Posted:
23.09.2021 12:13:00
Symbol of unity
The Republic of Belarus celebrated the Day of People’s Unity on September 17th for the first time. Festive events were held throughout the country and even abroad where the Belarusian diaspora enthusiastically supported this new initiative.
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The forum of patriotic forces — Symbol of Unity — held in the capital’s Minsk-Arena was the culmination of numerous celebrations. Aleksandr Lukashenko also took part in this event bringing together many thousands of people. The President recalled that, back in 1939, Belarus was reunited within its national borders. For centuries, divided between principalities, kingdoms and empires, the people got the chance to build their own state on their historical land for the first time, “What does this day mean for us — living generations? This is our historical memory. Memory, which binds together people and epochs, conveys experience and warns against fatal mistakes. Our entire history of the sometimes difficult and dramatic path to gaining and preserving our statehood has repeatedly confirmed the ancient wisdom: strength is in unity.”
The President stated that we, Belarusians, know what it means for the sake of other people’s national interests, someone’s exorbitant geopolitical ambitions, to lose half of their native land, to lose contact with relatives and friends, “For long twenty years, over four million people living in the territory occupied by Poland were deprived of the right to speak their native language, study in national schools, develop their original culture and just be called Belarusians.”
The facts speak
The Head of State recalled that on September 17th, 1939, the inhabitants of Western Belarus greeted the Red Army soldiers as liberators. However, today there are those who are not averse to rewriting history. In this regard, the President noted, “We are unable to silence nationalists of all colours, the descendants of collaborators who equated this event with the attack of Nazi Germany on Poland. However, we can and must answer with facts.”
Aleksandr Lukashenko emphasised that this is what we have begun to do, recalling, “By mid-September of 1939, Poland suffered a crushing defeat in the war with Germany, with Polish troops being defeated. The government fled to the UK and the state ceased to exist. The shadow of Nazism hangs over Western Belarus. Over Western Belarus, which was part of the state that did not exist at that time! Having returned the lost native Belarusian lands, the Soviet government stopped the mortal threat to the inhabitants of the area for two whole years.”
The Belarusian leader drew attention to the fact that in Poland they were very offended that the Belarusians in their state, according to their Constitution, decided to celebrate the day of the country’s reunification on this memorable date.
“Why are they offended? Polish lands. It turns out that we ‘occupied’ them,” said the President. In response to such accusations and reproaches, Aleksandr Lukashenko said that the historic decision to reunite the lands in 1939 was correct and just.
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Formation of the nation
As the Belarusian leader noted, at that time our people once again acquired the right to live and develop within the borders of one country. In a short time, people in the western regions received free medical care, almost 6,000 schools began to work, and national universities and theatres were opened. Moreover, new factories and plants were built. Belarusian newspapers and magazines appeared in all regional cities and centres.
“The reunification of Belarus in 1939 gave a powerful impetus to the development of the economy, science and culture. However, the main thing is that the Belarusians have united in the fight against the supporters of the re-creation of the ‘great’ Poland and in the fight against the Nazi occupiers,” the President noted.
Aleksandr Lukashenko added that on the battlefields, in partisan detachments and underground, residents of Western and Eastern Belarus, without hesitation, died for their Fatherland, “In this most terrible and cruel war in the history of mankind, the national unity of the Belarusians, Russians, Ukrainians, Poles, Jews and other small peoples living in the Republic was strengthened and tempered. In unthinkable trials, the Belarusian people were formed into a single nation.”
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Testament to future generations
Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed, “At the heart of national unity is the ancient tradition of democracy in our state. Together we choose our historical and political status at referendums and all-Belarusian congresses. We choose with our hearts, ourselves, no one dictates to us.”
This is exactly how the Belarusian leader noted that, in the current Year of People’s Unity, the proposal to make September 17th a new public holiday was voiced and supported by the majority of Belarusians, “Because for us it has long been a symbol of the Belarusian statehood and a testament to future generations, a behest to protect the sovereignty of the country, national unity and peace in the native land.”
The Head of State stressed, “Remember, Belarusians: this is the main holiday, which we did not feel able to mark for many decades. There would be no holiday — there would be no country and there would be no us!”
Recalling that in our country they are proud to say that the Soviet republic, which became a co-founder of the UN in 1945, took an honourable place in the international community and emerged as a Belarusian national state with equal rights for all citizens, the President noted that the national unity was tested more than once in the 20th century. In the 1990s, the Belarusian people rejected an attempt to build an extremely radical nationalistic state (‘Belarus for Belarusians’ was the motto back then), prevented the disintegration of the country and its pillaging, and preserved peace and accord in society.”
“Last August and September, in the acute period of the hybrid aggression unleashed against us, the Belarusians defended their independence. We, true Belarusians, didn’t let them repeat the blitzkrieg of the 1940s,” said Aleksandr Lukashenko. “But we return to the dramatic lessons of the first half of the last century without intending to reproach anyone. I will repeat what I have said time and time again. Our neighbours are given by God just like to any other country. We are intent on peace and friendship in relations with everyone. We’ve never craved someone else’s riches or land. We have plenty of our own. We don’t even remind them today that Bialystok and the lands around it are Belarusian lands, that Vilnius is a Belarusian city, as well as the lands around it. We don’t talk about it. Intra-confessional balance and interethnic unity represent the unshakable foundation of our society.”
The Belarusian leader stressed, “All of us, all the people, who live in this land, make up the Belarusian nation. We have one state, one law, and the common historical memory for all. It is unbreakable. It is forever.”
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We must not forget
At the same time, the Head of State clearly noted, “We will never allow glorifying Bury [the nickname of war criminal Romuald Rajs] and other murderers of the Belarusian people. They will always stay unchanged in our historical memory. There is no place here for those who are dragging these criminals out of oblivion, those who are trying to stomp out, to tear apart our sovereign country, to make it part of the buffer zone around the brotherly country of Russia.”
It is in vain that sometimes voices are heard that, perhaps, we should forget everything that was less than a hundred years ago.
“Well, Khatyn is immortalised by a monument. There are thousands of such monuments where our people were savagely murdered. We can forget it but you, Belarusians, must not forget one thing: as soon as we forget the road to these monuments, as soon as weeds grow all over the road to Khatyn, these atrocities will be repeated, these atrocities will once again come into our homes. We live as long as we remember it. There is a simple truth to life: if we forget them, we will be forgotten in the same way. This is why we shouldn’t let it happen. It is in our Slavonic hearts and thoughts.”
The date will live in our hearts!
Addressing both those present at the forum and the entire Belarusian people, Aleksandr Lukashenko said, “I want to congratulate you on a new public holiday, which will take the same worthy place in our modern history as Victory Day and Independence Day. But I will stress once again: if it were not for this reunification, we would not have had either Victory Day or Independence Day. We wouldn’t be here because there would be no land on which our ancestors were born and which they cultivated with their labour. The date of September 17th has lived and will live in the hearts and memories of the Belarusian people.”
The President summarised, “And we, the citizens of modern independent Belarus, know that we are forever bound by the original fate of different generations of Belarusians who have been living on this land for a thousand years, on our native Belarusian land.”
By Maksim Osipov
The forum of patriotic forces — Symbol of Unity — held in the capital’s Minsk-Arena was the culmination of numerous celebrations. Aleksandr Lukashenko also took part in this event bringing together many thousands of people. The President recalled that, back in 1939, Belarus was reunited within its national borders. For centuries, divided between principalities, kingdoms and empires, the people got the chance to build their own state on their historical land for the first time, “What does this day mean for us — living generations? This is our historical memory. Memory, which binds together people and epochs, conveys experience and warns against fatal mistakes. Our entire history of the sometimes difficult and dramatic path to gaining and preserving our statehood has repeatedly confirmed the ancient wisdom: strength is in unity.”
The President stated that we, Belarusians, know what it means for the sake of other people’s national interests, someone’s exorbitant geopolitical ambitions, to lose half of their native land, to lose contact with relatives and friends, “For long twenty years, over four million people living in the territory occupied by Poland were deprived of the right to speak their native language, study in national schools, develop their original culture and just be called Belarusians.”
The facts speak
The Head of State recalled that on September 17th, 1939, the inhabitants of Western Belarus greeted the Red Army soldiers as liberators. However, today there are those who are not averse to rewriting history. In this regard, the President noted, “We are unable to silence nationalists of all colours, the descendants of collaborators who equated this event with the attack of Nazi Germany on Poland. However, we can and must answer with facts.”
Aleksandr Lukashenko emphasised that this is what we have begun to do, recalling, “By mid-September of 1939, Poland suffered a crushing defeat in the war with Germany, with Polish troops being defeated. The government fled to the UK and the state ceased to exist. The shadow of Nazism hangs over Western Belarus. Over Western Belarus, which was part of the state that did not exist at that time! Having returned the lost native Belarusian lands, the Soviet government stopped the mortal threat to the inhabitants of the area for two whole years.”
The Belarusian leader drew attention to the fact that in Poland they were very offended that the Belarusians in their state, according to their Constitution, decided to celebrate the day of the country’s reunification on this memorable date.
“Why are they offended? Polish lands. It turns out that we ‘occupied’ them,” said the President. In response to such accusations and reproaches, Aleksandr Lukashenko said that the historic decision to reunite the lands in 1939 was correct and just.
Formation of the nation
As the Belarusian leader noted, at that time our people once again acquired the right to live and develop within the borders of one country. In a short time, people in the western regions received free medical care, almost 6,000 schools began to work, and national universities and theatres were opened. Moreover, new factories and plants were built. Belarusian newspapers and magazines appeared in all regional cities and centres.
“The reunification of Belarus in 1939 gave a powerful impetus to the development of the economy, science and culture. However, the main thing is that the Belarusians have united in the fight against the supporters of the re-creation of the ‘great’ Poland and in the fight against the Nazi occupiers,” the President noted.
Aleksandr Lukashenko added that on the battlefields, in partisan detachments and underground, residents of Western and Eastern Belarus, without hesitation, died for their Fatherland, “In this most terrible and cruel war in the history of mankind, the national unity of the Belarusians, Russians, Ukrainians, Poles, Jews and other small peoples living in the Republic was strengthened and tempered. In unthinkable trials, the Belarusian people were formed into a single nation.”
Testament to future generations
Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed, “At the heart of national unity is the ancient tradition of democracy in our state. Together we choose our historical and political status at referendums and all-Belarusian congresses. We choose with our hearts, ourselves, no one dictates to us.”
This is exactly how the Belarusian leader noted that, in the current Year of People’s Unity, the proposal to make September 17th a new public holiday was voiced and supported by the majority of Belarusians, “Because for us it has long been a symbol of the Belarusian statehood and a testament to future generations, a behest to protect the sovereignty of the country, national unity and peace in the native land.”
The Head of State stressed, “Remember, Belarusians: this is the main holiday, which we did not feel able to mark for many decades. There would be no holiday — there would be no country and there would be no us!”
Recalling that in our country they are proud to say that the Soviet republic, which became a co-founder of the UN in 1945, took an honourable place in the international community and emerged as a Belarusian national state with equal rights for all citizens, the President noted that the national unity was tested more than once in the 20th century. In the 1990s, the Belarusian people rejected an attempt to build an extremely radical nationalistic state (‘Belarus for Belarusians’ was the motto back then), prevented the disintegration of the country and its pillaging, and preserved peace and accord in society.”
“Last August and September, in the acute period of the hybrid aggression unleashed against us, the Belarusians defended their independence. We, true Belarusians, didn’t let them repeat the blitzkrieg of the 1940s,” said Aleksandr Lukashenko. “But we return to the dramatic lessons of the first half of the last century without intending to reproach anyone. I will repeat what I have said time and time again. Our neighbours are given by God just like to any other country. We are intent on peace and friendship in relations with everyone. We’ve never craved someone else’s riches or land. We have plenty of our own. We don’t even remind them today that Bialystok and the lands around it are Belarusian lands, that Vilnius is a Belarusian city, as well as the lands around it. We don’t talk about it. Intra-confessional balance and interethnic unity represent the unshakable foundation of our society.”
The Belarusian leader stressed, “All of us, all the people, who live in this land, make up the Belarusian nation. We have one state, one law, and the common historical memory for all. It is unbreakable. It is forever.”
We must not forget
At the same time, the Head of State clearly noted, “We will never allow glorifying Bury [the nickname of war criminal Romuald Rajs] and other murderers of the Belarusian people. They will always stay unchanged in our historical memory. There is no place here for those who are dragging these criminals out of oblivion, those who are trying to stomp out, to tear apart our sovereign country, to make it part of the buffer zone around the brotherly country of Russia.”
It is in vain that sometimes voices are heard that, perhaps, we should forget everything that was less than a hundred years ago.
“Well, Khatyn is immortalised by a monument. There are thousands of such monuments where our people were savagely murdered. We can forget it but you, Belarusians, must not forget one thing: as soon as we forget the road to these monuments, as soon as weeds grow all over the road to Khatyn, these atrocities will be repeated, these atrocities will once again come into our homes. We live as long as we remember it. There is a simple truth to life: if we forget them, we will be forgotten in the same way. This is why we shouldn’t let it happen. It is in our Slavonic hearts and thoughts.”
The date will live in our hearts!
Addressing both those present at the forum and the entire Belarusian people, Aleksandr Lukashenko said, “I want to congratulate you on a new public holiday, which will take the same worthy place in our modern history as Victory Day and Independence Day. But I will stress once again: if it were not for this reunification, we would not have had either Victory Day or Independence Day. We wouldn’t be here because there would be no land on which our ancestors were born and which they cultivated with their labour. The date of September 17th has lived and will live in the hearts and memories of the Belarusian people.”
The President summarised, “And we, the citizens of modern independent Belarus, know that we are forever bound by the original fate of different generations of Belarusians who have been living on this land for a thousand years, on our native Belarusian land.”
By Maksim Osipov
