MINSK, 6 May (BelTA) - Historians, social scientists, and mass media have a task to counteract attempts to falsify the historical past, and to convey to every citizen the meanings and values for which our fathers and grandfathers fought in World War II, Chairman of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus Igor Sergeyenko said at the scientific forum “The Great Victory for Peace and Development” on 6 May, BelTA has learned.
According to the speaker, three main areas should be followed in order to make the work on preservation of historical truth as effective and targeted as possible. First, Belarusian historians should continue large-scale studies of the events of the Great Patriotic War. Dozens of monographs, collections of scientific articles, documents and materials have already been prepared and published in recent years. However, according to Igor Sergeyenko, it is also important to make sure that the results of research are not limited to the academic community, but be made public.
“Refracting through the prism of personal stories of specific families and heroes, historical facts about the events of the Great Patriotic War should become an example of pride of the residents of specific settlements, districts and the country as a whole. This can be said about the feat of Belarusian soldiers and military leaders on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, as well as about the functioning of the partisan movement,” said the chairman of the House of Representatives. “Despite the unprecedented genocide launched by the Nazis and their accomplices, the spirit of our people was not broken. Its scale and results, the nationwide resistance to the occupiers in the USSR has no analogues in the world. It is no coincidence that the head of state characterized it as a ‘second front’. The partisan movement was one of the biggest factors that contributed to the defeat of the enemy.”
Secondly, the young generation, as the speaker emphasized, should get learn about the harsh reality in which their relatives lived under the occupation, as well as about the ultimate goals of the Nazis, which was the physical extermination of the inferior Slavic race, be it Belarusians, Russians, Ukrainians or their nationalities. “The bells of Khatyn and thousands of burned villages, the burial sites of hundreds of murdered civilians, and the death camps are clear examples of what was prepared for us by the so-called civilized race of the Nazi Germany. We need to talk about it openly,” Igor Sergeyenko said.
Finally, the third valuable lesson taught by the Great Patriotic War, according to the speaker, is that only together, shoulder to shoulder, working hard and persistently, can we overcome any adversity. “In our unstable world, the memory of the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War serves as a reference point and a moral basis for countries pursuing a constructive agenda to create a new world order based on the principles of equality, trust and mutual respect,” the speaker of the House of Representatives said. “Only through joint efforts can we successfully resist the attempts of revanchism and the revival of Nazism, no matter how they are presented to us today. I am confident that by preserving the baton of memory and the continuity of generations, we will achieve our goals, ensuring a peaceful future for our peoples.”
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