VITEBSK, 18 February (BelTA) – Novopolotsk will hold a video conference with relatives of Soviet soldiers who died in the Stalag 354 camp in Borovukha and Russian activists-searchers, Nikolai Romanovsky, the head of ideological work, culture and youth affairs at the Novopolotsk City Hal, told BelTA.
The organizers of the online conference are the Novopolotsk City Hall and Polotsk State University. "A year ago, we found a notebook of a doctor of the hospital for the Stalag 354 camp for prisoners of war in the Borovukha district of Novopolotsk. It had the names of about 400 Red Army soldiers. Thanks to this unique find, we established the names of 106 soldiers and immortalized them in the Zvezda memorial complex in Novopolotsk dedicated to the victims of fascism. Today, relatives of some of them will contact us online. They searched for their loved ones for many years, tried to find at least a tiny bit of information about their grandfathers and great-grandfathers, who for more than seven decades were considered missing," Nikolai Romanovsky said.
The geography of the participants will be extensive: Khabarovsk, Smolensk, Kemerovo, Ivanovo, Korolev of Moscow Oblast, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Tyumen Oblast, Krasnodar Krai and Kurgan Oblast.
Apart from communication with the relatives of those who died on the territory of Borovukha, the Belarusians and Russians will share experience of search activities. The video conference will mark the Year of People's Unity in the Republic of Belarus and the 80th anniversary of the start of the Great Patriotic War. “We will use the video conference to discuss the results of the activities of Novopolotsk search teams and the Defense Ministry of Belarus. Experts will tell about the Russian natives who died in Stalag 354, the German camp for prisoners of war and civilians. We sent letters to 43 regions of the Russian Federation looking for the Red Army soldiers' relatives and friends. Thanks to the close cooperation with the Russian regional administrations, public organizations and searchers we have found 10 relatives of the dead soldiers. This work continues,” Nikolai Romanovsky emphasized.
He added that on the Day of Defenders of the Fatherland and the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus, new memorial plates with the names of 67 Red Army soldiers will be opened in the Zvezda memorial complex.
The participants of the conference will also discuss measures to preserve historical memory among the youth, international cooperation and the search movement projects in the two countries.
