Enthusiasts from Luzhesno are searching for unrecorded burials in the Vitebsk region
Every Sunday is a time for hikes for the participants of the "Dvina" patriotic club of the Vitebsk Cadet School. In any season, they set off with their teacher Nikolai Pivovar to places associated with the Great Patriotic War. Since 2020, searchers have entered over two thousand new names of those who died in the Great Patriotic War into their database.
— We study information from archives, old newspapers, and eyewitness accounts, — clarifies Zakhar Ovchinnikov, a 11th-grade cadet and a member of the club. — For example, I compared data with that found in the Book of Memory of the Vitebsk region. You quickly realize that behind each number are people and their fates.
Nikolai Pivovar.
— For me, the search began near Mazolovo — with an inconspicuous, overgrown grave with a red star… Most likely, a monument not included in any registry was erected by a local resident, with the inscription: "Eternal memory to the heroes who fell in the battles for the Soviet Motherland." Then came more. It turned out that while there was some information about military burials, there was almost no information about the final resting place of civilian victims.
Nikolai Pivovar set a goal: to fill in the blanks. Enthusiasts from Luzhesno search for unrecorded graves in the Vitebsk region, tidy them up, and install plaques. Since 2018, they have managed to bring 120 burials back from oblivion.
Olga Stolnikova, a 17-year-old club member, is convinced:
— A tragedy that is forgotten can be repeated. And today, we don't have to look far for examples. I have a personal interest in the search work. Three brothers of my great-grandmother went to the partisans. One of them went missing. Every time I go on a hike, I make a wish: maybe in the middle of the forest, we will find not someone else's, but his grave...
Ilya Mandrov's great-grandfathers both reached Berlin. The cadet himself dreams of becoming an officer and, together with "Dvina," promotes the idea of creating a memorial in the Vitebsk region to commemorate villages that were wiped off the face of the earth by the fascists:
— Where is the delegation from, the cadet school? Future officers, defenders of the Motherland? Well done! I'm always happy to talk to young people.
Veteran Sergey Dedov shares his memories with the cadets.
Upon learning the purpose of the visit, he nods in agreement, saying it's a necessary cause: there are fewer and fewer living witnesses to fascist atrocities – we must hurry.
When the war began, Dedov was seven years old. His native village of Kanashi in the Gorodok districtfascists turned to ashes… Those who were left alive were sent to a place filled with pain and death on the outskirts of Vitebsk — the concentration camp "5th Regiment". Bitter memories still burn the heart even after so many years. The truth is much scarier than fiction, sighs a former child prisoner:
— Hunger, cold, a wild, throat-clenching fear — we had our fill of all this. One day, the Germans lined up the residents of Kanashi and ordered them to point out those whose relatives were partisans. One of the villagers lost her nerve and gave away a boy whose sister was treating soldiers in the detachment. The unfortunate boy was immediately mowed down by a machine gun...
The cadets listen with bated breath. When the narrator pauses, the children can't help but ask:
— Grandpa, and then what?!
And then came a real miracle. At the moment when the boy fell to the ground as if struck down, a flare was fired from a neighboring village — the partisans diverted the fascists' attention. The bullets did not hit the boy's vital organs. His sister, who arrived in time to help, was able to nurse her brother back to health. This saved person was Vasily Ivanovich Shchemelev, who later became the chairman of the local village executive committee. Sergey Dedov can no longer name the other fellow countrywoman who was born under a lucky star:
— I only know that after the war she worked as a master for tree tapping. And she was from the village of Nizkiye, which the monsters burned down along with the people.
The fascists herded them all into a barn where hay was stored, and, laughing, took out matches. At the last moment, someone pushed the thin, deathly frightened girl through a narrow opening in the wall. Sergey Vasilyevich recalls that there should be a monument on the site of the village burned to the ground:
— Whether it exists, and in what condition, I would like to know.
Nikolai Pivovar reassures him:
— You've come to the right place. As soon as we have the opportunity, we will visit those parts and come back with a report.
There are enough stories for more than one day, we inviteт Sergey Dedov:
The efforts of enthusiasts from Luzhesno were appreciated at the republican level. In the spring of last year, they were invited to Minsk to meet with the Prosecutor General of Belarus, Andrei Shved. He was greatly impressed when he learned about the scale of the very important and necessary work done by the cadets and their teacher.
"SB" - Belarus Today, text by Anna NAUMOVA, photos by Anton STEPANISHCHEV.
— We study information from archives, old newspapers, and eyewitness accounts, — clarifies Zakhar Ovchinnikov, a 11th-grade cadet and a member of the club. — For example, I compared data with that found in the Book of Memory of the Vitebsk region. You quickly realize that behind each number are people and their fates.
I clearly remember the first time I couldn't sleep. According to the lists, there were six of them, not people with the same surname, but members of the same family. Father, mother, four children, the youngest of whom was two months old — the fascists killed them all. As long as your heart beats, such a thing cannot leave you indifferent.
Route Planned
The "Dvina" club of the Vitebsk Cadet School has many directions: natural, historical, ecological, and military-patriotic. The latter received a new impetus in 2021 with the initiation of a criminal case regarding the genocide of the Belarusian people. Military-patriotic work in Luzhesno, where the school is located, has been ongoing for about 30 years, clarifies Nikolai Pivovar, an associate professor and candidate of historical sciences, who has been teaching history here for the same amount of time. The echo of the war has always been nearby, he notes:Nikolai Pivovar.
— For me, the search began near Mazolovo — with an inconspicuous, overgrown grave with a red star… Most likely, a monument not included in any registry was erected by a local resident, with the inscription: "Eternal memory to the heroes who fell in the battles for the Soviet Motherland." Then came more. It turned out that while there was some information about military burials, there was almost no information about the final resting place of civilian victims.
Nikolai Pivovar set a goal: to fill in the blanks. Enthusiasts from Luzhesno search for unrecorded graves in the Vitebsk region, tidy them up, and install plaques. Since 2018, they have managed to bring 120 burials back from oblivion.
Olga Stolnikova, a 17-year-old club member, is convinced:
— A tragedy that is forgotten can be repeated. And today, we don't have to look far for examples. I have a personal interest in the search work. Three brothers of my great-grandmother went to the partisans. One of them went missing. Every time I go on a hike, I make a wish: maybe in the middle of the forest, we will find not someone else's, but his grave...
Ilya Mandrov's great-grandfathers both reached Berlin. The cadet himself dreams of becoming an officer and, together with "Dvina," promotes the idea of creating a memorial in the Vitebsk region to commemorate villages that were wiped off the face of the earth by the fascists:
— According to the National Archives of Belarus, 503 villages in the Vitebsk region were burned down during the war. And we found out that there were even more of them – 608. Not everyone, especially elderly people, can travel to "Khatyn" to pay their respects. Why not create a smaller version of this complex somewhere near Vitebsk? It must include QR codes that will lead to the history of the destroyed settlement and its inhabitants.For now, all this data is only available in the book published through Pivovar's efforts. It is important that, in addition to digital codes, it also contains the coordinates of each burial site. So that people not only remember but can also find them years later.
"You've come to the right place"
In a house with a carved pediment on Mykhas Lynkov Street in Luzhesno, the cadets are expected. The owner, 89-year-old Sergey Dedov, comes out to meet them. On his dress jacket are medals for labor, and in his eyes is genuine interest. Dedov, who once served in the Navy, speaks as if reporting:— Where is the delegation from, the cadet school? Future officers, defenders of the Motherland? Well done! I'm always happy to talk to young people.
Veteran Sergey Dedov shares his memories with the cadets.Upon learning the purpose of the visit, he nods in agreement, saying it's a necessary cause: there are fewer and fewer living witnesses to fascist atrocities – we must hurry.
When the war began, Dedov was seven years old. His native village of Kanashi in the Gorodok districtfascists turned to ashes… Those who were left alive were sent to a place filled with pain and death on the outskirts of Vitebsk — the concentration camp "5th Regiment". Bitter memories still burn the heart even after so many years. The truth is much scarier than fiction, sighs a former child prisoner:
— Hunger, cold, a wild, throat-clenching fear — we had our fill of all this. One day, the Germans lined up the residents of Kanashi and ordered them to point out those whose relatives were partisans. One of the villagers lost her nerve and gave away a boy whose sister was treating soldiers in the detachment. The unfortunate boy was immediately mowed down by a machine gun...
The cadets listen with bated breath. When the narrator pauses, the children can't help but ask:
— Grandpa, and then what?!
And then came a real miracle. At the moment when the boy fell to the ground as if struck down, a flare was fired from a neighboring village — the partisans diverted the fascists' attention. The bullets did not hit the boy's vital organs. His sister, who arrived in time to help, was able to nurse her brother back to health. This saved person was Vasily Ivanovich Shchemelev, who later became the chairman of the local village executive committee. Sergey Dedov can no longer name the other fellow countrywoman who was born under a lucky star:
— I only know that after the war she worked as a master for tree tapping. And she was from the village of Nizkiye, which the monsters burned down along with the people.
The fascists herded them all into a barn where hay was stored, and, laughing, took out matches. At the last moment, someone pushed the thin, deathly frightened girl through a narrow opening in the wall. Sergey Vasilyevich recalls that there should be a monument on the site of the village burned to the ground:
— Whether it exists, and in what condition, I would like to know.
Nikolai Pivovar reassures him:
— You've come to the right place. As soon as we have the opportunity, we will visit those parts and come back with a report.
There are enough stories for more than one day, we inviteт Sergey Dedov:
— It is also very important that there are people to listen to these stories. Thank you, guys, for what you are doing — for your attention, for your memory, for the truth! Come again.BY THE WAY
The efforts of enthusiasts from Luzhesno were appreciated at the republican level. In the spring of last year, they were invited to Minsk to meet with the Prosecutor General of Belarus, Andrei Shved. He was greatly impressed when he learned about the scale of the very important and necessary work done by the cadets and their teacher.
"SB" - Belarus Today, text by Anna NAUMOVA, photos by Anton STEPANISHCHEV.