An exhibition about the honorary citizen of Vitebsk D. Dimitrov will open by the City Liberation Day

June 23, Vitebsk / Sergey Kochetov - BELTA /. The Vitebsk Regional Museum of Hero of the Soviet Union Minay Shmyrev has prepared a personal exhibition about the honorary citizen of Vitebsk, Bulgarian Dobrin Dimitrov, for the Day of Liberation of the regional center, which will be celebrated on June 26. The director of the museum, Irina Shishkova, told a BELTA correspondent about this. The exhibition will be a continuation of the exhibition project dedicated to the honorary citizens of Vitebsk - participants of the Great Patriotic War, which is being implemented by the regional museum for the 65th anniversary of the Victory. Dobrin Dimitrov, a man of amazing destiny, was awarded this title in 1988 for his courage and heroism in the fight against the German-fascist invaders in the Vitebsk region and his active participation in the patriotic education of youth. During the war, he was the commissar of a special reconnaissance and sabotage group of the First Belarusian partisan brigade under the leadership of Minay Shmyrev. The exhibition will feature about 40 exhibits, including photographs and copies of personal documents, telling about Dobrin Dimitrov's combat path and his post-war activities. When forming the exhibition, materials from the museum's collections were also used, which tell about the organization of the partisan movement in the region and help to form an idea of the life and combat work of the resistance fighters. The Embassy of Bulgaria in Belarus, as well as the regional veterans' organization, which maintains contact with the honorary citizen of Vitebsk living in Sofia, provided great assistance to the museum in preparing the exhibition. "We invited Dobrin Dimitrov to visit Vitebsk and take part in the opening of the exhibition, but, unfortunately, he will not be able to come due to his health condition," said Irina Shishkova. Dobrin Dimitrov was born on June 29, 1923. In 1925, his family emigrated to the Soviet Union, as his father was sentenced to death in his homeland for active participation in the September anti-fascist uprising. In 1941, Dobrin graduated from secondary school in Kotovsk, Tambov region, and in 1942, after completing his studies at a special school of the People's Commissariat of Defense, he was sent to the First Belarusian partisan brigade operating in the Vitebsk region. Towards the end of the war, he graduated from flight school in Tambov; Dobrin Dimitrov's post-war life was connected with service in the aviation of the Bulgarian Air Force. The peak of his military career came in 1972-1977, when Lieutenant General Dimitrov was the Deputy Chief of Staff of the United Armed Forces of the Warsaw Pact countries. 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 German-fascist invaders. It includes four 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. The museum's collections store about 9,000 items. A sculptural bust of Minay Shmyrev, created 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. The museum building was constructed at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. -0-