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| Home | News | Photo | Ceremony to shelve capsules with soil collected from sites of military glory in All Saints Memorial-Church

Ceremony to shelve capsules with soil collected from sites of military glory in All Saints Memorial-Church

Ceremony to shelve capsules with soil collected from sites of military glory in All Saints Memorial-Church
8 May 2020

Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko took part in a solemn ceremony held in the All Saints Memorial-Church in Minsk on 8 May to shelve capsules with soil collected from sites of military glory and places of massacre of innocent civilians.

Before the head of state arrived, a helicopter landed near the temple to bring capsules with soil from the oblast capitals, Minsk Oblast, and the hero city of Minsk. An honor guard unit escorted the capsules to the temple’s entrance where the head of state arrived.

The temple’s senior priest Fyodor Povny welcomed Aleksandr Lukashenko. After that the president followed a column of soldiers carrying the soil into the big hall of the temple’s crypt.

The head of state took part in the ceremony to shelve the capsules into the wall and lit a candle in memory of the fallen warriors and innocent victims of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. Top government officials, heads of public associations (the Belarusian national youth union BRSM, the Belarusian Public Associations of Veterans, the Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus), diplomats, and representatives of the regions were also in attendance.

“I am deeply grateful to you for the support you’ve demonstrated on the eve of this great celebration. I wish you strong health, courage, and good spirit. Everything will definitely be fine for us,” Aleksandr Lukashenko told participants of the ceremony.

The priest Fyodor Povny thanked the head of state for supporting the campaign “To the Glory of the Common Victory!”, the beginning of which the head of state declared on 9 May 2019. Fyodor Povny said: “It’s been exactly one year. Soil from all the military graves and sites of military glory of Belarusians has been collected in 126 capsules. Another 11 hero cities and more than ten other countries have joined in the project. It now knows no borders that exist on the map. One can say that entire Belarus has become the Brest Fortress.”

Capsules with soil collected from sites of military glory in various parts of Belarus, from the hero cities of Russia and Ukraine, capsules with soil from Austria, Norway, Poland, Serbia, Finland, Moldova, Latvia, Romania, Hungary, and Estonia had been placed in the All Saints Memorial-Church before that.

Today’s event was a culmination of the patriotic campaign “To the Glory of the Common Victory!”, the beginning of which Aleksandr Lukashenko declared in his speech in Pobedy Square in Minsk on 9 May 2019. For a year events have been organized all over Belarus to collect soil from sites of military glory and place it in capsules. Great Patriotic War veterans, representatives of government agencies, companies and enterprises, public organizations, priests, school and university students, and military personnel took part in the solemn events. Other countries joined in the campaign. Capsules with soil from the hero cities of Volgograd, Kerch, Kiev, Moscow, Odessa, Sevastopol, and Smolensk are stored in the crypt of the All Saints Memorial-Church as well as capsules with soil from the countries that fought against the Nazi during World War Two.

An honor guard unit during the ceremony
An honor guard unit during the ceremony
An honor guard unit during the ceremony
During the ceremony
Aleksandr Lukashenko and the temple’s senior priest Fyodor Povny
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