«AUTUMN 1939». Exhibition project for National Unity Day
On September 13, 2023, the documentary exhibition «AUTUMN 1939», prepared by the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus and dedicated to National Unity Day, opened at the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus
On June 7, 2021, the President of the Republic of Belarus signed a Decree on amending the list of public holidays of the country in connection with the establishment of a new holiday – National Unity Day, celebrated annually on September 17.
National Unity Day symbolizes wisdom, continuity of generations, and the inviolability of statehood. This day takes us back to the historical date of September 17, 1939, when a fateful event took place in the history of the Belarusian people – the reunification of Western Belarus and the BSSR, which became an act of historical justice for our ancestors. The people, severely divided by the Riga Peace Treaty of 1921, were finally reunited, having the opportunity to develop within the borders of one republic. Therefore, September 17 is rightly called the starting point of the new history of the united Belarusian people.
The establishment of National Unity Day on September 17 emphasizes the continuity of generations, the inviolability and self-sufficiency of the Belarusian nation and statehood. The unity restored in 1939 allowed Belarus to subsequently survive the Great Patriotic War, take an honorable place in the international community, and become one of the co-founders of the United Nations.
Therefore, the celebration of National Unity Day encourages us to remember with what difficulty our ancestors achieved unity, independence and the right to be called a people, respect and recognition in the international arena.
As part of the event, the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus presented at the exhibition unique documentary material on this topic: Declaration of the Belarusian People’s Assembly on the issue of the entry of Western Belarus into the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic, Declaration of the Belarusian People’s Assembly on the nationalization of banks and large industries, on the confiscation of landowners’ lands, state power, resolutions of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Council of People’s Commissars of the BSSR on the transition to Soviet currency in the Western regions of the BSSR, telegrams from the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Bolsheviks P. Ponomarenko sent to I. Stalin, resolutions of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Council of People’s Commissars of the BSSR on zoning Western regions of the BSSR, lists and certificates about newspapers published in the regions of Western Belarus and their circulation, reports from the agitation and propaganda departments of the Bialystok OK CP(b)B on the opening of libraries, lists of literature sent to Western Belarus, as well as periodicals, cinema posters, propaganda posters of that time.
