Opening ceremony of new City Infectious Diseases Hospital in Minsk

Belarus is the only country in the post-Soviet space that has kept October Revolution Day as a public holiday, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said during the opening ceremony of the new City Infectious Diseases Hospital in Minsk on 30 October.

“We are the only country in the post-Soviet space that has preserved this holiday. I advocated for keeping it. Not everyone fully understands why we did this. It is a tribute to history. You cannot cast stones at the past, because it will strike back brutally. We don’t have to look far for examples,” the Belarusian leader emphasized.

“Many people are still alive today who were deeply devoted to this holiday – people who valued it and took part in the parades. Some might have even been carried on their parents’ shoulders during those marches. These people are still here, and God bless them with good health. So why should we cut them to the quick? In Ukraine, they cut to the quick, starting with the Russian language. Look what happened,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said, offering another argument in favor of keeping the holiday.

Furthermore, for Belarus, the October Revolution serves as a starting point – the first steps toward sovereignty and independence. “Those steps were, of course, difficult. We were divided, and Western Belarus was given away,” the Belarusian leader said.

Aleksandr Lukashenko noted that many good traditions have been carried over from the Soviet past, and one of them is giving gifts to the public by opening facilities of state significance. “Why did we hold the opening ahead of schedule [for the infectious diseases hospital]? Because I have a very large and important schedule leading up to and on 7 November. There simply were no other days left,” the head of state explained.

Over the years, these types of gifts for the public have included new stations of the Minsk Metro, bridges over the Sozh, Neman, and Pripyat rivers, as well as the Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant. The President pointed out that a new phase is now underway at the Ostrovets plant, with the third power unit currently under design.

“That is why we have done a great deal to present these gifts to our people. And here is another gift [the hospital], a critical facility,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said. “It will open its doors to the Belarusian people – not just to the residents of Minsk. I have once again warned our mayor that people from all across the country must be able to get diagnosed and treated here in Minsk. After all, their money was invested in this hospital, too.”