On the eve of Remembrance Day for the Victims of the Khatyn Tragedy, the exhibition project «Evening Time Will Not Disturb Our Memory… Burnt Villages of the Gomel Region» opened in Gomel

On March 19, 2026, on the eve of Remembrance Day for the Victims of the Khatyn Tragedy, the exhibition project «Evening Time Will Not Disturb Our Memory… Burnt Villages of the Gomel Region» opened in Gomel.

The systematic destruction of Belarusian villages during the Great Patriotic War was not simply a consequence of military action, but part of Hitler’s genocidal policy aimed at the total «cleansing» of the territory for subsequent colonization. The date «March 22, 1943» has become a symbol of the tragedy of the Belarusian village. On this day, Khatyn was burned along with its inhabitants. Hundreds of other villages across Belarus shared a similar terrible fate. In the Gomel Region alone, there are officially 19 «Khatyn sisters».

As part of the criminal investigation into the genocide of the Belarusian people during the Great Patriotic War and the post-war period, 1,813 rural settlements in the Gomel Region were identified as having been completely or partially destroyed by the German occupiers and their allies.

The project «Evening Time Will Not Dispel Our Memory… Burnt Villages of the Gomel Region» is the result of painstaking research, the purpose of which was to demonstrate the real damage inflicted on the villages of the Gomel Region during the Great Patriotic War.

Representatives of the Main Justice Department of the Gomel Regional Executive Committee, the leadership and staff of the State Archives of the Gomel Region, and the State Archives of Public Associations of the Gomel Region participated in the event.

The archival community was also represented by Andrei Nikolaevich Gonchar, Director of the Belarusian State Film and Photo Archives, who presented the Gomel Palace and Park Ensemble with a photographic document depicting the Rumyantsev-Paskevich Palace, as well as a unique publication from the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus, «The Destruction of Belarusian Villages by the Nazis».

The event began with a screening of newsreels from the Belarusian State Film and Photo Archives dedicated to the destruction of Belarusian villages during the Great Patriotic War, followed by the opening of the exhibition.

The exhibition features a wide range of documents from the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus, the State Archives of the Gomel Region, the Russian State Film and Photo Archives, the Belarusian State Film and Photo Archives, and the Central Archives of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.

The event concluded with a tour of the exhibition, led by Yuri Pankov, Head of the Department of Archaeology and Historical and Cultural Heritage Protection at the Gomel Palace and Park Ensemble Museum, and Alexander Shinkarev, Prosecutor of the Gomel District.

Following the event, a working meeting was held with Inga Sergeevna Zavgorodnyaya, Head of the Main Department of Culture of the Gomel Regional Executive Committee, to discuss preparations for the upcoming International Media Marathon «No Statute of Limitations: Unconquered» in Gomel from May 13 to 15, 2026.

At the initiative of the Department of Archives and Records Management, the media marathon will be held in the Republic of Belarus for the fourth time. The project’s Belarusian partners include the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus, the Department of Archives and Records Management, the Main Department of Justice of the Gomel Regional Executive Committee, the State Archives of the Gomel Region, the Belarusian State Archive of Film, Photo, and Sound Documents, and the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus. The Russian partners will be the Russian Society of Historians and Archivists, the National Center for Historical Memory under the President of the Russian Federation, the Gosfilmofond of Russia, the Union of Cinematographers of the Russian Federation, and the Russian State Archive of Film, Photo, and Sound Documents.

During the meeting, organizational issues related to practical classes for students from Gomel schools on preparing master classes, on directing, working with archival documents, and film editing were discussed.

1-3. During the opening of the exhibition project «Evening Time Will Not Disturb Our Memory… The Burnt Villages of the Gomel Region» at the Rumyantsev and Paskevich Palace on March 19, 2026.

4. Guests at the opening of the exhibition project «Evening Time Will Not Disturb Our Memory… The Burnt Villages of the Gomel Region» at the Rumyantsev and Paskevich Palace.

5. Gonchar A.N. (Director of the BGAKFFD) and Shestopalov Yu.V. (Director of the Gomel Regional Executive Committee) during a discussion of organizational matters with Inga Sergeevna Zavgorodnyaya, Head of the Main Department of Culture of the Gomel Regional Executive Committee.

6. Catalog of the exhibition project «Evening Time Will Not Dispel Our Memory… Burnt Villages of the Gomel Region»