural Council of the Sennenskiy Region in the Vitebsk Region of the Byelorussian SSR. In 1972, he graduated from the history department of Belarusian State University, where in 1977 he defended his candidate's dissertation, and in 1998 his doctor's dissertation. In 2003 he was designated a professor. Šybieka worked as a teacher of history (1972–1974), then as a research fellow at the History Institute of the Academy  of Sciences of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (1974–1991), and as director of the Department of Belarusian Studies at the Francysk Skaryna National Education Center (1991–1998). In 1999 he became director of National Museum of History and Culture of the Republic of Belarus. Since the year 2000, he has served as a professor at the Belarusian State Economic University, in the Department of Economic History. From September 2001 to September 2002, he simultaneously served as editor-in-chief of "Spadčyna" ("Heritage") magazine. Šybieka's main areas of expertise are Minsk from the second half of the 19th century through the  beginning of the 20th century, Belarusian cities between during the time of 1861-1904, and the Belarusian national movement of the 19th to 20th centuries. He has more than 200 scholarly publications. His work on Belarusian History in the 19th to 20th centuries received an award from the Polish magazine "Przegląd Wschodni" in 2001, and also, in 2003, the Francysk Bogushevich Prize of the Belarusian PEN Center. He is a member of International Association for Belarusian Studies (IAB) and of the Belarusian Historical Society.