MINSK, 10 April (BelTA) – The present generation bears great responsibility for keeping the memory of the Great Victory alive, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said in an interview with the Interstate TV and Radio Company Mir on 8 April, BelTA has learned.
“We talk a lot about our Victory, about the heroism of our people, about the genocide against the Soviet people, against our people. It's right, it's true, but do we put a lot of heart into it? After all, 80 years have already passed. A few of those who survived the war as children or adults are living today. Those who fought in the war are almost gone,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
“I am, after all, a Soviet person. I have met a lot of people who fought in the war, those who suffered this tragedy, who survived it. This is deep in me. It's a complete conviction. That's why ‘heroism, Victory’ are not empty words for me. These are heartfelt things. At a time when there are very few people left, we need to feel the words, to make sure our youth, at least the next generation, understands what the victory was and be proud of it. Belarus suffered the worst during the war. It was wiped off the face of the earth. The Belarusians are patient people, they know how to work, endure hardships, hide in the woods... So we survived. We thought that Belarus lost every fourth resident. Not at all: every third person perished. We know that for sure. I'm wary these figures do not get worse.”
The president said that the Prosecutor General's Office was investigating a criminal case into the genocide of the population of Belarus during the Great Patriotic War and the postwar period. Thanks to this work, in particular, it was possible to obtain the new information about settlements that were destroyed by the Nazi occupiers together with their inhabitants.
“When those figures (every fourth) were announced after the war, the country's leadership realized that it did not reflect well on them too. That was why they did not try to show everything, I mean, how many people died in fact. I understand them. I am not criticizing them. These are people who went through hell and back. They wanted a smaller number of casualties. But, in fact, a great many people died. It was not 25 or 27 million. There were more than 30 million Soviet people who died in that terrible war. About the same number of Chinese and other peoples died in the fight against Japanese militarism. Many of our people died there as well,” Aleksandr Lukashenko emphasized.
“Our history is a great responsibility and it is our heritage. I did not fight then, but nevertheless this is my victory. This is the victory of the generation of people who lived in the Soviet Union and in Belarus. If we talk about it, we bear the greatest responsibility for it.”
It was noted during the interview that Belarus was the first republic in the Soviet Union to face the attack of Nazi Germany during the war. Belarusians and representatives of other ethnicities fought fiercely. Thanks to this this tragedy did not reach the distant regions of the Soviet Union.
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