‘We do the right thing’

Posted: 27.04.2023 09:15:00 27 April, 9:15

Aleksandr Lukashenko and his team planted 80 oak trees during the subbotnik in Khatyn

For the second year in a row, the Head of State comes to the nationwide subbotnik at the Khatyn Memorial Complex. In 2022, through the efforts of the President’s team, apple trees and wild roses appeared near the symbolic log cabins, as well as a park of historical memory nearby. There were 149 seedlings — according to the number of dead villagers. This year, a small grove of eight dozen oaks was created on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Khatyn tragedy.
Representatives of worker collectives, activists of the public association Belarusian Republican Youth Union (BRSM) came to Khatyn to participate in the subbotnik. They took care of cleaning up and landscape gardening, of adding more soil and flattening it out.
Before getting down to work Aleksandr Lukashenko together with the Director of the Khatyn Memorial Complex Artur Zelsky was made familiar with the beautification of the complex.
As he examined the territory, the President said, “It is necessary to do something every year. To add some cherry on the cake every year.” A restored church in the territory of the complex that the Nazis burned down in 1943 has become one of such ‘cherries’.
“Still, the church was hearty,” the President remarked.
“The church fits these surroundings surprisingly well. As if it was always there. Besides, it has the style of the 18th century without overdoing it. What was done here in 2022 can be compared only to the creation of the memorial itself. A new life was breathed into the memorial.
It is entirely your accomplishment,” Artur Zelsky noted.
According to the Director of the Khatyn Memorial Complex, over 10,000 people have visited the memorial complex within one month.
“The Brest Fortress and Khatyn are internationally famous places. This is why we certainly have to keep up the highest standards there. We do the right thing,” the Head of State stressed.
The President explained why it is necessary to plant greenery in the memorial complex, “It was a beautiful village. Particularly here when it was swamped with greenery and flowers in spring… Apple trees in blossom.”
The Head of State emphasised that all the trees planted last year had taken root. The thoughts of those who did this work may have had something to do with it.
“Everything in nature feels things and is interconnected. We simply haven’t learned it yet. It seems to me we know nothing at all about nature. This is why we’d better pray for it,” Aleksandr Lukashenko is convinced.

Our Khatyn
• The Khatyn State Memorial Complex was opened on July 5th, 1969, and is a historical and cultural value of the 1st category. In 2022, the staff of the complex organised and held 1282 excursions and 3 exhibitions, in January-February 2023 — 138 excursions.
• According to the Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus No.176 dated May 13th, 2022, the objects of overhaul and reconstruction of the Khatyn State Memorial Complex were given the status of the All-Belarusian Youth Construction Site.
• On March 22nd, 2023, on the day of the 80th anniversary of the Khatyn tragedy, a meeting-requiem was held in the memorial complex with the participation of the Head of State and a significant event took place — the opening of a new museum built as part of the reconstruction of Khatyn.

Nationwide subbotnik united Belarusians in an effort to make their native land more beautiful and comfortable

As much as Br12.3 million were collected following the results of the nationwide subbotnik held on April 22nd in Belarus (figures are being specified). During this large-scale action, burial places of the times of the Great Patriotic War, memorials, complexes and memorable places were put in order, squares, parks, roadside lanes were cleaned. Many residents of the country took part in the planting of the forest.
The number of those who choose to work for the good of their native country on Saturday in April is growing every year. In 2023, about 3 million people joined the event. For comparison: last year, about 2.4 million people worked, Br11,794,400 were collected.

Key venues for the 2023 subbotnik:

• Chairwoman of the Council of the Republic Natalya Kochanova worked on the territory of the Student Village residential complex. Here, members of the Presidium and employees of the secretariat of the Council of the Republic, as well as members of the Youth Parliament at the National Assembly and representatives of the administration of the Moskovsky District of Minsk laid the Avenue of Peace of 100 holly maples.
• Deputies of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly worked in the area of the capital’s Pulikhova Street, where a new natural landscape composition appeared by the river.
• The leadership and representatives of the Presidential Administration took part in the nationwide subbotnik on the territory of the Dzerzhinsk District: they worked in the Litavets Memorial Complex, erected on the site of the village of the same name, destroyed by the Nazis during the punitive operation Jakob on January 14th, 1943. The Nazis shot and burned 196 people, including 58 children here... Civil servants planted seedlings and seedlings of pine and birch in the adjacent territory.
• More than 250 people took to the subbotnik at the memorial complex to the prisoners of the Ozarichi death camp in the Kalinkovichi District.
• Participants of the nationwide subbotnik in the Brest Fortress were preparing a site for the future Republican Centre for Patriotic Education of Youth.

• Brest border guards also joined the nationwide subbotnik. The command of the border group planted blueberry seedlings in the Peace Garden, founded on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War.
• One of the points of the nationwide labour campaign was the territory of the new infectious diseases building of the Mogilev Hospital No. 1. The construction here was already completed, the building received the first patients in March.
• Hundreds of citizens came out to help the builders on the territory of the Upper Castle in Polotsk — final work is underway at the largest facility under construction in the city. The Polotsk Cadet School will be opened by September 1st.
• Over five thousand residents of the Braslav District took part in the nationwide subbotnik. Particular attention is paid to the memorial complex to the soldiers-liberators in Braslav, where the ashes of over ten thousand Red Army soldiers are buried.

• The caring people of Grodno spent Saturday in the park on the territory of the Stalag-324 Memorial Complex in the Folush microdistrict.

• In Gomel, 250 activists went to the embankment of the palace and park ensemble, which suffered from the flood. They painted benches, small architectural forms, cleaned up the territory. Many gathered in the park with whole families.
• The baton of a large-scale labour campaign was also picked up in small towns. For example, residents of the village of Bolshiye Belevichi, Mogilev District, united to build a playground for their grandchildren during the subbotnik.
• Nationwide subbotnik went beyond the borders of the country. Deputy Prime Minister Igor Petrishenko, together with the staff of the Belarusian Embassy in Russia, were engaged in beautification of the territory of the embassy complex of our country, planted trees.
All funds earned on the 2023 nationwide subbotnik will be divided in half:
50 percent — will be spent on the reconstruction of the memorial complex to the prisoners of the Ozarich death camp (Kalinkovichi District of the Gomel Region);
50 percent — will be spent on the creation of the Republican Centre for Patriotic Education of Youth on the basis of the Kobrin Fortification of the Brest Fortress.