In the modern era, museums turned into demonstration sites where visitors were introduced to new products and established examples of the development of human thought. At their base, excursions, exhibitions and lectures by prominent scientists were held.
The first steps to create museums at educational institutions in Belarus were taken by Nikanor Kazimirovich Yaroshevich. The first rector of the Belarusian State Pedagogical Institute, who since July 1920 headed the cultural and educational department of the Commissariat of Agriculture of Belarus, initiated the opening of museums of agricultural tools in all surviving agricultural educational institutions. As a result, the organization of the museum and the collection of materials at the Polytechnic began, on the basis of which, on December 10, 1920, the country's first technical university was organized - the Belarusian State Polytechnic (since June 1921 - the Belarusian State Polytechnic Institute). Following modern educational standards, the BSPI continued work on creating a museum.
In September 1922, when the property of the Belarusian State Pedagogical Institute was transferred to the Belarusian Agricultural Institute, the museum of agricultural implements and the archive of drawings were also transferred. The BSHI Museum expanded its work by attracting departments. In 1925, an exhibition on mineralogy was opened. After the merger of agricultural universities into a single Belarusian Agricultural Academy, the most valuable part of the museum exhibits ended up in Gorki.
The traditions of the higher technical school were continued by the Belarusian Workers' College named after Trotsky, which was opened on the basis of the Belarusian State Pedagogical Institute in February 1921. After the reorganization of the Belarusian State Pedagogical Institute, the management of the technical school achieved the transfer of the institute's workshops and part of the museum exhibition to them. During the catastrophic lack of books, textbooks, paper and ink, museum exhibits came to the aid of both the teacher and the student.
In June 1924, the Belarusian Workers' College was reorganized into the Minsk Architectural and Road Construction College and the Hydrotechnical School began operating in the same building. In April 1928, a Polytechnic School was organized on their basis, within the walls of which the museum received a new lease of life. One of the organizers of the Belarusian State Pedagogical Institute, P.Z. Skonopnitz-Grabovsky, went to the Urals to collect materials in 1928 to replenish the mineralogical exhibition.
In 1930, the Polytechnic became the basis on which the revival of the Belarusian State Polytechnic Institute took place. Thus, the construction and road departments were transferred to the construction faculty of the Belarusian State Pedagogical Institute. But in July 1930, the policy in the field of higher education changed dramatically and independent institutes were opened on the basis of the faculties of the Belarusian State Pedagogical Institute.
In 1928, the BSSR raised the issue of the absence of a “very important museum of industry.” In the project for the building of the Scientific Research Institute of Industry at the Academy of Sciences of Belarus, which was discussed in 1932, it was planned to allocate a huge room for the museum. But, after the opening of the main educational building of the Belarusian State Pedagogical Institute in 1933, due to a number of deficiencies, lack of building materials and free premises for the educational process, the museum was apparently forgotten... The Great Patriotic War completely erased all previous developments.
In the course of establishing a peaceful life after the end of the Great Patriotic War, the initiative to preserve the historical memory of the glorious traditions of the first technical university of Belarus came not only from the leadership of the university, but also from its ordinary employees. Witnesses of the creation of the Belarusian State Pedagogical Institute in 1920 gradually passed away. The heroes of the Great Patriotic War were still in service, but where and how to keep their memory? Veterans asked this question and, on their initiative, in 1967, one of the first educational institutions, on the territory of the Polytechnic, opened an Obelisk in memory of workers and students who died during the Great Patriotic War. The tradition of preserving the memory of its heroes continues to this day. In 2018, a memorial sign was unveiled on the territory of BNTU in honor of the 55th anniversary of the construction brigade movement. In 2020, for the 100th anniversary of the alma mater, a sculptural exhibition “Student and Female Student of BNTU” was installed.
A graduate of the Belarusian State Pedagogical Institute, one of the first Stalin scholarship recipients in 1940, a participant in the war since 1941, who continued to work at the institute and became vice-rector N. A. Yurkshtovich initiated the opening of a hall in memory of the heroes of the Great Patriotic War in the 1960s. It took, however, some time to collect a sufficient number of exhibits, in which BNTU veteran teachers, graduates and their relatives took an active part, who donated their most valuable documents, awards, scientific works and personal belongings to the museum. The official opening of the BNTU museum took place on September 1, 1978. Armed Forces veteran I. M. Plahotniuc was appointed responsible for the work of the museum. Since that time, BNTU has had a center not only for the memory of its successes and achievements, but also a place where there is a corner of memory for every employee who, with their labors and victories, forges the world glory of the university.
In the 1990s, a laboratory assistant from the history department, Svetlana Nikolaevna Golubovich, was appointed responsible for the work of the museum. After the reorganization of the museum in 2003, Svetlana Nikolaevna was appointed to the position of head of the museum and was the keeper of the historical and cultural values of the museum for 20 years.
In 2023, Svetlana Gennadievna Dolyuk was appointed to the position of head of the BNTU History Museum.
