The M. Shmyrev Museum is organizing a series of exhibitions about partisans - honorary citizens of Vitebsk for the 65th anniversary of Victory

January 22, Vitebsk / Sergey Kochetov - BELTA /. The Vitebsk Regional Museum of Hero of the Soviet Union Minay Shmyrev plans to implement an exhibition project dedicated to honorary citizens of Vitebsk - participants of the partisan movement, timed to the 65th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War. The director of the museum, Irina Shishkova, told a BELTA correspondent about this. The first title of honorary citizen of Vitebsk was awarded to the legendary partisan brigade commander Minay Shmyrev in 1964. This fact prompted museum staff to study the lives of citizens whose merits were also marked by the awarding of the honorary title. The project provides for the organization of a series of exhibitions with materials about the life and combat path of people who actively participated in the organization of resistance to the Nazi invaders in the region during the war. "Our museum is turning to the topic of honorary citizens of Vitebsk for the first time in its exhibition activities, and the project will become a kind of visual summary of the research work of our employees," emphasized Irina Shishkova. The first, personal, exhibition of the project will open in February and will be dedicated to Vera Semenovna Kulagina, who led one of the groups of Vitebsk underground fighters. The exposition will include archival documents, photographs from the museum's collections, as well as materials from family archives. The authors of the exhibition will try not only to present the life path of the distinguished person, but also to show how the fate of women unfolded during the war, what role they played in this period of the country's life, noted Irina Shishkova. The museum's immediate plans also include organizing exhibitions dedicated to partisan brigade commanders Daniil Raytsev, Mikhail Biryulin, Nikolai Sakmarkin, as well as active participants in the partisan and underground movement Mikhail Titov, Maria Matsenko, and the Bulgarian Dobrin Dimitrov, who fought in the brigade of Batka Minay and was also awarded the title of honorary citizen of Vitebsk. The Memorial Museum of the partisan commander of the brigade, Hero of the Soviet Union Minay Filippovich Shmyrev (partisan pseudonym Batka Minay), was opened on July 5, 1969, during the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the liberation of Belarus from the Nazi invaders. Four exhibition halls are dedicated to various stages of the life of the legendary partisan brigade commander. On the territory of the park zone with an area of about 0.5 hectares, a sculptural bust of Minay Shmyrev by People's Artist of the USSR Zair Azgur is installed, and an oak alley planted by former participants of the partisan movement is located. -0-