Video conference: Vitebsk region's participation in the International Memory Campaign "For the Glory of Our Common Victory!" was discussed
Speaking about the uniqueness of this event and the tasks defined by the republican organizing committee for its implementation, the Deputy Chairman of the regional executive committee, Vladimir Penin, urged representatives of interested parties to approach this grand project not formally, but responsibly. Together with local executive authorities, youth, veteran, volunteer and other public organizations, and military personnel will take part in it. Organizing committees are being created in the districts to coordinate actions.
The International commemorative event "For the Glory of the Common Victory!" is held as part of the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War, with the aim of civil-patriotic and moral education of the younger generation, and fostering an understanding of the foundations of modern statehood. The project sets a number of important tasks for the participants. These include preserving the memory of the soldiers who fell on the battlefields of the Great Patriotic War, and creating a unified archive of burials and the names of the fallen. Today, it is very relevant to comprehend the history of the most terrible war in human history in the context of national self-awareness, to give new impetus to public reconciliation, memory and commemoration, and to form a responsible attitude towards historical truth. As well as popularizing tourist routes associated with military-historical events in Belarus.
According to Gennady Egorov, Head of the Main Department of Ideological Work and Youth Affairs of the Regional Executive Committee, the event will be held in three stages. The first stage (until April 2020) provides for collecting soil from the burial sites of soldiers, civilians, and battlefields for eternal prayer remembrance, and preparing historical information. More than 1400 such burial sites are registered in the region. Significant systematic work is to be done to tidy them up by the Victory anniversary, to continue the search for unknown fallen soldiers, and to clarify the lists of the deceased. Participants of the event will gather information about the military events of 1941–1945 in settlements, and the contribution of fellow countrymen to the Great Victory. With the participation of representatives of public organizations, major religious denominations, residents, military personnel, youth, and schoolchildren, a solemn ceremony will be held in each district of Vitebsk region to place the soil collected from the burial sites into a single capsule decorated with the coat of arms and name of the district.
The second stage of the "In Glory of the Common Victory!" event – sending 23 capsules from Vitebsk region to Minsk – will start at a solemn regional event on April 24 next year, which will be held at the "Breakthrough" memorial complex in Ushachi district.
The third stage will take place in the capital on May 9, 2020, in the presence of heads of state, diplomatic missions, spiritual religious leaders, representatives of public organizations, and national-cultural associations. The culmination of the international event – a grand ceremony of laying more than 100 capsules with soil from all Belarusian memorial sites of the Great Patriotic War, as well as from countries bordering Belarus and memorial sites in the republics of the former Soviet Union particularly revered for those who fell during World War II – is expected in the crypt of the Church-Monument in honor of All Saints and in memory of the victims who served for the salvation of our Fatherland.
The native land, stained with the blood of fallen soldiers, is symbolic dust. The crypt will gather the spiritual panorama of the Great Patriotic War events in one space. Following the campaign, it is planned to publish a book-album, and the collected historical information will serve as the basis for the funds of the Crypt Museum of the Memorial Church. Thus, all those who achieved the common Victory in different combat zones of the Great Patriotic War will be reunited in the people's memory.