Nationwide subbotnik 2023 held in Belarus
All Belarusians have joined a traditional spring campaign today: nationwide subbotnik (voluntary labour day). Its creative and consolidating role makes people’s life more comfortable and unites the nation. During last year's subbotnik, President Aleksandr Lukashenko worked at the Khatyn Memorial Complex, and he stressed then that Belarus takes all the best from its Soviet past, “The subbotnik is one of the campaigns that was worth inheriting from that time. It represents our traditions, and our people live by traditions.”
The resolution of the Council of Ministers, signed by Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko, stipulates that half of the money earned this day – including at workplaces – is planned to be sent to the Gomel Regional Executive Committee for the reconstruction of the memorial complex devoted to the prisoners of the Ozarichi death camp, in the Kalinkovichi District. The camp operated for only ten days, but became one of the most terrible incarnations of the genocide of the Belarusian people – through bacteriological weapons.
Other fifty percent of the funds generated will be transferred to the Brest Regional Executive Committee for the creation of a republican centre for patriotic education of youth on the basis of the Kobrin fortification of the Brest Fortress. The Youth Patriotic Centre works here, in the building where the 125th Rifle Regiment (that was involved into a heroic defence in 1941) was stationed. During the President's Address to the Belarusian People and the National Assembly, a representative of the student movement proposed Aleksandr Lukashenko to create a similar object on a national scale and to declare it an all-Belarusian youth construction site. The Head of State promised to study the issue, and – as a result – a decision was made to transfer part of the funds earned during today’s subbotnik to the construction of a patriotic centre.
As Deputy Prime Minister Leonid Zayats reported earlier, about 3 million citizens will take part in the campaign, and more than Br12m are likely to be generated.
In line with Resolution No. 17 of the Finance Ministry as of April 12th, 2023, republican public administration bodies and other state organisations subordinate to the Government, local executive and administrative bodies, and other organisations transfer funds earned on the day of the nationwide subbotnik, including at workplaces, in amounts determined voluntarily by employees, to special bank accounts of district and city executive committees.
Non‑profit organisations participating in the campaign transfer cash in the amounts determined voluntarily by their collectives to special accounts of the district and city executive committees or to the current (settlement) bank account of the organisation, followed by their transfer to special accounts of the district and city executive committees. In turn, the district and city executive committees daily transfer funds received from the nationwide subbotnik to special accounts of the regional executive committees. In turn, the regional executive committees and the Minsk City Executive Committee send money to a special bank account of the Finance Ministry in the National Bank.
As the Chairperson of the Central Council of the Belarusian Republican Pioneer Organisation, Aleksandra Goncharova, noted in her talk with BelTA, the spring subbotnik has become a tradition among pioneers, Octobrites and senior leaders of pioneer squads, “The nationwide subbotnik is an event that serves as an excellent example for children and teenagers, teaching them to treat their native land, city and the whole country with care and respect.”
In the Vitebsk Region, pioneer squads of rural schools will clean public transport stops and roadsides of streets. In the Gomel Region, the Aleksy Lelchitsky Church, the monuments of military glory in the agro-towns of Syrod and Domanovichi will be landscaped. In the Mogilev Region, activists of 329 pioneer squads will restore order in parks, places of mass recreation of people, in courtyards and memorials.
