Participants of the cycling race will deliver a part of the Eternal Flame from the Mound of Glory to the Polotsk district
Cyclists will deliver a torch lit from the Eternal Flame at the "Kurgan Slavy" memorial complex to the Polotsk district on July 3, they informed a BELTA correspondent at the Polotsk District Executive Committee.
The "Fire of Liberation" cycling race will start in the district on July 1: 15 cyclists from Polotsk will travel to the Minsk region, where they will light a torch from the Eternal Flame at Kurgan Slavy, and plan to return to the Polotsk district with it on July 3. Along the route, the Polotsk residents will make stops near military graves and obelisks to honor the memory of heroes and lay flowers. In total, the participants of the cycling race will have to cover more than 500 km (the return journey will be made by the Polotsk residents with the lit torch).
On Independence Day, cyclists will deliver the fire to the Kurgan of Immortality (Polotsk district) and take part in the patriotic event "Belarus My Pride and Glory!". A rally with theatricalization and a solemn demonstration of the pennant "For Courage and Resilience during the Great Patriotic War," awarded to the city of Polotsk in 2009 by decree of the President, will be held at the memorial site. In addition, the "Alley of Burned Villages" campaign will take place at the Kurgan of Immortality: cadets and pioneers will represent settlements in the district that were burned by the Nazi invaders, and will light lamps in memory of the fallen. Honorary guests - liberators of Polotsk from Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine - are invited to the celebration.
In the Polotsk district, fascists burned down 53 villages (11 settlements were destroyed with all their inhabitants, 42 with part of the population). These villages were never rebuilt after the war. "For the residents of Polotsk region, the Great Patriotic War became a test of courage. 17 Polotsk residents were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Tatiana Marinenko, Zinaida Tusnolobova-Marchenko, Alexander Gorovets, Ivan Alekseev, Viktor Eronko, Stepan Pashkevich and others defended the freedom and independence of the country. The events at the Mound of Immortality are, first and foremost, a tribute of respect to the victorious warriors who, at the cost of enormous efforts and sacrifices, defended the freedom and independence of the country during the Great Patriotic War," the district executive committee emphasized.
Alena Tikhonova