2022 The Year of Historical Memory in Belarus
28.06.2022On January 1, the Head of State signed Decree No. 1 declaring 2022 the Year of Historical Memory.
Speaking on January 11, 2022 at the ceremony to present “For Spiritual Revival” awards and “Belarusian Sports Olympus” awards President of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko noted:
«The loss of the image of the heroic past leads the state to disaster and deprives the people of the future. That is why we have declared 2022 the Year of Historical Memory.
A good occasion for all of us to once again comprehend the thousand-year-old thorny path of the people to independence and their own statehood. To put together all the pages of our difficult history: both heroic and tragic…. To convey to the world the truth about the genocide of the Belarusian and other peoples on the territory of our country.
We are obliged to do it. First of all, for our children and grandchildren. They must know the price of peace and freedom, which have been won by sweat and blood of many generations.”
The government was instructed to develop and approve a Republican Action Plan for observing the Year of Historical Memory in 2022, with the participation of the Prosecutor General's Office, the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, regional executive committees and Minsk City executive committee. The Government will also coordinate the activities of state bodies and other organizations to implement the said plan. For these purposes, the resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus dated January 27, 2022 No. 50 approved the Republican Action Plan for observing the Year of Historical Memory.
The significance of the topic of the historical past of the Belarusian people was reflected in the updated Constitution of the Republic of Belarus, supported by the people at the republican referendum on February 27, 2022.
The Constitution of the Republic of Belarus, among other things, includes provisions aimed at preserving the historical truth and memory of the Great Patriotic War, the mass heroism of the people:
«the state ensures the preservation of historical truth and memory of the heroic deed of the Belarusian people during the Great Patriotic War» (art. 15);
«the manifestation of patriotism, the preservation of the historical memory of the heroic past of the Belarusian people are the duty of every citizen of the Republic of Belarus» (art. 54).
This has been done for the present and future generations in order to preserve the spirituality of the Belarusian society, to unite and mobilize it to overcome the challenges that arise before us.
At the initiative of the General Prosecutor’s Office, in January 2022, the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus adopted the Law “On the Genocide of the Belarusian People”.
It is aimed at further legislative protection of the fundamental values of the Belarusian people, preventing the rehabilitation of Nazism, establishing effective barriers to attempts to falsify the events and results of World War II, and counteracting neo-Nazi manifestations in modern Belarusian society.
For the first time, the fact of the genocide of the Belarusian people during the Great Patriotic War and (or) the post-war period is recognized at the legislative level. Article 1 of the Law establishes that the atrocities committed by Nazi criminals and their accomplices, nationalist formations during the Great Patriotic War and the post-war period, aimed at the systematic physical destruction of the Belarusian people through murder and other actions recognized as genocide in accordance with legislative acts and norms of international law, are the genocide of the Belarusian people.
It has been documented that during the Great Patriotic War and in the post-war period on the territory of the BSSR and other states, a systematic policy was carried out to destroy the civilian population through massacres, deliberately creating living conditions designed for its physical extermination, punitive operations and forced deportation were carried out, places of forced detention of the population, concentration and death camps were created, and monstrous medical experiments were practiced, including on minors.
