The Museum of Honorary Citizens of the City Opened in Vitebsk

May 18, Vitebsk / Olga Bogacheva - BELTA /. The Museum of Honorary Citizens of the City was opened today in Vitebsk at Secondary School No. 12, the head of the museum, Elena Movsesyan, told a BELTA correspondent. The museum has about 200 exhibits - personal belongings, books, photographs, and documents of honorary citizens of Vitebsk, donated by their relatives. Students and school representatives have managed to collect a rather extensive collection representing the history of awarding the title since its approval in 1964, when the legendary partisan Minay Shmyrev, Fyodor Blokhin, Maria Matsenko, and Valery Kondratenko became honorary citizens of Vitebsk, up to the present time. Visitors will find it interesting here, as each stand will introduce them to people whose biographies are most closely connected with Vitebsk, its post-war recovery, cultural life, and sports achievements. For example, the museum keeps a pocket watch and a printout of the role of the city governor, played by People's Artist of Belarus and the USSR Fyodor Shmakov in Gogol's play "The Inspector General." A place of honor is occupied by the ribbon of Honorary Citizen of the City awarded to the Honored Builder of the BSSR Nikolai Medvedsky. Undoubtedly, exhibits related to honorary citizens of the city Mikhail Titov, Valentina Tereshkova, Ivan Ludnikov, Afanasy Beloborodov, and many other famous people whose names are now borne by the streets of Vitebsk will attract attention. Currently, the title of Honorary Citizen of Vitebsk has been awarded to 49 people. Together with the students, the teachers of Secondary School No. 12 hope to collect information about each of them. It is noteworthy that next to the museum, there is a stand with photographs of students who have achieved high results in their studies and whom the school is proud of. As the museum creators hope, such a neighborhood will become a symbol for all the children that each of them, for their merits, can be inscribed in the history not only of their school but also of their native city. A total of about 200 school museums operate in the Vitebsk region, according to the education department of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee. -0-