MINSK, 5 May (BelTA) - Chairwoman of the Council of the Republic Natalya Kochanova attended a memory lesson to mark the 77th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War in Gymnasium No. 31 in Minsk on 5 May, BelTA has learned.
"This terrible tragedy affected every family, mine too,” Natalya Kochanova said. “During the war, my father lived in Russia, my mother - in Belarus. My mother was here during the war, under occupation. I was lucky that my mother survived and is with me today."
The speaker noted: I grew up with the memory of the war in my heart. "My dad was the youngest in the family. His elder brothers went to war. One of his brothers was seriously wounded. My mother's uncle was on the front too. He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. He was in Berlin when the war ended. If I list all the relatives who took part in that terrible war, the list will be quite long. I'm proud of my family members, and all those who survived that terrible ordeal," she stressed. "When my mother starts talking about the war, she says that the further she lives, the more vivid the memories become. The most terrible thing was living under occupation. This has become part of my DNA. I can't talk about it calmly. I want to reach out to every young person and tell them to appreciate and remember the things our older generations went through. Imagining the inhuman conditions our older generation had to live through in their childhood and youth gets you to understand how terrible the war was, how important it is to keep peace."
"Today we must preserve peace. It's not just words. You need to feel it in your bones. If there is no peace, a person does not need anything,” Natalya Kochanova said. “My most cherished dream as a child was to travel back in time, to 9 May to feel the joy when the news of peace came. That was my dream.”
Memory lessons are held in Belarusian schools in the run-up to Victory Day. Their mission is to cultivate an objective understanding among students of the contribution of the Belarusian people to the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, the heroic heritage as the most important part of historical memory, the genocide of the Belarusian people, and to educate a respectful attitude to the historical past.
