MINSK, 23 March (BelTA) – It is vitally important to inform young people about the use of the white-red-white flag by Nazi accomplices, Rector of the Academy of Public Administration under the Aegis of the President of the Republic of Belarus Vyacheslav Danilovich told the SB. Belarus Segodnya newspaper.
“We cannot let anyone forget about the role of the true instigators of this global massacre, those who let it happen, we cannot allow the revision of the Great Victory and the oblivion of the feat of our ancestors. It is crucial to convey to the younger generation information about the use of the white-red-white flag by Nazi accomplices. Young people should know the truth about that terrible world war and the decisive contribution of their ancestors to the Great Victory. A person's world-view, civic identity and patriotic identification is based primarily on the historical memory. This memory helps shape the culture, traditions and spiritual world that determine self-identification of people. The destruction of these fundamental bonds, the distortion of the historical identification basis lead to degradation and disintegration of the nation,” Vyacheslav Danilovich said.
In his opinion, it is possible to develop social immunity against attempts to distort and falsify the past only through purposeful and consistent work and interaction of the family, educational institutions, government, the scientific community, public associations, the media that can join forces to preserve and convey objective information about the past, as well as to raise real patriots who love and respect their ancestors and want harmonious development of the society and the state.
“Supporters of white-red-white symbolism discredited, and in fact betrayed national and state interests as they collaborated with the Polish occupying forces during the Polish-Soviet War, and after that with the Nazis as they fought against the Red Army, Belarusian partisans and underground resistance fighters who opposed the Nazi aggressors who pursued the policy of genocide of the Belarusian people. Indeed, there was a period when white-red-white symbols were official in our country. But again, that was the most difficult period in the history of independent Belarus, the time of the deepest social, economic and political crisis. The biggest successes of Belarusian people were achieved not thanks to the supporters of that symbolism, but in spite of them. Through the efforts of various quasi-activists, the white-red-white flag acquired a negative connotation. It long turned from a symbol of the Belarusian national movement into a symbol of social, political, economic, spiritual and cultural failures,” Vyacheslav Danilovich said.
