MINSK, 18 October (BelTA) – If the countryside is ruined, then Belarusians will have to bow intermittently to the East and to the West in order to get a piece of bread. Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko was confident of it during the harvest festival Dazhynki in Pruzhany, Brest Oblast back in 2003. At present the president still believes that a state cannot exist without the countryside. What else did Aleksandr Lukashenko talk about in Pruzhany and what gift did he present to the local community center on the occasion of the harvest festival? Find out by watching BelTA’s YouTube project “How it was: DOC”.
In 2003 the nationwide harvest festival took place in Pruzhany, one of Belarus’ oldest towns. However, Pruzhany was noticeably spruced up ahead of Dazhynki. Making the Belarusian towns that host the harvest festival tidy and neat is a good tradition. Pruzhany was no exception. A community center and a bus station were built in the town. The Mukhavets Hotel was redecorated. As many as 77 streets were repaired. And the list of accomplishments is far from complete.
Aleksandr Lukashenko went to Pruzhany for the Dazhynki festival in 2003. By the way, the head of state attended the community center’s inauguration ceremony.
The president did not come empty-handed and gifted a button accordion to a local artistic collective. “It may have gotten out of tune during transportation,” Aleksandr Lukashenko remarked. One of the artists immediately performed a simple tune using the button accordion. “The sound is clean. As they say, do not look a gift horse in the mouth,” the president added with a smile.
Following another good tradition, the president took part in a ceremony to award top workers of the harvesting campaign. The president pointed out that it was the first time when not only heroes of the cereals harvesting campaign were honored during Dazhynki in Pruzhany but also winners of a national forage harvesting competition. “It is no accident. Rural dwellers also worked hard to gather in forage. For the first time in recent years we can fully supply ourselves with forage and provide our animal husbandry industry with forage. Once again we have assured ourselves of the huge potential of our Belarusian land,” the head of state pointed out.
Aleksandr Lukashenko added that the accomplished results represented a result of the most intensive work primarily on the part of Belarusian peasants. “But it is also a result of the constant support and aid that the state provides to agriculture. If 3-4 years ago we had not come to our senses and had not created and made the main agricultural machines and vehicles together with our scientists, designers, and specialists, we would have no bread this year. It is our harvesters, definitely harvesters that we have bought to tool and retool agriculture (certainly, we’ve bought too few of them for now) that have saved us this unfavorable year. The state lent a shoulder, allocated considerable resources, and thus ensured the stable development of agricultural production,” he said.
The president noted that today Belarusians are supplied with bread and everything that goes with it and are independent from calamities on world food markets. “Our task is to advance agriculture to a high world level. And change the standard of living of rural Belarusians as much. The state cannot exist without villages, without the countryside, without peasants. If there is a countryside, then there will be a state. If we ruin the countryside, we will have to bow to the East and to the West for a piece of bread. We have no right to allow it,” Aleksandr Lukashenko was confident.
Even more unique archive footage from the Dazhynki festival held in Pruzhany in 2003 is available in BelTA’s YouTube project “How it was: DOC”.
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