Successful «Start»: the ZGA «Archive Bulletin» media project in Molodechno is among the winners of the republican competition

On March 29, 2025, the Faculty of Journalism of the Belarusian State University honored the winners of the republican competition of young journalists «Start», dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War.

The creative competition has been held since 2023, this time in three nominations: Publication, Video, Photograph. It is organized by the Faculty of Journalism of the Belarusian State University with the participation of the Ministry of Information and the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Belarus, the public association «Belarusian Union of Journalists» and in cooperation with republican and regional media.

Students of schools, lyceums, gymnasiums and colleges, as well as members of associations of young journalists under the age of 18, could test their strength in the competition. In total, over 300 applications were submitted.

– Most of the stories submitted to the competition were about relatives who participated in military operations, whose fates were reconstructed based on archival data and memories. There were also stories about those heroes whose names remained unknown for a long time, but thanks to search teams and researchers, they are heard again, – noted Diana Molchanova, a member of the competition jury and a teacher at the Department of Literary and Art Criticism.

Among the prize winners were young participants of the media project «Archival Bulletin» of the Zonal State Archives in Molodechno, German Rozhok and Polina Prostakova. In their work, they conducted a video study of authentic front-line letters, «revived» history with the help of neural networks.

It was symbolic that the winning works in the «Photo» nomination opened the photo exhibition «Staircase», the presentation of which took place on this day and reflected the heroism of Soviet soldiers during the Great Patriotic War. The organizers answered exciting questions from students and their parents, and demonstrated archival chronicles about the history of the faculty.

1. German Rozhok and Polina Prostakova.

2. Award ceremony for the competition participants.