Places of glory

During the Great Patriotic War, Belarus showed a true example of an unbroken spirit. Hundreds of memorials throughout the country are dedicated to the desperate struggle against the Nazi invaders.

Brest Hero Fortress

At dawn on June 22nd, 1941, the Wehrmacht dealt a crushing blow to the garrison of the fortress. But the Nazis failed to take the citadel with a swoop — the defence lasted more than a month! The defenders repelled seven to eight enemy attacks per day in complete encirclement, without water and food, ammunition, unified command and external communications.

Photo by Pavel Bogush

The fortress went down in history as a symbol of courage and perseverance, and today it is one of the most impressive memorial complexes dedicated to the Great Patriotic War. On the territory there are several museum expositions and the Thirst and Courage majestic monuments. Thousands of reenactors annually come here to restore the events of that fateful morning in front of the audience at the Kobrin fortification. Smoke, shots and explosions, the rumble of engines and the howl of sirens — a realistic action leaves no one indifferent.

Proryv Memorial 

“There were 17,185 against 60,000. The courage of the people finally won. Death has become immortality,” the inscription at the entrance to this memorial complex in the Ushachi District says.

Photo by Anton Stepanishchev

Proryv is the same symbolic place for occupied Belarus as the Road of Life for besieged Leningrad.
In April — May 1944, the Nazis planned a punitive operation called Operation Frühlingsfest (Spring Holiday). The goal is to destroy several tens of thousands of civilians and partisans because the forest army took control of a large territory behind enemy lines. However, the ‘triumph of death’ failed: on the night of May 5th, the people’s avengers from the Polotsk-Lepel formation broke out of the encirclement themselves and took 15 thousand women, children and the elderly out of it.
The memorial complex is a partially restored partisans’ path to freedom, and a stone block broken in half is a symbol of a breakthrough. Monumental and majestic.

Buinichi Field

Until now, black spots can be seen on this piece of land near Mogilev — traces of equipment that burned here in the summer of 1941. One day, Soviet units knocked out 39 out of 70 German tanks. Can’t you imagine that? Refer to the work of Konstantin Simonov. He saw the terrible inferno with his own eyes and described it in The Living and the Dead book. By the way, the courage of the local fighters and commanders impressed the writer so much that many years after the war he bequeathed to scatter his ashes over the field.

Photo by Andrey Sazonov


An Orthodox chapel was built in the centre of the memorial complex. The walls inside the building were decorated with marble plates with hundreds of names of soldiers and people’s militias who died during the defence of Mogilev. This list is updated every year.

Katyusha

The legendary jet mortar with an affectionate name first announced itself with a powerful volley near Orsha. A platoon under the command of Captain Ivan Flerov hit the station, which was occupied by the Nazis, with a secret weapon. Those few seconds of artillery fire were of great importance — they delayed the enemy’s advance on Smolensk.
In honour of this event, the For Our Soviet Motherland! Memorial Complex, popularly called Katyusha, appeared in Orsha. Honoured Architect of Belarus Yury Gradov recalled, “The composition was invented overnight. We found a steep cliff above the Dnieper River, as in a famous song. And our main element was a real Katyusha, which was ‘sealed’ in metal and painted white. That’s it. That’s right — in white! This emphasised that the monument was not dedicated to any specific military equipment, but to a legendary image.”

Minsk Hero City Obelisk

Few tourists know that the Belarusian capital has its own The Motherland Calls. The bronze sculpture is somewhat reminiscent of the Madonna from the paintings of Mikhail Savitsky — soft features, hair pulled back, a cape on her shoulders. Nearby, a 45-metre obelisk topped with a golden star and a laurel branch is directed skyward — these are the symbols of the hero city. The Belarusian State Museum of the Great Patriotic War History is located right behind the stele.
According to the architects, the rays of the central facade of the building, facing the obelisk, symbolise the Victory salute.
The title of Hero City was awarded to Minsk only 30 years after the end of the war. And not for defence or liberation, but for an underground struggle against the enemy. On many buildings of the city today you can see memorial plaques with reminders of the resistance that Minsk residents showed to the occupiers.

By Sofia Arsenyeva