Lukashenko: historical memory should be talked about openly
During his talk with Belshina’s workers, the Head of State shared his vision of how to preserve the memory of the Great Patriotic War for future generations
According to Aleksandr Lukashenko, children should be told about it almost from the age of five – ‘doing this steadily, with no strain’.
The President recalled the events of 2020 and, while speaking of their prerequisites, he noted that there had been not enough work with young people, “We did not talk to children and adults at school in the way we speak now – that this is our history, that we should be proud of it, and that 30m Soviet people died and brought us Victory. What is Victory? This is our pride.”
The President believes not only young people, but also Western countries need to be informed on the Great Victory. “Listen, why are you strangling and pestering us? We saved you! You would have been slaves. We should have talked about it without hesitation – but we felt sorry and were afraid. We were afraid to tell Poles in Soviet times (I remember this) that 600,000 Soviet people died in Poland while liberating this country. We should not have been ashamed of Germans – telling them loudly that there was a holocaust not only in relation to Jews (this topic is relevant in Bobruisk), but all Soviet people. Genocide! We were afraid to voice this, but we have by now unearthed more than 200 graves in Belarus; we had no information of them previously. Many thousands of people were shot there. We were acting somehow carefully – in order not to offend anyone. However, it is necessary to talk [about this]! We need to teach our children to cherish our land. That is the key. It is necessary to write and demonstrate in the way they are doing. In this case, we will keep this memory. We should protect our monuments, and we have saved them thanks God. Not a single monument is neglected in our country. Children must be involved into this – so that they bear in their minds, as we do, that this is our value, and that we will not give this Victory to anyone. This is how they should be educated since early ages,” he stressed.
Aleksandr Lukashenko concluded, “Everyone should understand that the Great Patriotic War is our heritage. We lost too many – every third citizen – then, and we cannot betray this. However, the most important thing is that if we betray, we will be betrayed. This is life! If only we forget what happened to us, our children and grandchildren will do the same in relation to us – in a generation or two. Therefore, let us cherish this value – the Great Victory – and the fact that we did not become slaves then, and that we have our own land. True, many dislike our freedom-loving position, but we are not bothering anyone. We do not penetrate into our neighbours’ territories, and we are not demanding them to share their land with us. We are not going to conquer anyone: we have enough of our own. But they should not bother us either!”
As the Head of State summed up, it depends on us – whether we will preserve our memory or not.
