Expert explains why National Unity Day is a truly significant holiday for Belarus
National Unity Day is a young holiday. However, the date of the unification of the Belarusian people – September 17th – is almost unanimously spoken of as a key event in the history of our country. In his talk with Alfa Radio, Minister-Counsellor of the Belarusian embassy in Russia Aleksandr Shpakovsky draws attention to interesting details related to this.
“Firstly, this holiday can only be called young in the context of the sovereign Republic of Belarus, which dates back to the collapse of the Soviet Union,” the expert notes. “As for the Belarusian statehood in principle, the statehood formed on the Soviet platform, this holiday has deep historical roots. Because on September 17th, 1939, a historic event for our society, for our Belarusian people took place, who were unjustly and illegally divided against their will by external forces. And this day has indeed always been a holiday. Photo chronicles and videos indicate that the population of Western Belarus greeted the soldiers and commanders of the Red Army with flowers and tears of joy in their eyes. Subsequently, this day was widely celebrated in the BSSR as the Day of Liberation from the Polish Landlords. The tradition was extended to the Republic of Belarus. In many Belarusian cities, the streets of September 17th have been preserved, let alone the fact that we will never forget the names of our famous compatriots and heroes who led the movement against the Polish occupation: Vasily Korzh, Vera Khoruzhaya, Sergei Pritytsky, People’s Poet of the BSSR Maksim Tank and many other people – unknown and famous – who stood at the origins our statehood, who fought with arms or words against the Polish occupation.”
Poland, however, did not learn anything from the lesson of 1939.
“I want to underline that on this day we are not dancing on the bones of Poland no matter how hostile this state is to the Belarusian people,” says Aleksandr Shpakovsky. “But this state pursued a colonialist policy towards our compatriots, towards our ancestors. There is enough evidence and documents when Polish officials openly stated in their reports that their goal was to erase the national differences between Belarusians and Poles, to assimilate our people, to suppress that Russian, Orthodox, Slavic, Belarusian that existed in our people. For those who were against and resisted, the Poles, as Maksim Tank wrote, ‘were building forced-labour camps, prisons and jails’. For those who disagreed, a concentration camp was constructed in Bereza-Kartuzskaya. It was a death camp where prisoners were brutally humiliated and beaten and where the punishers tried in every possible way to suppress and break their will to resist.”
At the same time, Aleksandr Shpakovsky underlined that even though we do not feel any feelings of national hostility towards the Poles and Poland, but if necessary, we will zealously defend our country and defend national interests, “When throwing down the gauntlet, Warsaw must know that this gauntlet can be picked up and answered, as has happened many times in history. This confrontation did not end well for the Poles.”
