Symbol of Independence

On July 3, Belarus celebrated its main holiday. On this day, President Alexander Lukashenko spoke in public at the ceremony of laying wreaths and flowers at the Mound of Glory memorial complex.

Greeting all those present, Alexander Lukashenko drew attention to the symbolism of the Mound of Glory, a sacred place for all Belarusians. Here in the middle of the last century severe battles for the capital of the Motherland were taking place, the fate of Belarus was being decided. According to the head of state, although it is now difficult to imagine the mood of the soldiers, there is no doubt that they were determined to take vengeance on enemy and take revenge for what happened in 1941. At the beginning of the war, the Nazis felt vanishingly small resistance and passed through Belarus and captured Minsk. "Bagration" liberation operation testified that in the art of victory the Soviet troops surpassed their enemy. The day of liberation of Minsk became a harbinger of our Victory in 1945. Memory of the heroes of the Great Patriotic War was embodied in a man-made monument. The Mound of Glory was erected on the site of significant battles," – said the President during the ceremony.

Alexander Lukashenko recalled that this memorial was literally made by thousands of people with their own hands, who knew what the war was like, remembered their killed comrades and lost loved ones. The President stressed that that land had absorbed the tears of mothers, wives and children of the fallen soldiers, the pain of loss of millions of ruined lives.

Well, it is not difficult to imagine those people who came to Belarus in thousands, to the Holy Land of Victory, to make the mound. There are, indeed, the tears and the mood of millions of Soviet people. Their dreams have come true here. There is, perhaps, no other man-made place on earth like this.

Participants of the event honored the memory of heroes of the Great Patriotic War with a moment of silence. "For us, Belarusians, who lost every third inhabitant in that war, the Mound of Glory is a sacred symbol. The symbol of our independent and free life. There is a capsule here with a message to future generations — you and me and those who will come after us. Its essence is simple and is always relevant, and in our time especially: to preserve the memory of the Great Patriotic War and to be patriots of our Motherland," — Alexander Lukashenko continued, recalling that in Soviet times when children were admitted into the pioneer organization there, Komsomol members swore an oath, and today the words of the military oath sound here. People come here on Victory Day and Independence Day.

Yes, the present generations remember that the heroes of the Great Patriotic War gave them life, and strive to live it worthy of the memory of these heroes. In memory of those who created this monument, who defended the traditions lost in the 90s and restored the memorial complex, giving it a modern look, the President noted and thanked the trade unions that, having fulfilled the instructions of the President, took this monument over, put it in proper condition. And also the leadership of the Minsk region, which always helped to take care of this sacred place. "There are no abandoned monuments in Belarus, even small ones, and this is our pride. We have thousands of them. This land is soaked with blood of Soviet people, Belarusians, partisans, underground fighters, all members of the Resistance. This land is strewn with the bodies of our people," — stated the head of state.

According to Alexander Lukashenko, that war has not ended; today it has acquired other forms. The President addressed the students, primarily from departments of history, cadets of the Military Academy, the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, young managers and representatives of public organizations: "You are the future of our country, this is not triviality. Here there are almost 100 percent of the confident patriots of our Motherland. I would very much like you not to lose this country. You have come to lead the country and preserve what we have created over a quarter of a century. Our generation made its contribution, having received a stump of the Soviet empire, we created a sovereign state, the first in a centuries-old history. Our generation is remarkable for defending the victory that we were presented with. Now it's your turn. You should not surrender our country, our land to anyone. Some of you already have children.

"For us, Belarusians, who lost every third inhabitant in that war, the Mound of Glory is a sacred symbol. The symbol of our independent and free life. There is a capsule here with a message to future generations — you and me and those who will come after us. Its essence is simple and is always relevant, and in our time especially: to preserve the memory of the Great Patriotic War and to be patriots of our Motherland"

Alexander Lukashenko

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You should make them understand that there will be no other land, that this is their land, your land. And you, the generation that is going to replace ours, should think, what you will be remarkable for in this life. We all should leave something on this land, every one and all together."

Alexander Lukashenko is sure that the Mound of Glory is a symbol of heroic history, and if it is not protected today, tomorrow this Mound will also be razed to the ground as it is a symbol of some people’s hated victory, and together with it the freedom and independence of Belarus will sink into oblivion.

The President urged everyone not to forget, not to suppress the main fact of our time, that there are attempts to rewrite our history, to take the Great Victory from us. In his opinion, some are proud of their wealth in terms of natural gas, oil, gold, metals, but there is no more valuable and expensive gift than the Great Victory.

"Why is it so dear to us? Because only Belarusians gave every third person for it. As the great Lenin once said, we need to ask ourselves the question: what inheritance we are signing away. Those who want to forget this Victory are simply crazy. They don't understand what we can lose. But the truth is that this is a complaint against our generation, we did not know how to make the erring and others abroad understand the essence of our Victory. We didn’t get them to appreciate this Victory, and through our Victory to appreciate us for saving them, for giving them life," – the President said.

Addressing the younger generation, the head of state asked them to pay attention to this and correct this mistake of the older generation. According to him, they have already begun to do this, investigating the crimes of Nazism on the Belarusian land. "This is akin to the Belarusian Holocaust, or the Holocaust of the Belarusian people. The Jews were able to prove it. The whole world today bows to them, for fear even to point a finger at them, and we are so tolerant, so kind — we did not want to offend anyone. And we ended up in them offending us. Therefore, we started this process, but you should continue it. This is very important, it is no less important than victories in the economy, results in the economy, in finances, because it concerns the heart and soul of every person. If we lose hearts and souls, what happened last year can be repeated, maybe even in a worse case scenario," — noted the President.

Alexander Lukashenko once again urged everyone to come to the monuments of the Great Patriotic War, bring children there, tell them about the heroic deeds of the people, teach them to love their native land and protect peace. "Then this Mound of Glory, striving to the sky, from where the fallen heroes look at us, will forever keep the memory of

them. Of those who gave life and freedom to Belarusians. Remember, nothing on this earth lasts forever. Neither we nor you are eternal. We will all go there sometime. And as we treat the departed, so our children, the new generation, will treat us. Remember this, dear friends and our youth," — emphasized the head of state.

At the end of his speech, the President congratulated everyone on Independence Day, the most important, holy and bright holiday. According to him, this day also needs to be defended: "In no case should this holiday be dissolved in all sorts of proposals and statements that the time of our celebration is wrong, it should be celebrated in some other time, and so on. This is what the destruction of any idea begins with. This is our holiday, popularly recognized, recognized in a referendum. This is a bright holiday, a valuable holiday for our people – our Independence Day."

Immediately after the ceremony of laying a wreath at the foot of the Mound of Glory, Alexander Lukashenko met with the participants of the event and answered their questions. Members of the expedition to Everest presented the President of Belarus with the State Flag and a copy of the Victory Banner, which the climbers had raised to the highest point of the planet. In May this year, an international expedition, which included Belarusian climbers, opened out the state symbols at the top of the highest mountain in the world. "This, perhaps, will be the main shrine in the Palace of Independence today," – noted Alexander Lukashenko. The President stressed that he was proud of the team of climbers, as well as the Belarusian participants of the expedition.

During the conversation with the head of state, students of history from different universities of the country said that they were actively engaged in research activities related to the Great Patriotic War theme. Young teachershistorians asked the President for advice on how to educate the younger generation to make them true patriots of their homeland. In response to this, Alexander Lukashenko noted that the main thing is always to work honestly. The President suggested that young specialists should write a textbook on the history of the Great Patriotic War. He said that he once had dreamed that there would be such a book in Belarus and it was made, but it did not cause the desired effect: "If you, young people, on the basis of what has already been created, new facts, as well as textbooks of Soviet times (then they were not bad, though they hushed up something, were uneasy about something), make a worthy textbook, this will be the greatest victory. Because the main thing for students is the textbook which contains knowledge."

Every young person should have such a book which will show what contribution the Belarusians made to the Victory, the President is convinced: "We can supplement the textbook with documents of those times and the documents we didn’t show for fear to offend anyone. Do it if you can. We really need this," – said Alexander Lukashenko. The head of state noted that the Belarusian Republican Youth Union and the Presidential Administration should be involved in the creation of such a textbook.

The head of state stressed that many monuments had been created in the country, to which children should be brought and told about the events of the war years, including the atrocities of the fascists that they had committed on the Belarusian land. According to him, future generations should know about this, and Western countries should also be reminded about it.

Connection of generations

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Conversation with the participants of the expedition to Everest

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Continuing traditions

During his speech, Alexander Lukashenko addressed young people, in particular, the cadets of the Military Academy, emphasizing that they are the future of the country and urged not to lose it. Th e cadets of the Military Academy, who were present at the celebration, said that they were guided by such a goal when choosing a profession for themselves. "Today is the day of memory of my ancestors. Since childhood, I have liked airplanes and wanted to protect the peaceful skies of Belarus, and therefore I chose the aviation department of the Military Academy for myself," – said Dmitry Rodin, a third-year cadet of the aviation department. Future officers plan to adhere to these principles in later life. Th erefore, they took the President's address very much to heart. "Today it is a great holiday for me as well as for all citizens of our country. First of all, it is the memory of the feat that our ancestors performed. And today we have gathered at the Mound of Glory to honor the memory of these heroes. And I hope that we will continue the traditions that have been laid in our state from the very beginning. Th is is as it should be, and we will continue this tradition and invest something of our own," – said Anton Sobolev, a third-year cadet of the multi-service department.

A real holiday unfolded on the premises of the memorial complex. A military-theme site, where the equipment in operational service of the Belarusian army was displayed, caught particular interest of the guests. Each guest of the holiday could treat themselves to fresh army bread. Th ose who were less interested in military topics found activities according to interest in the city of all trades, which was located in the alleys of the complex. Th e celebration at the Mound of Glory gathered not only Minsk residents, but also residents of nearby settlements. Antonina Kotova together with her colleagues from the trade union of workers of the agro-industrial complex represented Borisov district. "The independence of Belarus for me means the opportunity to be an independent country, to resolve all issues within my society on my own. Th erefore, we should clearly understand what we want and how we should live, work, study for the sake of our country. Th is is a very important day for me. Today it is also the 77th anniversary of the liberation of Belarus from the Nazi invaders, so we, as a young generation, should remember this, not forget about the people who gave their lives so that we can live today. I want to do as much as possible for my country so that our children could live in a beautiful country," – she said.

Th e celebration at the foot of the Mound of Glory has become a notable event in the activities dedicated to Independence Day. It reminded about the true values and meaning of this Day.

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Alexander Pimenov