The Vitebsk Shmelyov Museum has for the first time presented an exhibition of military equipment models from a private collection

February 28, Vitebsk / Sergey Kochetov - BELTA /. About 30 models of military equipment formed the basis of the exhibition "Models of Military Equipment of the Great Patriotic War", which opened today at the Vitebsk Regional Museum of the Hero of the Soviet Union Minay Shmyrev. The museum director Irina Shishkova told a BELTA correspondent about this. The exhibition project is the result of cooperation between museum staff and Vitebsk model maker Dmitry Kirillov, who kindly provided models from his collection. Military-topographic maps of 1941-1944, made on the basis of maps from 1926-1936, were also used in the formation of the exposition. The exhibition is designed to provide an overview of the technical armament of the German troops, as well as to present Soviet equipment of the Great Victory. Among the exhibits, the model of the legendary KV-2 heavy tank stands out. According to Dmitry Kirillov, the prototype of the model is a tank knocked out during the defense of Vitebsk. The model maker found photographs of it in archival funds, and the model was assembled based on them. The M. Shmyrev Museum has prepared an exhibition jointly with a private collector for the first time, which makes the acquired cooperation experience, which may be useful in the future, even more valuable, noted Irina Shishkova. This exhibition opens a series of events dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. Throughout the year, the Vitebsk museum plans to organize a series of exhibitions, a scientific conference, and also hold a number of socio-cultural events related to this tragic date in history. 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. It includes 4 exhibition halls dedicated to various stages of the life of the legendary partisan brigade commander, as well as a park 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 in the park area, and an oak alley planted by former participants of the partisan movement is located there. In 2010, the Alley of Partisan Glory was created here in the form of an open-air exhibition recreation, recreating a partisan camp during the Great Patriotic War. As a result, the exposition of the museum and the park represent a single memorial complex dedicated to the partisan movement. The museum's collections hold about 9,000 items. The museum building was built at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. -0-