Participation in ceremony at Mound of Glory memorial

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko took part in a solemn ceremony at the Mound of Glory memorial complex on 3 July.

The head of state laid a wreath at the foot of the Mound of Glory, after which flowers were laid by the country's top officials.

Aleksandr Lukashenko's speech at the wreath-laying ceremony at the Mound of Glory memorial complex.

Dear friends,

It is symbolic that today, 3 July, we gathered here, at the foot of the famous monument - the Mound of Glory. This place is sacred for us, for Minsk residents, and for the entire Belarusian people.

Here, in the middle of the last century the fate of Belarus was decided as battles were raging for the capital of our Motherland.

It is difficult for us to imagine what our soldiers felt, but I know one thing: they were determined to take revenge on the enemy for what happened in 1941, at the beginning of the war, when the fascists, feeling almost no resistance, marched through Belarus to capture Minsk. Can you imagine what our soldiered felt.

The Bagration liberation operation showed that in the art of winning the Soviet army surpassed the enemy. The day when Minsk was liberated became a harbinger of our victory in 1945. 

The memory of the war heroes is embodied in this monument. The Mound of Glory was built on the site of the landmark battles.

The mound was literally built by the hands of thousands of people who witnessed the war, who remembered their fallen comrades, mourned the lost relatives.

During a year they brought handfuls of soil from the hero cities, the places of the partisan resistance, the soil that absorbed the tears of mothers, wives and children of fallen soldiers, the pain of loss of millions of lives.

Again, imagine the state of mind of the people who came by thousands to Belarus, the holy land of Victory, to make this Mound. It really embodies the tears and mood of millions of Soviet people. It reflects the dreams, aspirations, moods.

There is probably no more sacred man-made place as this one today.

Eternal glory to the heroes of the Great Patriotic War! Let’s observe a moment of silence in tribute to their memory.

(A minute of silence)

For us, the Belarusians who lost every third compatriot in that war, the Mound of Glory is a sacred symbol. A symbol of our independence and freedom.

Here a capsule was laid with a message to future generations, the essence of which is simple and always relevant, especially today: to preserve the memory of the Great Patriotic War and to be patriots of the Fatherland. They sent the right message when this monument was created.

Back in Soviet times, the place hosted pioneers and Komsomol oath taking ceremonies. Nowadays it is the venue for the military oath ceremonies. We come here on Victory Day and Independence Day. Today the Mound of Glory has become a new point on the route of true patriots of Belarus.

We, the modern generation, remember that the heroes of the Great Patriotic War gave us life, and we try to live this life being worthy of their memory.

The memory of those who created this monument.

Those who defended the traditions lost in the 1990s and who restored the memorial complex, giving it a modern look.

I would like to thank the Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus that fulfilled the president’s instruction several years ago. They took the monument on their books and brought it in the proper condition. I would also like to thank the Minsk Oblast administration for supporting the trade unions and helping them to upkeep this sacred place.

We should be proud that there is not a single abandoned monument in Belarus. Russians, knowing this, highly appreciate the attitude of Belarusians to the monuments of the Great Patriotic War, and there are thousands of them on our land. This land is soaked with the blood of Soviet people, Belarusians, partisans  underground fighters, all members of the resistance movement and is strewn with the dead.

I said once, that war has not ended. It has unfortunately taken on new forms today.

I would like to address the young generation, students of history departments, cadets of the Military Academy, the Academy of the Internal Affairs Ministry, young civil servants and representatives of public organizations, those who have gathered here, your peers.

You are the future of our country. This is not a banal rhetoric. Almost 100% of people here are dedicated patriots of our Motherland. I want you to preserve the country. You will take charge of our country and I want you to preserve what we have created for a quarter of a century. We, having received a piece of land of the Soviet empire, created a sovereign and independent state - for the first time in the thousand-year history of Belarus. This is the achievement of our generation that defended the Victory they gave us.

Now it's up to you - those who are standing here. Because you are dedicated people. You will not give away our country, our land, because you are our children, children of our generation. Some of you have children of your own. You must convince them that they will not have another land, that this is their land, your land. You should think what mark the generation that is replacing our generation, will leave. 

We will pass away one day, but we all must leave something on this earth. Everyone and all together. This is the main problem and the task of modern history - the transition to a new generation. I do not want it to be painful, as it usually happens. We must do everything for that.

The Mound of Glory is the symbol. If we fail to defend it today, tomorrow this mound will be leveled with the ground, as a symbol of the Great Victory that some hate. With it Belarus’ freedom and independence will be destroyed too.

It may sound trite, but we should not ignore the main fact of modernity, namely the attempts to rewrite our history, to take away our Great Victory. I have already said that some take pride in the wealth in the form of natural gas, oil, gold, and metals. But there is no more valuable and dear gift than the Great Victory. Why is it so dear? Because Belarus alone paid for it by its every third citizen. As great Lenin once said, we have to ask ourselves the question, what legacy are we giving up? Those who want to forget the Victory are madmen. They don't think of what we can lose. But frankly speaking, we have not been able to explain the essence of Victory to those strayed souls and others abroad (and this is the fault of our generation). We did not get them to value the Victory and, through the Victory, to value us. We saved them, we gave them life.

We must admit that our generation has underperformed here. You, the younger generation, need to keep this in mind and correct the mistake we made. This work has already begun with the investigation into the crimes of Nazism on the Belarusian soil. This is akin to the Holocaust of the Belarusian people. Jews were able to make the world remember it, and the whole world bows to them, being afraid of saying one wrong word to them. On our part, we, being tolerant and kind, did not want to hurt anyone’s feelings and let the things down to the point when they have have started to hurt us. This is the reason we started this work, and you should continue it. It is no less important than to achieve results in the economy or finance, because these are hearts and souls of people. If we lose our hearts and souls, we will re-witness the things that happened here last year, maybe even worse things. 

This is why I call on you to come here today and bring your children, to tell them about the deeds of our people, teach them to love their native land and preserve peace.

Then this Mound of Glory, looking to the sky, from where the departed heroes look at us, will forever keep the memory of those heroes, of those who gave Belarusians life and freedom.

There is nothing eternal under the sun. The way we treat the fallen, the new generation will treat us. 

Today we cerebrate the most important, sacred and bright holiday. It should be cherished and defended. We should not allow this holiday to dissolve in all sorts of reasonings and suggestions to celebrate it on another date and so on. This is how any idea starts to be demolished. This is our holiday recognized by the people in the referendum. This is a sacred, dear holiday for our people - Independence Day.

In this sacred place I would like to wish the Belarusian people Happy independence Day!

After the ceremony, the president talked with the participants of the event.

The participants of the Everest expedition gave Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko the State Flag and a copy of the Victory Banner which they flew atop the world. 

"These will probably be the main sacred items in the Palace of Independence today," Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

The president stressed that he is proud of the team of mountaineers and the Belarusian participants of the Antarctic expedition. The head of state believes that they should be nominated for the state awards.

University history students and young teachers said that they are engaged in research concerning the history of the Great Patriotic War, understanding the importance of preserving the historical truth about that period of the country's life. They asked for advice on how to educate the younger generation and what things to pay more attention to. 

Aleksandr Lukashenko noted that the most important thing is to work honestly.

At the same time, the president expressed the opinion that it is important to prepare a textbook on the history of the Great Patriotic War. "This will be a great achievement if you, the future generation and young people, compile a good war history textbook on the basis of what has already been created, the new facts and the Soviet textbooks (they were good, although they may understate some things). The main thing is that the textbook should pass knowledge," the head of state said. 

Aleksandr Lukashenko believes that the textbook should reflect the huge role of the Belarusian people: “I want us to have a good textbook on the history of the Great Patriotic War, a book that will reflect what role the Belarusians played in that war. It will be a great contribution. We can supplement the textbook with documents of those times that we did not want to show not to hurt the feelings of other nations.”

“Do it if you can,” the president said. He added that the BRSM Youth Union and the Belarus President Administration can be asked to join the work on the project.

The head of state believes that it is possible to make a very good textbook: “We need it very much”.

The president emphasized that there are many war monuments in the country, and children should be taken to see them and told about the history of their country. The history of the Great Patriotic War is full of the atrocities and horror that the Nazis committed on the Belarusian soil, and future generations should know about it.

The head of state believes that it is necessary to remind the Western countries about it, too: “We should show it to them. We need to show it to those, who approve sanctions against us, and continue committing terrorist acts in Belarus today.”