DAY OF NATIONAL MEMORY OF THE VICTIMS GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR

On June 21, 2023, the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus opened the documentary exhibition «Get Up, Huge Country…», dedicated to the Day of National Remembrance of the victims of the Great Patriotic War and the genocide of the Belarusian people.

It was on this day in the summer of 1941 that the most bloody and terrible war in the history of our country began, which was the main part of the Second World War of 1939-1945. This day reminds of all those who died in battles, were tortured to death in Nazi captivity, who died in the rear from hunger and deprivation. We mourn for all those who, at the cost of their lives, fulfilled their holy duty, defending their Fatherland in those harsh years.

By the summer of 1941, Nazi Germany had enslaved many European countries, and the Soviet people took upon themselves the most powerful blow, to which they responded with a single mighty resistance, stood to death in the full sense of the word, defending the Fatherland. The losses of the USSR amounted to 40% of all human losses in World War II. About one million Soviet soldiers gave their lives in the liberation of the peoples of Europe. According to the conclusion of the Extraordinary State Commission for the Establishment and Investigation of the Atrocities of the Nazi Invaders, the invaders completely or partially destroyed over 1,700 cities and towns, over 70,000 villages and villages of the USSR, only direct material damage to the state and population amounted to 679 billion rubles (in prices 1941). The human losses and material damage suffered by the country from the German fascist aggression are incomparable with anything. History has not yet known such destruction, barbarism and inhumanity, which marked the path of the Nazis across Soviet soil.

On June 22, in the post-Soviet space, state flags are lowered to half-mast and this war and those who died in it are remembered. On this day, various solemn and commemorative events are held with the lighting of candles, the laying of flowers at monuments and memorials.

The National Archives of the Republic of Belarus contains unique documents that are presented at the exhibition: intelligence reports and special reports of the People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs of the BSSR L. Tsanava on the situation on the border and adjacent territory in 1941, the Resolution of the Military Council of the Western Special Military District on preparations for construction defense installations, on the progress of supplying the Red Army, memorandums of the Secretary of the Brest Regional Committee of the Communist Party (b) B M.N. Tupitsyn in the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Bolsheviks (b) B on the situation on the front of the Brest-Kobrin direction, unique military maps showing the deployment of German troops on the eve of the attack on the Soviet Union, German maps of occupied Minsk, orders for the evacuation of enterprises and the population, documents on the organization of the partisan movement and handwritten editions of the partisans.

1. Leading archivist of the department for the use of documents and information of the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus V.P. Garmatny acquaints the employees of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus with the materials of the exhibition

2. Deputy Head of the Department for the Use of Documents and Information of the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus M.P. Begun acquaints the employees of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus with the materials of the exhibition

3. Archival documents at the exhibition