L. S. Abetsedarsky, Doctor of Science in History, Professor (1966), Corresponding Member of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the USSR (1968), was born in a town of Gorki in Mogilev region in the family of clerks. He started his career in September, 1931 as an instructor of the Orsha District Committee of Komsomol. In 1937 he became a student of the Faculty of History of BSU. He was a student of such famous scholars as Academicians N. M. Nikolsky and V. N. Pertsev, Professors A. P. P’yankov and L. M. Shneerson, Associate Professor D. A. Dudkov. In February 1942 he was drafted into the Red Army, took his military service on the far East and participated in the Manchu offensive operation in 1945. After graduating from the Faculty of History (1946) and postgraduate studies (1949) was working as a Senior Lecturer of the Department of History of the USSR, defended his PhD thesis in 1950. Since September, 1951 he headed the Department of the USSR History. In September, 1958 he became the Head of the Department of the BSSR History in the BSU. He was the one to initiate the establishment of the Department and headed it till the end of his life.
Scientific interests of L. S. Abetsedarsky focused on the period of the second part of XVI–XVII cent. on Belarusian lands. He was studying Russian- Belarusian relations, anti-feudal struggle of the masses and particularly the uprising of the middle of XVII cent., the events of the war between Russia and Rzeczpospolita of 1654–1667, Cossack movement and other socio-economic and other socio-political issues of that period. Dissertations and major monographs of the scholar were dedicated to these topics: «The struggle of the Ukrainian and Belarusian people for reunification with Russia in the middle of XVII century» (1954), «Belarus and Russia: Essays on Russian-Belarusian relations of the second half of XVI–XVII centuries» (1978), collection of documents «Russian-Belarusian Relations (1570–1667)» (1963). Contemporary researchers consider The book «Belarusians in Moscow of XVII century» (1957) is considered to be the most significant L. S. Abetsedarsky’s contribution to historical science. This publication provides valuable information about migration of the Belarusians to Moscow and Zamoskovny kraj and the role they played in the development of the culture of Moscow. In total L. S. Abetsedarsky has published more than 50 scientific and popular works.
L. S. Abetsedarsky took part as an author and scientific editor in the edition of the major summarizing soviet publications of post-war period on Belarusian history: «History of the Belarusian SSR» (Vol. 1–2. 1954–1958); «History of the Belarusian SSR» (Vol. 1–2, 1961); «History of the Belarusian SSR» (Vol. 1–5, 1972–1975). He was the head of the authors team and changeless editor of the tutorial on history of the BSSR for secondary school, published 13 times during the life of the author. He lectured in the Warsaw University, took part in XIII International congress of historians. L. S. Abetsedarsky was toughly arguing with Belarusian foreign researchers («In the light of irrefutable facts», Minsk, 1969; as an answer – P. Urban «In the light of historical facts», Munich, New York, 1972), was actively defending soviet points of view on historical past of Belarus in reviews and journalistic presentations and was toughly criticized because of this in the press during Perestroika time. Moreover, he was the one, who was blamed for all the disadvantages of Belarusian historiography. Now the personality and the real contribution of L. S. Abetsedarsky in science are evaluated in more tolerant way.
