Mali. Monument to Joseph Goshkevich.

If you want to visit an exotic place, then you need to go... to Mali in the Ostrovets district. The exotic name of an ordinary Belarusian village. And once there was a manor house here, where the outstanding Belarusian and Russian scientist and researcher Joseph Goshkevich (1814-1875) lived.

A few years ago, a memorial boulder with a bas-relief of I. Goshkevich was erected in the center of the village near the local House of Culture and school. The memorial sign was made by the famous Belarusian sculptor Richard Grusha.

I. Goshkevich is a Russian diplomat, researcher of China and Japan, linguist, orientalist and naturalist. He was born in Rechitsky district of Minsk province. My father was an Orthodox priest. He entered the Minsk Theological Seminary, and then in St. Petersburg at the Theological Academy.

He was sent as part of a spiritual mission to China in Beijing. He studied Japanese, Korean and Chinese languages. He collected a collection of insects, studied astronomy and meteorology. With Goshkevich's participation, a treaty was signed between Russia and Japan in 1855.

He was captured by the British during the Crimean War. In captivity, he compiled the first Japanese-Russian dictionary. Then he returned to Russia. He was sent to work in Japan as the first Russian consul.

Goshkevich is one of the first foreigners in Japan who was allowed to visit the court of the shogun, the ruler of Japan.

After his retirement, he returned to Belarus and lived in an estate in the village of Mali, where he continued to study science and philology. 

I. Goshkevich published the first Japanese-Russian dictionary in Russia, the scientist was awarded the medal of the Academy of Sciences and the Demidov Prize.

He died in Mali in 1875. He was buried in Ostrovets.