Gennady Egorov spoke about honoring the memory of the Great Patriotic War soldiers in the Vitebsk region
The work, regulated by the State Program for Perpetuating the Memory of Fatherland Defenders and Victims of Wars, is organized systematically in the region. Issues concerning the reconstruction, restoration, repair, and landscaping of military burial sites, cemeteries, mass and individual graves, memorial complexes, and monuments of military glory are under constant control.
This is the subject of our conversation with Gennady Egorov, Head of the Main Department of Ideological Work and Youth Affairs of the Regional Executive Committee.
– Preliminary results were summarized by May 9th. They were preceded by a monitoring of the condition of sites related to the events of the Great Patriotic War in Beshenkovichi, Braslav, Vitebsk, Dokshitsy, Dubrovno, Lepel, Liozno, Orsha, Senno, and Chashniki districts. Special organizing committees and working groups operating locally took the necessary measures to rectify the shortcomings identified during the inspection. Furthermore, in conjunction with the commission from the Department for Perpetuating the Memory of Fatherland Defenders and Victims of Wars of the Ministry of Defense, led by Colonel Sergey Voronovich, a monitoring of military burial sites in Liozno was conducted. They are in satisfactory condition, with current repairs carried out on most of them, and the adjacent territories have been landscaped.
– It is likely that in each district of the region, with the assistance of executive and representative authorities, new striking examples of perpetuating the memory of Fatherland defenders have emerged?
– This is especially noticeable in regions where the bloodiest battles of the Great Patriotic War took place. For example, in preparation for the significant anniversary, an Alley of Heroes of the Soviet Union, featuring eight monuments, was solemnly opened in Verkhnedvinsk. In the Park of Military Glory in Dubrovno, memorial signs were erected in honor of local natives, Heroes of the Soviet Union Ivan Avekov and Alexey Gabrussev. A new monument has been installed at the military burial site in the village of Tereshki, Lepel district. In the agro-town of Stasevo, Liozno district, a billboard was installed as a signpost to the only officers' cemetery in the republic. In the village of Khotemlya, a signpost to a mass military burial site was erected. The remains of front-line radio operator, Senior Sergeant Elizaveta Nikishina, were reburied from a forest grave to the civilian cemetery in the agro-town of Tsvetino, Miory district. There are many such examples.
– Who, besides work collectives, is involved in immortalizing the memory of fallen heroes and maintaining order at memorial sites? Which organizations can be highlighted?
– Trade unions, the deputy corps, members of "Belaya Rus", BRSM, veteran formations, the Belarusian Union of Officers, schoolchildren, and students actively participate in labor campaigns and subbotniks (volunteer workdays) for improvement.
For instance, on the initiative of Vitebsk deputies, a new alley was planted in front of the "5th Regiment" memorial complex in Vitebsk. In Chashniki district, with the participation of the district trade union association, pine trees were planted on the Alley of Memory and Sorrow in the village of Zarechnaya Sloboda. The region's trade unions provided sponsorship for the reconstruction of a military burial site in Braslav, where the remains of 1073 Soviet soldiers and officers rest in a mass grave.
The regional organization of the Belarusian Peace Fund has also accomplished many good deeds. These include the creation and installation of the decorative sculpture "Children of Peace – Children of War" in Miory, and a memorial plaque in honor of soldiers who died on the territory of the Moshkanskoye rural council, Senno district. Memorial plaques dedicated to internationalist soldiers Vladimir Shestakov and Viktor Korotkevich were replaced on the building of the Oktyabrskaya basic school in Vitebsk district, and for Evgeny Denisov – on the building of the Zhuknevo kindergarten – basic school in Tolochin district.
– And what has been done recently on private initiative?
– People from various places join the noble cause by the call of their hearts. This is also the strength of our memory of the heroic events of our country's history.
Here are some examples from the Liozno district. The memorial complex "Adamenskaya Gorka" in the district center was reconstructed with funds from a resident of Russia, the niece of a soldier buried here. Vasily Golubovsky, Chairman of the Vitebsk City Organization of Veterans of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, at his own expense, installed a memorial sign in his native village of Rublevo-2 in honor of those who died for its liberation. Villagers who remember those battles were present at the opening. Thanks to Vasily Alekseevich and another well-known enthusiast – Anatoly Burdo, head of the Vitebsk youth public association "Military-Patriotic Club "Poisk" – a monument was erected to Mitrofan Pitenin, the first full Cavalier of the Order of Glory, a native of the Ryazan region, buried in the village of Star'. The hero's children came to the monument's opening.
By the way, on June 6, the reburial of the remains of 36 Soviet soldiers, recently discovered by soldiers of the 52nd Search Battalion of the Ministry of Defense, will take place in Star'. Based on the surviving awards and items, the names of three have already been identified: Borisov Fyodor Fyodorovich, Demichev, Opekаlovsky Rostislav Alexandrovich. Relatives of the latter are preparing to come from Moscow for the solemn ceremony.
When it comes to those missing in action on the battlefield, the following lines involuntarily come to mind:
“No candle to light for the living, and no soul to remember.
I was given the trial – to be neither dead nor alive.
And, soaring into the embrace of eternity, like birds over the river,
We went missing in battle, finding no rest in the earth.”
The grief of mothers who did not wait for their children from the war has become a heavy burden on the destinies of their descendants. I sincerely share these feelings. My maternal grandmother, Agafya Efimovna Koroleva, who raised seven children, sent five sons to the front. They died. This is the pain of our entire family. Moreover, for many years, the burial places of the Korolev brothers were unknown. Only recently it was established that Ivan found his final resting place in the Babinichsky village council of the Liozno district, and Nikanor – in the Rudnyansky district of the Smolensk region. There is still no information about the others.
It is gratifying that the generation of great-grandchildren has joined the search for soldiers who died for Victory. And even though the time has passed when on May 9th, festive tables were laid out right on the streets of villages, with former front-line soldiers and partisans seated in the most honorable places, this holiday remains the main one in all corners of our homeland.
– Gennady Mikhailovich, what projects to perpetuate the memory of the Fatherland's defenders in the Vitebsk region will be timed to coincide with the anniversary?
– Undoubtedly, the immediate priority is the large-scale celebration of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Belarus and Independence Day. Tribute will be paid to known and unknown heroes. In this regard, for example, near the village of Grishino, Rossony district, after major repairs, a monument at the mass grave where 600 soldiers and partisans are buried will be opened on July 3rd, and after reconstruction – a military burial site in the village of Gorodnyansky Mokh, Vitebsk district.
In the agro-town of Osveya, Verkhnedvinsk district, the largest military burial site in the region is being repaired, with over 100 new names of fallen soldiers to be engraved on the slabs. A solemn reburial of the remains of Arseniy Arzhanyk, a local soldier who died near Leningrad, is expected there.
Slabs are being manufactured for the "Rylenkі" memorial complex in the Dubrovno district, on which 9402 names of liberator soldiers are to be engraved.
After the anniversary, the work to perpetuate the memory will undoubtedly continue. Due to the accessibility of many archives, the Department of Ideological Work and Youth Affairs of the Regional Executive Committee receives numerous inquiries, both by regular and electronic mail, regarding the search for data about relatives who died in battles for the Vitebsk region. The names of more than half of them are still unknown. It is our common duty to rectify this. After all, it is not for nothing that it is said that the war is not over until the last soldier missing in action on the battlefield is found and buried.