A unified register of monuments and burials will be created in the Vitebsk region
A unified register of memorials, monuments, and military burial sites related to the Great Patriotic War will be created by March 2020 in the Vitebsk region, as reported by the regional Council of Deputies.
In the Vitebsk region, work continues to perpetuate the memory of those who died in the Great Patriotic War and to preserve military burial sites. Organizations, enterprises, and educational institutions have been assigned responsibility for them. However, there is a category of monuments that has remained outside the legal framework of Decree No. 109 "On Perpetuating the Memory of Those Who Died in Defense of the Fatherland and Preserving the Memory of War Victims." This category includes monuments such as "Vitebsk Gate," the monument to Minay Shmyrev in the regional center and his executed children in Surazh, Vitebsk region, the Hero of the Soviet Union Anatoly Uglovsky, the Mound of Friendship in the Verkhnedvinsk region, memorial signs at the sites of burned villages, and others.
Local authorities are tidying up these sites, but they are not subject to state registration. It is planned that industry trade unions of the region will take responsibility for similar monuments.
The Chairman of the Vitebsk Regional Council of Deputies, Vladimir Terentyev, has instructed the heads of local legislative authorities to prepare, following the example of the Vitebsk district, where this work is carried out by Nikolai Pivovar, a teacher at the Vitebsk Cadet School, Candidate of Historical Sciences, and a deputy of the district council, registers of monuments, memorials, and military burial sites related to the Great Patriotic War. By March 2020, it is planned to create a unified list for the entire region. The Vitebsk region has 1450 military burial sites where approximately 413,000 soldiers are interred. Over the past year, the names of about 10,000 fallen soldiers from the war years have become known.