We brought this day as close as we could

On May 4, 2023, the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus opened a photo-documentary exhibition prepared by the National Archive of the Republic of Belarus and dedicated to Victory Day.

For Belarusians, May 9 is a heroic date to be proud of. The lessons of the past must be remembered for the peaceful life of future generations.

More than 1,300,000 Belarusians fought on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, 374,000 partisans and more than 70,000 underground soldiers fought on the territory occupied by the enemy. There were a total of 213 partisan brigades, which included about 1,000 units, and 258 units operated independently. Hidden partisan reserves comprised about 400,000 local residents. The scale and scope of the national resistance movement that developed in Belarus has no analogues in world history. The scale of the people’s war against the Nazi invaders is indicated by the fact that on the territory of Belarus, partisans and underground fighters destroyed a colossal number of invaders and their accomplices, overthrew 11,128 echelons and 34 armored trains, destroyed 948 enemy headquarters and garrisons, destroyed 1,355 tanks and armored vehicles.

For heroic deeds in the Great Patriotic War, 449 Belarusians and natives of Belarus were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, 73 became full knights of the Order of Glory, 4 Belarusians became twice Heroes of the Soviet Union (P.Ya. Golovachev, I.I. Husakovskii, S.F. Shutov, I.I. Yakubovsky).

Belarus demonstrates its desire to preserve historical memory and the truth about the Great Patriotic War, which is embodied in parades, solemn events and actions. This narrative is also supported by the memorial policy, the protection of burial sites, memorial complexes that perpetuate the memory of war victims and the deaths of civilians.

The memory policy in Belarus allowed our country to avoid those «memory wars» that are characteristic of other post-Soviet countries. Despite the discussions in historical science on the most complex aspects of the history of the Second World War, in the minds of Belarusians this war remains the Great Patriotic War, and its memory is considered the most important means of patriotic and ideological education of the younger generation.

The funds of the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus preserve a huge array of documents related to the participation of Belarusians in the Great Patriotic War: reports on the combat activity of partisan detachments and information about their personnel, orders of the People’s Commissar of Defense of the USSR, histories of partisan detachments and brigades, diaries of partisan brigade commanders, personal files of Heroes of the Soviet Union, lists of underground workers, award certificates for participants in hostilities. These and many other documents were presented at the exhibition.

M.A.Starostenko, head of the Department of Document and Information Use of the National Archive of the Republic of Belarus, introduced the exhibition of employees of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus and the Department of Archives and Records Management of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus.