MINSK, 25 February (BelTA) - The National Library of Belarus is hosting an exhibition of archival documents “Surviving Captivity” to mark the 80th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War. The exposition tells about the fate of prisoners of war during the Great Patriotic War. The exhibition has been prepared by archivists of Russia’s Sverdlovsk Oblast, BelTA learned.
Aleksei Shmykov, First Deputy Governor of Sverdlovsk Oblast, emphasized the importance of such projects for preserving the historical memory and countering the attempts to falsify the history. “The presidents of our countries have repeatedly emphasized the closest kinship of the peoples of Russia and Belarus. For 10 centuries we have shared a common destiny, which has determined the close economic, political and cultural ties between the two states. The spiritual unity of Russians and Belarusians is woven by the common historical experience, the hard trials that our peoples had to overcome together many times. In the year of the 80th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, we are reliving these tragic events of our shared history. As it is known, the BSSR was occupied in the first months of the war, most of the republic remained under the Nazi occupation until the summer of 1944.
Aleksei Shmykov, First Deputy Governor of Sverdlovsk Oblast, emphasized the importance of such projects for preserving the historical memory and countering the attempts to falsify the history. “The presidents of our countries have repeatedly emphasized the closest kinship of the peoples of Russia and Belarus. For 10 centuries we have shared a common destiny, which has determined the close economic, political and cultural ties between the two states. The spiritual unity of Russians and Belarusians is woven by the common historical experience, the hard trials that our peoples had to overcome together many times. In the year of the 80th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, we are reliving these tragic events of our shared history. As it is known, the BSSR was occupied in the first months of the war, most of the republic remained under the Nazi occupation until the summer of 1944.
Over the three long years, the country’s population was subjected to unprecedented exploitation and violence. Today Russian schoolchildren and students study the tragedy of Khatyn village as part of their history classes. Russia remembers that 185 more Belarusian villages suffered the same terrible fate of Khatyn,” Aleksei Shmykov said.
According to Roman Taraborin, the head of the Sverdlovsk Oblast Archives Department, the exhibition will attract a lot of interest, as this is the first time that such archival documents are on display in Belarus. “This year, as part of the Victory’s 80th Anniversary celebrations, we are implementing a number of publishing exhibition and social projects to ensure that we, both Russian and Belarusian peoples, do not forget the lessons of history. The Great Patriotic War is certainly a very tragic event, probably the most tragic in our history,” Roman Taraborin said.
According to him, the archival documents dedicated to PoWs tell the stories of both civilians and Red Army fighters held in captivity during the Great Patriotic War. “These documents show the number of prisoners, the number of deaths, terrible confinement conditions and much more. The short description of these stories is not very illustrative. When we work with documents, we can verify certain facts or events. Personal documents, which can include notes, excerpts from diaries, cartoons, newspapers and others, tell us a story of a person,” he emphasized.
The development of cooperation in archiving between Belarus and Russia helps not only to strengthen professional ties, but also to restore historical justice, Deputy Justice Minister Oleg Kot stated. “Nowadays cooperation between Belarus and Russia is actively developing in various areas, including in archiving. Today we have prepared a plan of joint activities to develop cooperation between our archival institutions. The National Archives of Belarus was searching for data about the citizens of Sverdlovsk Oblast. To date, we have already identified 94 natives of Yekaterinburg who took part in combat operations in partisan units during the Great Patriotic War. We have handed over materials about nine of these people," he noted.
The event also included a ceremony to sign the plan of joint activities to develop cooperation between the archival institutions of Belarus and Sverdlovsk Oblast of Russia for 2025-2027.
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