MINSK, 10 May (BelTA) - The memory of the war is something that Belarus never betrays, BelTA Director General Irina Akulovich said during the opening of BelTA’s new photo exhibition Victory Lives in Memory at the family festival Our Victory near the Palace of Sports in Minsk on 10 May.
“Yesterday, 180,000 people gathered to watch the parade in Minsk. We witnessed a grandiose performance. This exhibition tells the story of military parades held in Minsk,” said Irina Akulovich.
The project took several months to develop. “It was a very thorough work. We needed to collect every verified fact. We are the Belarusian Telegraph Agency, after all. We worked in our photo archives, in the Derzhinsk archive of film and photo documents, requested materials from our colleagues from TASS, and looked through old newspapers. After all, the places of celebration changed, and every year something new was added. The exhibition was created with the support of Belgospishcheprom, and we are very grateful for their support,” BelTA’s director general said.
The exhibition pays special attention to the events of 1995. “It was then that the honor guard company participated in the parade in Minsk for the first time. It was set up in February, and it marched through the square in May. It was also the first time when the parade featured a flypast and the standards of all four fronts. You can find all these facts on the stands,” said Irina Akulovich.
In her words, the exhibition consists of unique photos that no one has ever seen before. “Perhaps we should go back to 1945. On the morning of 9 May, an airplane from Moscow flew over Minsk and dropped 9,000 leaflets. People were picking them up and pasting on the surviving buildings or simply to the foundations, because the city was largely destroyed. At 8.30 there was an announcement about the surrender of Germany. People started coming out to the Government House - this was the first point of the Victory celebration,” said Irina Akulovich.
About 70,000 people remained in Minsk at that time. “Probably everyone came out. The cinemas and theaters restored after the liberation worked for free. People went to films and plays. Girls danced with each other as men had not yet returned from the front,” BelTA’s director general said.
She recalled that only in 1965 9 May was named an official holiday again. “Dinamo Stadium joined the venues on the celebration map. It was there that Masherov announced on 8 May 1965 that Brest Fortress was awarded the title of hero fortress,” said Irina Akulovich.
The place where the current exhibition was opened also has a special significance in history. “In 1975, the first Victory Day celebration was held in the Palace of Sports. Later there would be parades with 17 bands marching towards each other. There would also be a parade in 2000, when Minsk was the only city in the CIS to have a military parade,” BelTA’s director general emphasized.
According to Irina Akulovich, the major goal of the exhibition is to show that the parade venues and formats often changed, but the main thing always remained unchanged: Belarus has always kept the memory alive and will always do it. “Participating in the parade in 2010 were both Russian and Ukrainian troops. After yesterday's statements by Zelensky, these facts acquire a special meaning,” she emphasized.
Irina Akulovich also mentioned the parade of 2020. “The president then said: ‘This day is sacred to us. The idea of changing traditions is unacceptable for us.’ Keeping memory alive is of crucial importance. As our president says, and probably as each of us says: Minsk never betrays its memory,” she said.
Follow us on:
