The shawl was made in 1941 by 10-year-old Ela Baranówna, who was in exile in the village of Ust’-Silga, located in the taiga on the Vasyugan river. The girl was looking after the baby of a local nurse, for which she received fluffy, white cotton wool. Ela decided to make practical use of it – she used a hand spindle to twist a thread out of it, which she then twisted into a yarn. She decorated the scarf in the shape of a triangle with a lace pattern made of crochet, and her mother added blue dots made of threads taken from Poland

After returning to the country, years of education and the change of the name of prof. Ela Smułkowa became the first ambassador of the Republic of Poland to the Republic of Belarus.