Lukashenko: St. Petersburg Governor’s visit outlines key humanitarian and historical points
On meeting the Governor of St. Petersburg, Alexander Beglov, the President thanked the guests who, as he stressed, came to Belarus at an important moment despite a rather difficult situation
“Today's visit outlines very important humanitarian, historical accents. All of us, like no one else, know well how carefully traditions of the Great Patriotic War history are being preserved and restored (in St. Petersburg and Belarus). In the face of the recent frequent attempts to rewrite the history, to downplay the feat of the Soviet people, we believe that the time has come to give truthful assessments of many events and their participants (by the way, we are doing this now),” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
The President noted that, in Soviet times, not so much was openly talked about the Great Patriotic War history. “However, we see now that this needs to be done – honestly and openly, even if it will be unpleasant for someone. At least, we did not initiate those unpleasant pages that some peoples are leafing through today – especially in Eastern Europe and the post-Soviet space. Our specialists, as you know, are actively working on some issues and pages of the Great Patriotic War. Terrible facts of this silence come to light. The deaths of Soviet civilians and Red Army soldiers in concentration camps (there were a lot of them on the territory of Belarus) were understated two, three and even sometimes ten times.”
On January 27th, St. Petersburg residents celebrated the 78th anniversary of the lifting of the German Siege of Leningrad. Aleksandr Lukashenko commented, “The tragedy of besieged Leningrad is one of the most terrible episodes of WWII. Clearly, our Leningrad then lost hundreds of thousands of its residents. That was a terrible situation. Hideous things happened. The opening of our joint exhibition – Symbols of Besieged Leningrad – at the Belarusian State Great Patriotic War History Museum today is a right and important initiative.”
During his talk with Mr. Beglov, the Head of State outlined one of his fundamental principles, “Leningrad and Belarus suffered the most in the last war. They suffered most of all! Leningraders (St. Petersburg residents) and Belarusians are mentally similar – more than anyone else. I have always admired Leningraders. When the city was completely destroyed (meanwhile, our country – Belarus – was virtually wiped off the map), poor, destitute, barely alive Leningraders came to us. Scientists and builders joined restoration of Minsk and Belarus first of all. Therefore, St. Petersburg is ours, it is Belarusian for me.”
