Golovchenko: we have no right to betray memory of millions of killed Soviet people
Preservation and erection of new monuments in honour of the Great Victory is not simply a tradition for Belarus, but a spiritual need: Belarusians cannot and have no right to betray the memory of victorious soldiers and many millions of Soviet people who were killed by the Nazis – as stated by Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko during a plenary session of the Historical Memory: Great Victory Won by Unity international parliamentary conference in Minsk
“Belarus – which lost every third citizen during the Great Patriotic War – clearly understands that the Year of Historical Memory gives an opportunity to society, and especially young people, to realise anew the price that Belarusians paid for the centuries-old desire to live and work peacefully in their native land,” Mr. Golovchenko said, adding, “In continuation of the consistent policy of preserving the truth about the heroism of our ancestors, forming a historical and state worldview, strengthening the historical, cultural, spiritual and ethnic community of Belarusians, the Republican Council for Historical Policy under the Belarus President Administration was established.”
The Prime Minister emphasised that state programmes are being developed and implemented in the country to perpetuate those who died in the defence of the Fatherland and preserve the memory of war victims. At the moment, there are about 8,000 military graves on Belarus’ state register; more than 2m people were buried there.
“The Belarusian people have not rewritten history, have not turned traitors and executioners into heroes and liberators, and have not demolished monuments and graves of soldiers who died for the freedom of their homeland. In order to prevent even attempts to distort the results of the Great Patriotic War, the genocide of the Belarusian people committed by Nazi criminals and their accomplices during the war years has been officially recognised in Belarus," Mr. Golovchenko said. “Nazism is a tool for destruction of a nation through destruction of its traditions and spiritual health, which are based on the foundation of historical memory. It was to this foundation that the West tried to reach in the 1940s and the 2020s.”
According to the Prime Minister, Belarus is now the only country in the post-Soviet space that conducts a full–fledged investigation of the mass destruction of civilians, while continuing to act as an antidote to the poison of Nazism.
“Unfortunately, as events show, the tragic lessons of the past are ignored. The further we move away from the events of the Great Patriotic War, the more dangers arise. The planet is heating up with new hotbeds of confrontation and social conflicts, and new seeds of Nazism are sprouting against this background. They are represented by destruction of monuments to Soviet soldier-liberators, glorification of Nazi criminals, and falsification of historical truth," Mr. Golovchenko added.
The Prime Minister believes that patriotic feelings are among the most sacred ones, and the state should form and support them. True patriotism is revealed through people’s ideological and civic attitude towards the historical past and the surrounding reality.
“Of course, it is impossible to educate a true patriot simply by directive instructions and ideological attitudes. The truth about the Great Patriotic War, preserved by previous generations, comes to help. We – in Belarus – are firmly convinced that landmark events should not divide, but unite countries and peoples bound by their common historical destiny," Mr. Golovchenko stressed.
