Grandchildren of fallen soldiers and veterans from Belarus and Russia unveiled a monument to the soldiers of the 251st Division near Vitebsk

July 2, Vitebsk / Sergey Kochetov - BELTA /. The opening ceremony of a monument to the soldiers of the 251st Rifle Division who died during the liberation of Vitebsk took place today in the Vitebsk region with the participation of grandchildren of fallen soldiers and veterans of the division from Belarus and Russia. Anatoly Burdo, chairman of the Vitebsk youth public association "Military-Patriotic Club "Poisk" (Search), informed a BELTA correspondent about this. The participation of the 251st Rifle Division in the operation to liberate Vitebsk deserves special attention, which is why the club has been searching for materials about the unit and relatives of fallen servicemen for about 20 years, the chairman of the association noted. As a result, it was the grandchildren of the fallen soldiers who initiated the creation of the monument and found the financial resources for it. The monument was manufactured in Russia, and Vitebsk activists installed it and landscaped the area of the memorial site. To participate in the solemn ceremony, Kapitolina Vasilinenko, chairman of the Division Veterans Council, holder of the Order of the Red Star, and Alexander Vlasov, a veteran of the unit, holder of the Order of Lenin, Candidate of Technical Sciences, as well as families of grandchildren of fallen soldiers from Moscow and Lipetsk, arrived from Moscow. In addition, heads of search clubs from the CIS countries, who are on a trip to the sites of Operation Bagration, arrived in Vitebsk specifically for the opening of the monument. The location of the monument - the village of Sharki in the Vitebsk region - was not chosen by chance: the most fierce battles took place there from June 17 to 21, 1944. The 39th Army, which included the division, was tasked with conducting combat reconnaissance of enemy firing points. The division's units went in almost blind against what turned out to be well-fortified enemy positions, Anatoly Burdo noted. During this period, the division's losses amounted to about 1.2 thousand people. Most of the fallen were reburied in the post-war period, in the 1990s, thanks to the active work of Vitebsk searchers. A people's museum of military glory of the Vitebsk Red Banner Order of Suvorov 215th Rifle Division has been established at Vitebsk Vocational School No. 19, which houses the "Poisk" military-patriotic club. -0-