The Vitebsk Museum of Minay Shmyrev and the State Museum of Tatarstan will jointly restore unknown pages of the war

November 10, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA /. An agreement on cooperation between the Museum named after Hero of the Soviet Union Minay Shmyrev and the State Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan was signed today in Vitebsk, BELTA correspondent reports. This agreement will contribute to closer work of the two cultural institutions in restoring unknown pages of the Great Patriotic War, expressed confidence in a conversation with a BELTA correspondent, director of the Minay Shmyrev Museum Irina Shishkova. In particular, Vitebsk museum staff will gain access to archival materials, which will allow for a more complete reconstruction of the history of the participation of Tatarstan military personnel as part of Belarusian partisan detachments during the Great Patriotic War. An event of particular significance for the Tatar people and the peoples of the Volga region took place in the Vitebsk region in 1943. On the night of February 22-23, 1943, soldiers of the 825th battalion of the "Idel-Ural" legion, created by the Nazis from prisoners of war, defected to the Belarusian partisans, Irina Shishkova recalled. Five years ago, the names of only five Tatarstan partisans were known; today, this list includes almost 170 names. However, about 800 legionaries defected to the partisans at that time. An exhibition dedicated to this still little-studied topic opened at the museum today. A delegation from Tatarstan attended the opening, which included war veterans who participated in the liberation of Belarus from the Nazi invaders. -0-