Verified content of Great Patriotic War events essential for textbooks

Modern textbooks should contain verified information of the Great Patriotic War events – as noted by Igor Marzalyuk, the Chairman of the Standing Committee on Education, Culture and Science of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly, during an expert-media seminar On Countering Attempts to Falsify the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War History and Results

Mr. Marzalyuk reminded that collaborators and Belarusian nationalists are sometimes represented as national heroes on the Internet. “We are to blame for this,” he stressed, explaining, “We had the figures of non-disclosure in both the Soviet and post-Soviet historiography. Out of the best intentions, we did not focus on the problem of collaborations and did not study this issue in detail. The situation is changing at the moment and it’s necessary to explain what was happening then in modern textbooks and popular science literature. When we present a plan of destruction of an ethnic group – initiated people who positioned themselves as heroes – the majority of sober-minded people will then lose all desire to call them national heroes. We should jointly with the Prosecutor General's Office clearly pronounce these aspects and provide verified content in textbooks.”

According to Mr. Marzalyuk, society needs a clear understanding that people – who pursued their narrowly utilitarian goals – committed crimes on our territories under the Germans’ command, “Belarusians should know who destroyed this or that village. This will not be a violation of internationalism or some kind of xenophobia. We must remember that any non-disclosure gives rise to myths, and incomplete knowledge produces lies. We do not need figures of silence: we must be objective and honest.”

Mr. Marzalyuk also recalled that a systematic revision of WWII, the Great Patriotic War and some mythologems – natural for the so-called alternative history – is in place. “I want to emphasise the official position of Belarusian and Russian authorities who agree that collaborators are perceived as traitors in our official historical discourse. This is a common thing that fundamentally distinguishes us from other neighbours,” he stressed.