A new head of the Vitebsk Regional Veterans Organization has been elected

Sergey Olsevich has been elected head of the regional organization of the Belarusian Public Association of Veterans at the VIII reporting and election conference.

Today, 1,134 primary organizations unite more than 277,000 people, including 2,105 war veterans, of whom 308 are war invalids and 1,407 are combatants. Veterans participate in all socially significant matters, whether it be the elections of the President of Belarus, events in honor of the 70th anniversary of the Great Victory, or the upbringing of youth in the best domestic traditions, and the perpetuation of the memory of the defenders of the Motherland.

On the territory of the Vitebsk region, there are more than 2.5 thousand sites of military glory, memorial complexes, monuments, military burials, and places of mass death of the civilian population. In 1,243 military burial sites lie 390 thousand defenders of the Fatherland, of whom the names of 206 thousand are yet to be identified. Veterans invariably act as public controllers of the condition of these sacred places. In preparation for the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Belarus from the Nazi invaders and the 70th anniversary of the Great Victory, 45 new monuments and memorial plaques were installed. For example, in Vitebsk, a memorial plaque in honor of the Hero of the Soviet Union Leonid Filipenko was unveiled, and in Liozno, an Alley of Glory was opened.

A trilateral cooperation agreement has been concluded between the regional veterans' organization, the regional trade union association, and the regional organization of the BRSM. Ties with the veterans' organization of the neighboring Smolensk region are being strengthened. Annually, a meeting of Great Patriotic War veterans from Belarus, Russia, and Latvia is held at the Mound of Friendship.

The social protection of veterans is characterized by positive dynamics. In the hospital in Yurtsevo, Orsha district alone, hundreds of invalids and participants of the Great Patriotic War, former prisoners of Nazi concentration camps, and internationalist soldiers undergo rehabilitation annually.

Among the 21 district veteran organizations, the best are: Polotsk, led by the laureate of the regional award "Person of the Year of Vitebsk Region" Galina Muravey, Orsha, headed by Zinaida Khaychenko, and Dubrovno, where Raisa Stalchenko is the chairperson. Among the 7 industry-specific organizations, the Vitebsk branch of Belarusian Railways, law enforcement agencies, and others are notable. The activities of several activists of the regional veteran movement have been highly appreciated, including with state awards.

The delegates' attention was also drawn to shortcomings in the work. The accounting of veterans is not well-established everywhere, forms of work with them have not been defined, and cooperation between primary veteran organizations and educational and cultural institutions has not been organized. This needs to be corrected when carrying out further tasks. And the veteran movement of the Vitebsk region has responsible ones. These include developing motivation for membership in primary organizations, expanding the exchange of best practices, strengthening volunteer ranks, and continuing the work of preserving the memory of those who died for the Motherland and patriotic education of the younger generation.

At the conference, a new composition of the council of the regional organization of the Belarusian Public Association of Veterans was elected, headed by reserve Colonel Sergey Olsevich, as well as 30 delegates to the similar VIII Republican Conference.

Galina Shpakovskaya, "Vitebskiye vesti".