On Independence Day in Belarus, schoolchildren honoured the memory of heroes of the Great Patriotic War at the Mound of Glory memorial complex in Minsk.
On Independence Day in the Republic of Belarus, participants in the cultural and educational project Memory Train visited the Mound of Glory memorial complex in Minsk. They laid wreaths and flowers at the monument and honoured the memory of the heroes with a minute of silence.
As President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko emphasised during the ceremony, the Mound of Glory is a sacred place. It was the place where fierce battles were fought, while thousands of soldiers and officers sacrificed their lives for the sake of future generations. “Here the brotherly ties of a large multiethnic country were cemented with blood. Fighters did not divide themselves into Belarusians and Russians, Ukrainians and Kazakhs, Armenians and Georgians, Tajiks and Kyrgyz, Azerbaijanis, Uzbeks and others. They did not divide the land into their own and foreign. They fought for our one Fatherland.”
The President of Belarus welcomed young people from Russia, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan – participants in the Memory Train project. “In time, the train will surely gather all the heirs of the victorious nations, from all the former republics of the Soviet Union. We have one memory of that war, one victory and one truth. In such a difficult time, only together can we guarantee peace in our land, only together can we be free and independent,” he said.
The Memory Train participants were accompanied by Konstantin Kosachev, Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council and Chairman of the project’s Organising Committee. He said that children from the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition would be able to take part in the project in the coming years. “By 2025, we expect to invite high school students from all 15 post-Soviet republics without exception. They include the Baltic states, Georgia and Ukraine,” the Senator added.
During their stay in Minsk, the schoolchildren visited the Museum of the Great Patriotic War, the National Library and other sights, in addition to the Mound of Glory.