A resident of the Senno district became the author of the ornament on the State Flag of the Republic of Belarus

We now know for certain that the author of the ornament on the State Flag of the Republic of Belarus is Matrona (in the vernacular – Matruna) Markevich, a peasant woman from the Sennensky district. Recently, thanks to the efforts of local historians, it was possible to find the grave of the woman who passed away in 1957 but did not receive due recognition during her lifetime.

After that, the ornament began to be widely used in the decoration of various architectural and decorative forms. For example, in 1952, a monument to Stalin with the corresponding ornament on its pedestal was solemnly opened in Minsk.

To this day, there is no consensus among scientists regarding the mystical signs in the ornament. However, it is evident that it has a very long pre-Christian history of the ancient beliefs of our ancestors. Where did the towel itself go? Apparently, it was irretrievably lost during the war.

They paid tribute to her memory

Vasil Bandarevich, a local historian from Senno and an employee of the district museum, had long dreamed of finding the final resting place of Matrona Sergeyevna, about which no one could provide him with information. On old maps, he managed to find the village of Kostelishche, where, according to Vasil Viktorovich's data, she was buried in the cemetery. The search area was clearly narrowed down.

And it so happened that V. Bandarevich's neighbor turned out to be a knowledgeable person about the relevant places, the long-time chief engineer of the agricultural enterprise “Ulyanovichi” Alexander Truhanenko, who had traversed these fields and hills extensively. He had also come across the mentioned cemetery. Upon receiving this information, I immediately set off for Senno to visit the site of the interesting find together with Vasil Viktorovich and Alexander Nikolaevich.

We were lucky with the weather, because, as my companions admitted, if it had rained, it would have been impossible to reach the cemetery by car. Leaving the agro-town of Ulyanovichi behind, we turned onto a dirt road, which after a few kilometers truly became a test for the editorial “Skoda”.

On the bumpy roads, our guide has to get out of the car from time to time to help the driver find the right track, until we finally reach the point where we leave the car.

And the places here are beautiful: a large forest massif. If you get lost, you can end up in the Lepel or Beshenkovichi districts. It is not for nothing that Germans and Frenchmen like to come here to hunt elk, although it is quite expensive by our standards. The ramparts created by nature itself, which became the nominal border with the Russian Empire after the 1st partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1772, are impressive.

This was a former partisan zone. Today, the neighboring village is called Partizany (formerly Torbinka). And how many people were killed by punitive detachments here! So, in the cemetery of the village of Kostelishche, which disappeared decades ago (not even foundations remain of the houses), there is a small obelisk in memory of the peasants burned by the fascists in 1943. Matrona Sergeevna, at that time, was apparently not in her native village. One can only guess now: either she managed to escape, or she was simply accidentally saved in those dark times to live to the day when the ornament of the ancestors appeared on the state symbol.

Matrona herself was born in the village of Klimovichi, which is also now part of the Senno district. She was from a wealthy family, like her future husband, who was subjected to dekulakization in 1937. By the way, on the village cemetery and on the obelisk, the surnames Markevich and Katser (Matrona's maiden name) are often found. The grave itself, like most of the neighboring ones, is in quite good condition. Perhaps relatives will be found who are no longer in Senno. Vasily Viktorovich lays flowers on the grave of a simple woman who became the pride of Belarusians, and we silently think about our own things in the shade of the trees that guard the eternal sleep of the ancestors.

For the education of patriots

How can this iconic place be used now? Vasil Bandarevich noted that the head of the district, Viktor Tsapota, also showed interest in its popularization. The local historian believes that the remains of the craftswoman should be moved to the district center, where tourists could visit them, and patriotic education lessons could be held. This is a brand not only of the district but of the entire Vitebsk region! Alexander Trukhanenko, on the contrary, is sure that it is not worth disturbing the bones of the deceased, because nearby there is a mass grave of fellow villagers killed by the fascists. The author of these lines agrees with this opinion. If only a more or less decent road were laid here – and then the place would have every right to be included in the list of tourist attractions of Sennensky district, along with Belitsa, where our famous bard Yanka Kupala worked.

Ales Bynkov, "Vitebskiye vesti"