Dazhynki harvest festival in Polotsk

Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko attended the Vitebsk Oblast harvest festival Dazhynki 2024 in Polotsk.

It is necessary to make up minds about a strategy designed to develop Vitebsk Oblast and primarily its agribusiness complex. Aleksandr Lukashenko gave the relevant instructions when he arrived in the city of Polotsk.

“What are we going to do with Vitebsk Oblast or in Vitebsk Oblast?” Aleksandr Lukashenko asked civil servants and primarily the agriculture and food minister upon arriving in the city. “I’d like to warn you: if the current President remains in place, then in March you, the President’s aides, who are responsible for the oblast, and the oblast governor will tell me every little detail of what we will do about Vitebsk Oblast. Despite the festive occasion I can say that Vitebsk Oblast works poorly.”

“People should live and work here. They should find their place here and their wages,” Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed. “There is no order, no discipline, no responsibility. Terrible. It is necessary to make decisions on everything: what field, what forage stock for a farm or a complex. But conditions for people at this complex or the farm should be good.”

The head of state warned civil servants not to even try to whitewash the situation: tilling standards are low, autumn plowing is not getting done, losses of cereals are colossal.

“We need intensive agriculture. We don’t need extensive agriculture that relies on more land,” the President pointed out. “As long as you can see the soil, until the soil is covered with snow, fly from above, from the bottom, from the left and right. Look and think what we should do. But you will be held responsible for the experiment you’ve been conducting in Vitebsk Oblast since Sherstnev’s time.”

Aleksandr Lukashenko said in his speech during the harvest festival Dazhynki: “Our durability has been tested many times in attempts to take away the freedom. Emotions concerning Belarus continue running high. Some cannot stay calm because of our sovereignty. The most sophisticated methods are used against us in order to nullify and erase us from history. You can see for yourselves how the situation around us is getting more intense. As the President I’ve been doing and will do everything for Belarus to be free, independent, and most importantly peaceful.”

“Our response to all the underhand practices is creation. Economy is our frontline. And for rural residents it is primarily crop farming. Food has always been the hardest currency at all times,” the Belarusian leader stressed.

Aleksandr Lukashenko presented awards to the best agrarians of Vitebsk Oblast.

He said: “You are our leaders, skillful people, who are dedicated to their work and successfully compete with colleagues from other regions. There is no doubt that every individual accomplishment stems from huge daily work of an entire worker collective: executives, specialists, machine operators, harvester drivers, truck drivers, and other workers. We bow low to all of you, who worked the land to grow cereals all these years and this year! It is also a goal of my attending your oblast Dazhynki festival: I deemed it necessary to come here in order to bow low to you in recognition of your work, your kindness, your responsiveness, and your patriotism.”

“You are the foundation of our life and the foundation of our security. It is only thanks to you that we haven’t been dragged into some wars, confrontations, and conflicts today. It seems we don’t live rich lives but we live in peace and it is what matters. The rest is in our hands. You are true patriots of your land, who have dedicated their lives to the noblest occupation: peasant’s work,” the President stressed.

Aleksandr Lukashenko thanked agrarians for their diligence, professionalism, and perseverance and presented government awards to the best agricultural workers of Vitebsk Oblast.

The President awarded an Order of Labor Glory to Director of Agrokombinat Yubileiny Aleksandr Firsin. The head of state awarded an Order of Honor to Vyacheslav Anikovich, a tractor driver of OAO Torguny.

Aleksandr Lukashenko presented Medals for Labor Merits to Marina Adamchik, an operator of a pig breeding complex of the Mayak Braslavsky cooperative; Aleksandr Batyan, a driver of the Yakubovo-Agro enterprise; Yelena Kostyuk, the Chief Agronomist of the agricultural enterprise Novoselki-Luchai; Tatiana Sokolovskaya, a machine milking operator at OAO Mayak Vysokoye; and Tatiana Savgen, an animal technician, stock-breeder of the agricultural enterprise Mazolovogaz of PRUP UP Vitebskoblgaz.

Presidential commendations were bestowed upon Aleksei Dikovich, a veterinarian with the agricultural division of Postavy Dairy Plant; Aleksandr Zyabko, a tractor driver, machine operator with the Zarya branch of ZAO Vitebskagroprodukt; Aleksandr Moiseyenko, a tractor driver, machine operator with the agricultural enterprise Ilyushensky; Svetlana Znarok, Head of the Lepel District Veterinary Station, Chief Veterinary Officer of Lepel District; Aleksei Ploskonos, an agronomist with OAO Kushliki; Yuri Yazev, a driver of the machine and tractor depot of the Vitebsk Oblast agricultural services enterprise; Grigory Yantsevich, a tractor driver, machine operator with the Konstantinov Dvor enterprise; Yulia Yarmilova, a vegetable grower of the agronomical service of the Vesna-Energo branch of RUP Vitebskenergo.

Presidential commendations were also bestowed upon worker collectives of Vitebsk Broiler Poultry Factory and the agricultural enterprise OAO Shaiterovo. The latter also received a gift certificate for an MTZ tractor.

In response Vitebsk Oblast agrarians presented a festive round loaf to the head of state.