Monument to Balyaslau Yalavetcki
On August 5, 2007 in Lyntupy (Pastavy district) a monument to Balyaslau Yalavetski was opened. He was an excellent engineer-inventor, railroadman, employer, statesman of then Russian empire. His name has been written with the golden letters in the Petersburg Engineering Academy.
Balyaslau Yalavetcki is native of Svientsianski land, his estate was situated in 30 verst (about 30 km/19 miles) from Lyntupy. In the end of 19th century, accurately in 1897 the railroad in Lyntupy started running. Station Lyntupy was an important railroad link, which started embracing western lands of Russian empire and began to connect it with Europe. With Yalavetcki’s active participation a way from Danbas even to Liflyandiya (Livonia) was projected in order to broaden the commercial paths of the empire of that time.
Balyaslau Yalavetcki was zealous for development of his native land, which is Svientsiany and Pastavy and a famous lake Narach. A narrow-gauge railway was running to Narch through Blue lakes even up to 1960s... Somehow during the soviet time this railway was dismantled, destroyed as well as many other small hydroelectric power stations, water-mills, remainders of them one can see now in those lands…
But something changed, local student of local lore Ales Harbul, Uladzimir Ivankovitch, Mikhail Hil and other enthusiasts of Lyntupy renewed the name of Balyaslau Yalavetcki, which had been forgotten undeservedly.. And sculptor Ales Shaternik from Mensk on a voluntary basis made a bust, which was inaugurated at the station of Lyntupy. We have to add, that the governing body of Pastavy was nice to the idea of this monument establishment, it joined the festival and provided some help.
