MINSK, 7 May (BelTA) – Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko has presented state awards to outstanding representatives of various fields ahead of the sacred Victory Day holiday, BelTA has learned.
“In the run-up to the great, sacred holiday, Victory Day, we have gathered in this hall of the Palace of Independence to present awards to our best people. This symbolic tradition is yet another living thread of memory that connects times and generations, taking each of us back to that distant May of 1945,” the head of state said during the award ceremony. “Destroyed, burned, but not conquered Belarus, which lost every third person in the crucible of the Great Patriotic War, together with other peoples of the Soviet Union saved the planet from the brown plague. This is the greatest pride of the entire Soviet people.”
Aleksandr Lukashenko emphasized that in those spring days the liberated republic was rising from the ashes: “People worked selflessly, restoring factory workshops and cities from ruins. They greeted the Victory trains with bouquets of wildflowers. And on 9 May almost all residents of Minsk came out onto Lenin Square.”
The president noted that after the festive rally it was decided to commemorate that happiest and long-awaited day. By evening, thousands of trees had been planted in the capital, and Victory Alley appeared. This initiative was warmly supported in other cities across the republic. “Victory Parks, Gardens and Alleys, the Alleys of Hero-Victors, and the Alleys of Partisan Glory can now be found in almost every Belarusian city or town. Because a tree symbolizes life. Peaceful, creative work symbolizes confidence in the future,” the Belarusian leader said.
“Just like they did [the representatives of the heroic generation of victors], we glorify our Motherland primarily through our labor achievements. But if necessary, we are ready to defend it, without sparing our lives, with weapons in hand, just as they did,” the head of state assured.
Among those who received state awards were many representatives of the security and defense sector. As Aleksandr Lukashenko noted, these are people who are always on duty. “Every peaceful day, every peaceful year is their tremendous achievement,” he stressed.
The president expressed his gratitude to agricultural workers, “whose hands smell of bread and milk”: “You ensure no less important food security. It is your hard work that has brought Belarus into the ranks of the world’s leading food-exporting countries.”
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