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Commemorative plaque for Vasil Bykov unveiled in Ukrainian village of Velikaya Severinka
Photo courtesy of the Embassy of Belarus in Ukraine
MINSK, 13 October (BelTA) - Belarusian Ambassador to Ukraine Igor Sokol visited the Velikaya Severinka united territorial community of Kirovograd Oblast to attend an official ceremony to unveil a commemorative plaque for People's Writer of Belarus Vasil Bykov, a participant of the Great Patriotic War, one of the liberators of the village of Velikaya Severinka, BelTA learned from the website of the Belarusian Embassy in Ukraine.
The event was also attended by head of the Velikaya Severinka united territorial community Sergei Levchenko, chairman of the Kirovograd branch of the Union of Writers Vasily Bondar, initiator of the commemorative plaque project Nikolai Sergiyenko, head of the Vasil Bykov Museum of the Velikaya Severinka secondary school Galina Gubenko, school teachers and students.
Ambassador Igor Sokol presented the embassy's certificates of merit to the representatives of the village who helped to make this important project happen. Velikaya Severinka cherishes the memory of Vasil Bykov.
During the Kirovograd operation, Lieutenant Vasil Bykov commanded a platoon of the 339th Infantry Regiment of the 11th Infantry Division and participated in the bloody battles near Kirovograd in January 1944 where, as he would write, "almost his entire battalion, perhaps even the entire regiment was killed." Vasil Bykov was seriously wounded in the battles for Velikaya Severinka.
By mistake, he was registered as dead and buried in a mass grave in the village. A death notification was sent to his family. Twenty years after the war, Vasil Bykov came to Velikaya Severinka and he sat for a long time at the war monument with his name on it. Those events would inspire Vasil Bykov to write the novel "The Dead Don’t Hurt."
Thanks to the initiative of local teacher Yelizaveta Sergiyenko (1937-2019), village authorities and the school, a street in Velikaya Severinka and a museum in the local secondary school have been named after Vasil Bykov. The rural library has designated a section to celebrate Vasil Bykov. Today Velikaya Severinka also has a commemorative plaque honoring the writer.
It is very symbolic that the opening of the plaque was held head of Defender of Ukraine Day. Vasil Bykov took part in the liberation of Ukraine, and considered the village of Velikaya Severinka his second homeland.
During the visit, Ambassador Igor Sokol met with Sergey Levchenko, the chairman of the Velikya Severinka united territorial community.
Ambassador Igor Sokol visited the Vasil Bykov Museum in the school, the writer's section in the village library, donated books written by Vasil Bykov and other documentary and fiction Belarusian literature.
A cooperation agreement was signed between the State Museum of History of Belarusian Literature and the Vasil Bykov Museum of the Velikaya Severinka secondary school. This will let the parties replenish each other's museum collections with copies from the literary heritage, personal archives, writer's belongings, and other thematic materials for the preservation and promotion of Vasil Bykov’s works in Belarus and Ukraine.
On the eve of Defender of Ukraine Day the Belarusian ambassador laid flowers at the monument to border guards in the town of Korsun-Shevchenkovsky. The monument is located at the entrance to the town and is set in honor of all those who devoted themselves to the border service in Soviet times and during the independence of Ukraine.
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