A mobile exhibition of historical documents “Keeping the Memory Alive” to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945
A mobile exhibition of historical documents “Keeping the Memory Alive” commenced at the administration of the Partizansky district in Minsk to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Victory over Nazi invaders in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.
The Exhibition has been prepared by the State Archives of Minsk Region and features digitized copies of documents and photographs on seven posters (banners).
The 9th of May is the most memorable and solemn date in the history of our people, which symbolizes its heroism, courage and dedication in the fight against the Nazi invaders for the freedom of their native land. During the Nazi occupation in Belarus, out of 9,2 million people, one in three of its inhabitants died.
Only in the camp Trostenets in the period of 1941-1944 more than 200 000 partisans, resistance fighters, prisoners of war, as well as prisoners of the Minsk ghetto were killed, poisoned by gas and burned. And this is testified by the documents available from the State Archives of Minsk Region: a list of citizens shot, hanged and tortured by the Nazis at the Trostenets camp, a list of Soviet POWs killed by the Nazis at the forest camp Stalag No 352 near the village of Masyukovshchina etc.
More than half of our national wealth was destroyed during this war; 209 out of 270 cities and district centers, 9,200 villages were destroyed (more than 600 of them were burned along with the inhabitants). On the Belarusian territory, a bloody war lasted a long three years.
Archival documents presented at the exhibition bear a vivid testimony of this:
documents to perpetuate the memory of the Red Army soldiers and Partisans who fell in the battles for the liberation of the Motherland;
documents on the construction of the obelisk monument to the Soviet Army soldiers who fell in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1944 at the mass grave in the Chelyuskintsev Park;
a list of memorable historical battlefields of the Soviet Army and Partisans in the area of Minsk Region;
a list of military units and formations that took part in the liberation of Minsk;
assignment of the title of Hero City to the city of Minsk;
and many other documents can be seen on banner posters of the exhibition.
Of great interest are the award sheets of the Hero of the Soviet Union N. A. Kedyshko and Chairman of the Supreme Council – Nadezhda Grekova, as well as documents from personal collections of WWII veterans – K.M. Rakhuba and V.M. Solopov, papers and frontline diaries of WWII veteran, artilleryman A.P. Sapunov, and more.
