The monograph by Kseniya Shtalenkova investigates the visual design of paper money, which circulated on Belarusian territories from 1917 to 2016. The aim of the work is to conceptualize the communicative potential of paper money in Belarus through the analysis of national narratives in visual design of state and local issues of paper money for the last 100 years. All phases within this period were institutionalized by paper money issues to mark new stages in the evolution of “Belarusian‐ness”, which had to be developed and is being developed under constant contradictions and conflicts specific for Belarusian discourse. The author analyzes the fundamental aspects of national paper money design. Who actually determines national narratives for paper money design? How do various issues of paper money represent the Republic of Belarus at large? Which national narratives are more effective in the paper money design? The analysis represented in the book is delivered through the comparison of paper money of Belarus, Lithuania, Ukraine, Poland and Russia.
The event was hosted at the hospitable halls of the Money Museum in Vilnius and gathered scholars and students of EHU academic community, as well as the representatives of Lithuanian institutions engaged in money investigations. The presentation was moderated by Vilius Šadauskas, PhD student at Vytautas Magnus University and research and art activity coordinator at EHU Academic Development Unit. Prof. Almira Ousmanova, the editor of the monograph and supervisor of Kseniya Shtalenkova’s both MA and PhD dissertations, began the discussion of the book, introducing the author to the audience and emphasizing the importance of interdisciplinary approach used in the analysis, which shows new opportunities to study money and its visual design as the complex category of symbolic production on the post-socialist area. Kseniya Shtalenkova focused on the transformation of the research during her studies at master and doctorate programmes beginning as the critique of the absence of portraits in visual design of Belarusian roubles and later having been modified as the analyses of dehumanization of national narratives in the contexts of struggling ideologies and digitalization of money.
Prof. Andrei Gornykh commented on the topic noting that visual design of money is like a light-sensitive plate, which reveals the processes taking place in the societies that use certain issues of paper money. Prof. Gornykh also drew the attention to the first “zaichiki” series of Belarusian roubles (1992), which expresses the tragicomic atmosphere of the epoch when they were issued. This became the impulse for the following discussion with the audience, covering the parallelism in money design in Belarus and Lithuania, ideological significance of neutral national narratives of Belarusian paper money, the problems of institutional “silence” in regards of money design process in Belarus and new ways to make national narratives beyond geographic borders of the state. Prof. emeritus Ryhor Miniankou, who also participated in the discussion, stated that launching the new book series with works by young scholars and its first monograph published on the base of the research made at EHU is a considerable result of Vilnius period of the University. At the end of the presentation, Kseniya Shtalenkova thanked her professors, Editorial board and Academic Development Unit of EHU for their help in having the monograph published. She also thanked the Money Museum for their kindness in hosting the event as well as presented her book to the Library of the Money Museum.
The monograph is published in Russian with a summary in English and is available in print at EHU Library and in .pdf/.epub online.
Due to interdisciplinary studies in the field of political history, social sciences and visual design of Belarusian paper money, the monograph might be of great interest to scholars of visual sociology (cultural and visual studies) and history of design, as well as to graphic and visual designers, especially students at design programmes, and hopefully to experts in national paper money design.
The project accomplished with aid of the European Union, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and EHU.
