New textbooks for teaching Great Patriotic War history in Belarusian schools

The first specialised school atlas, entitled — The Great Patriotic War of the Soviet People (in WWII context) — has been published in Belarus, to honour the 70th anniversary of the Great Victory. Collated by Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Alexander Kovalenya, its historical facts have been confirmed by archive documents of recent years. He explains, “This is the first edition of its kind, with dates, names and events described visually, to better allow remembrance. The 21 maps describe the activity of Red Army troops, partisans and undergrounders within Belarusian territory, while disclosing reasons for WWII and its events, in our country and worldwide, until 1945. Almost every page is illustrated.” Belarusian schools will launch the book’s use from September 1st.


As the Acting Editor-in-Chief of Belkartografia, Galina Lyakhova, stresses, the new maps have been compiled under the slogan: ‘Nobody and Nothing is Forgotten’. She explains, “We’ve printed a map of commemorative places — entitled 70 Years of Great Victory — in Russian and English. It indicates the location of war memorials and those settlements awarded ‘For Bravery and Endurance during the Great Patriotic War’, at a scale of 1:1100000. It also shows the locations and names of major concentration camps, places where people were mass murdered, and places where children were forcibly kept as blood donors for German soldiers. We need to know the truth about that war — using accessible textbooks. Maps are one of the best resources.”