KIROVSK DISTRICT, 20 June (BelTA) – Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko instructed to nominate the authors of the memorial complex commoerating the burned villages of Mogilev Oblast in Borki for the state awards as he talked with the participants of the commemorative event, BelTA has learned.
“It is a heartfelt monument, appropriate, exactly what was needed,” the Belarusian leader stressed.
Aleksandr Lukashenko praised the way the authors conveyed their idea in concrete and sculptures. Moreover, everything was done in a short time.
In memory of the residents of the village of Borki and the burned villages of the region a monument was erected in 1964, in the run-up to the 20th anniversary of the liberation of Kirovsk District from the Nazi invaders. The monument features a warrior and a girl who lays flowers. Sixty-two years after the tragedy, a chapel was built in honor of the Icon of the Mother of God "In Search of the Perishing". A wall of remembrance of the burned villages of Mogilev Oblast was unveiled a bit later.
In 2019, the regional authorities decided to renovate the commemorative signs in the village and build a memorial on the site showing the full extent of the atrocities committed by the Nazis.
The project of the memorial in the village of Borki was designed by a group of young sculptors and architects. They suggested the elements of the complex embodying the horror of that tragedy: a street with fragments of burned walls of the houses showing the places where they once stood.
The things left behind symbolize the suddenly interrupted peaceful life and defenselessness against inhuman cruelty. The charred logs features the testimonies of the people who survived that terrible tragedy.
Several sculptures have been set up, namely “Belarus - a grieving mother” - a figure of a frozen mother grieving at the empty cradle, deprived of children and the future by the Nazis, the “Flame” - the image of people dying in the flames, and the "Well" - a place of mourning and remembrance of tortured children thrown alive into wells.
The makeshift street ends with a stone with a message to descendants and a new park representing life.
