The first director of the memorial complex «Khatyn» was the archivist, director of the Central State Historical Archive of the BSSR in Minsk (in 1964-1968) Ivan Vasilyevich Roshchin

March 22 is the Day of Remembrance of the victims of the Khatyn tragedy, which is one of the key elements of the historical memory of the Belarusian people.

On this day, we should also remember the first director of the Khatyn memorial complex, who made a huge personal contribution to perpetuating the memory of the victims of the tragedy. He was an archivist, director of the Central State Historical Archive of the BSSR in Minsk (in 1964-1968) Ivan Vasilyevich Roshchin.

I.V.Roshchin was born on November 11, 1908 in the village of Vikhlyaevka (Borisoglebsky district, Voronezh region) into a peasant family. In September 1936, he entered the workers’ faculty of the People’s Commissariat of Light Industry in Moscow, from which he graduated in July 1939, and then to the pedagogical faculty of the Military-Political Academy named after V.I.Lenin (Moscow), in 1940 reorganized into the Higher Military Pedagogical Institute of the Red Army named after M.Kalinin.

On July 3, 1941, I.V. Roshchin graduated from the institute ahead of schedule and was sent to the active army. He went through the whole war, fought on the North-Western and 2nd Belorussian fronts, was wounded four times, was awarded orders and medals. He finished the war in May 1945 in Torgau, participated in the meeting of Soviet and American troops on the Elbe River.

In 1957, I.V.Roshchin was appointed head of the State Archives of the Minsk Region. In 1964, he became the first director of the Central State Historical Archive of the BSSR in Minsk, where he worked until 1968. He supervised the construction of the first special building for archival institutions in the capital of the BSSR (at 26 Kozlova Street). Heading the archive, he was actively engaged in scientific and journalistic activities, prepared a number of materials for Belarusian scientific and popular publications.

In 1968–1971 I.V.Roshchin was the first director of the Khatyn memorial complex, a branch of the Belarusian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War. He worked there in the most difficult time for the complex – the time of the formation of the memorial. Construction work continued after July 9, 1969, when the memorial was officially opened. There were not enough people, materials, there were great organizational difficulties. Constant control was carried out by the Central Committee of the CPB, the Ministry of Culture of the BSSR. And people went to the memorial from all over Belarus, numerous delegations from abroad came…

While working in Khatyn I.V. Roshchin kept a diary. Two thick notebooks have been preserved with almost daily brief entries for the period from September 1, 1969 to July 25, 1970. They reflect the daily life of the memorial with its problems, difficulties, and the solution of complex economic, construction and organizational issues.

I.V. Roshchin died on July 20, 1972 and was buried in the village. Upper Kardail, Novo-Nikolaevsky district, Volgograd region.