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VOLGOGRAD, 29 April (BelTA) – The status of heirs of the great generation of heroic winners comes with a lot of obligations but there are also those, who are displeased by it. Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko made the statement during the international patriotic forum of the Union State of Belarus and Russia “Great heritage - common future” in the Russian city of Volgograd on 29 April, BelTA has learned.
The head of state offered thanks for the organization of the forum and for the invitation to take part in it. He remarked that the timing and the location of the forum have symbolic significance. The forum is taking place in Volgograd (Stalingrad until 1961), the city that was an impregnable fortress of steel in the way of Hitler’s army. The countdown to the victorious May began in Stalingrad. The course of the war was reversed in the city. It was then that the victory became assured and the enemy could change nothing, with only one road left open: to Berlin.
According to the president, the current meeting represents more than a tribute to the common heroic past. “We turn to history in order to protect not only the future but the present already. This is how the issue stands today,” he stressed. “We are heirs of the great generation of heroic winners. We have nothing to be ashamed of and nothing to hide. This status comes with a lot of obligations. And it irritates many. Descendants of the losing supporters of the Third Reich oppose us. We speak about it increasingly often.”
Stalingrad faced an assault of unprecedented might and waged a battle that lasted 200 days, the head of state stated. “Thousands of fallen heroes. Everyone from generals to soldiers understood that the fate of humanity and the course of world history were being decided here,” the president added. If they had wavered and the enemy had secured access to oil reserves, the victory in the war would have become unattainable. “Retreat was not an option. The Battle of the Kursk Salient would not have happened. Fate would have had to deal with the problem of Moscow next,” Aleksandr Lukashenko pointed out.
“This is why everyone held their ground to the death here,” he continued. “This is why they made a final stand at the Volga River. Just like in the Brest Fortress.” The Belarusian leader noted that Vladimir Putin had made the right call when he chose Volgograd as the place for the forum. “It is a very correct location. It is a direct hit for discussing the problems that we face, the problems that descendants force upon us,” the Belarusian leader said.
Continuing the conversation about wartime events, the head of state quoted the commanding officer of the 62nd Army, General Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov: “We, the living participants of the fighting in Stalingrad, testify that here our warriors knew no fear in firefights, did not retreat in the face of death, and fought with such resolve that they held on to their arms even in their death…”
“I repeat: the dead still held their weapons. There is nothing to add to it. All of us bow to the heroes, who managed to withstand the deadly blow, stand upright, and repulse the enraged enemy all the way to Berlin,” the president said.
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