Famous Belarusian Historian-Germanist D. S. Klimovsky was born in the Briansk region (Russia) in a peasant family. In the age of 12 he was accepted as a foster pupil to a railway regiment. After receiving secondary education he had entered the Smolensk electrotechnical school, but didn’t finish it. D. S. Klimovsky chose a way of the officer and continued study in the Ulyanovsk Military College of Communication.
He received «lieutenant» rank on June 10, 1941. 12 days later the Great Patriotic War began. Throughout the whole war D. S. Klimovsky was in field army, where he had passed a way from the commander of a platoon to the assistant chief of the staff. His combat career began in the South-Western Front, continued in the Volkhov, Leningrad, III and II Baltic, II and I Belarusian fronts. Officer was wounded three times, but after hospital always was back in the army. For his courage he was awarded the Order of Red Star, two Patriotic War Orders of I degree, medals.
After the Victory D. S. Klimovsky was serving in the group of Soviet forces in Germany for some years. Then he was transferred to Belarus: first in Minsk, then in Vitebsk. He chose a civil profession and entered the correspondence department of the Faculty of History of the BSU.
In 1954 D. S. Klimovsky retired f rom army with the rank of Major and began working in Minsk in the Republican Scientific-Methodical Cabinet of Cultural and Educational Work.
In 1956 he received the diploma of the historian and started postgraduate studies. Professor G. M. Trukhnov, one of the leading Germanists of the BSU, a specialist in German history of the 1920s, became his scientific adviser. Under his influence the main direction of scientific research of D. S. Klimovsky was determined: German-Polish relations between the two world wars.
In 1962 D. S. Klimovsky visited Moscow to work with the documents from the Archives of Foreign Policy. This visit was of high importance for his PhD research, as his hypotheses have found documental confirmation. On finishing postgraduate studies D. S. Klimovsky started to work at the Department of Modern and Contemporary History.
In 1964 he defended his PhD thesis «The German-Polish Treaty of 1934», which emphasized that the Treaty not only set up all of Poland’s foreign policy, but had become a «Trojan horse» that led the country to disaster of 1939.
In 1967 D. S. Klimovsky presented his report «German-Polish rapprochement in 1933» during All-Union Symposium «Drang nach Osten» and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe».
In the next decade the problem of German-Polish relations remained in the field of his scientific interests. This field was expanding constantly; that is not surprising if to consider that the German-Polish relations had become a detonator for the beginning of the World War II. Years of research culminated in the publication of the monograph «Germany and Poland in the Locarno system of European relations» in 1975. The research pointed that the Locarno system gave Germany an excuse to raise the question of the revision of the Polish border. Moreover, Germany has received favorable international legal formula to «return» the Polish Corridor and the Polish part of Silesia. It was stressed, that pliability of the Polish ruling circles was increasing with the rise of German pressure.
In 1975 he visited Poland, where he was giving lectures on the modern history o f Western Europe and the USA for s tudents o f the Jagiellonian University in Krakow.
In 1977 he defended his doctoral thesis. Following this Assistant Professor D. S. Klimovsky was recommended to be elected the Head of the Ancient and Medieval History Department.
In 1979, D. S. Klimovsky was awarded the degree of Doctor of Historical Sciences, in 1980 – the title of Professor.
While heading the Ancient and Medieval History Department, he addressed the the «Drang nach Osten» issues, this time – in the Middle Ages.
