BAKU, 3 May (BelTA) – The common strong stance on historical memory will allow strengthening the information union of the Commonwealth of Independent States. BelTA Director General Irina Akulovich made the statement at the 31st session of the council of heads of state-run news agencies of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS Information Council) in Baku, Azerbaijan, BelTA has learned.
Irina Akulovich said: “The CIS states share a history, share the victory and our job is to preserve and defend our history. This year we celebrate the 80th anniversary of Belarus’ liberation from the Nazi invaders. A number of patriotic events and campaigns are organized in the country. The large-scale reconstruction of the WW2 memorial complex Khatyn was finished in 2023. A church was opened at its premises in addition to an exposition of the new museum of remembrance of victims of the Belarusian nation during the Great Patriotic War. This reconstruction had been declared an all-Belarusian youth construction project.”
Archive research work continues in the country to ascertain names and fates and to find the previously unknown locations where those, who died during the war, are buried. BelTA also cooperates with government agencies to preserve the historical truth.
“While European countries cynically demolish monuments to Soviet liberator-warriors and attempt to glorify Nazi criminals, our country has started scrupulous work to restore the full picture of what happened when the Nazi occupied Belarus in the 1940s. Atrocities committed by the Nazi during the occupation prompted the initiation of a criminal case into the genocide of the Belarusian nation,” the director general noted. “The Belarusian Telegraph Agency and the Prosecutor General’s Office have launched an art project focusing on the genocide. Titled as Last Witnesses, it is based on new video materials acquired by investigators of the Prosecutor General’s Office.”
Due to the special informational and ideological significance of these materials, including for exposing various collaborationist myths, the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Belarusian Telegraph Agency have decided to publish these materials as a dedicated book, Irina Akulovich stressed.
The Justice Ministry in association with BelTA has published the book “Archives. Nothing but the truth”, which has collected human-interest stories and little known archive data concerning the genocide of the Belarusian nation. “Together with personnel of the prosecution service and the archive we followed the blood trail left by the Nazi during the occupation of our land. We’ve presented unique archive materials that had not been previously published, testimonies of the witnesses, wartime photos that depict Nazi crimes,” Irina Akulovich added. “The book ‘Archives. Nothing but the truth’ was presented at the National Library of Belarus on 6 June 2023. The book is being translated into German and is being prepared for publishing.”
Participants of the session discussed joint projects of the CIS states, which are dedicated to the matter of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, to preserving the historic truth, and to the 80th anniversary of the Victory.
