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Over 500 rarities on show at Minsk Great Patriotic War Museum

MINSK, 22 October (BelTA) – Over 500 artifacts have gone on show for the first time at the Belarusian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War as part of the temporary exposition Returning the Time. The exhibition kicked off on 22 October to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the museum, BelTA has learned.

“We decided to celebrate the anniversary with a new project which we have run for the part five years since we moved into a new building. The exposition featured more than 500 original museum items. Virtually all of them are exhibited for the first time. The exhibition shows that the museum is alive, that we have a lot of visitors from all over the world. Numerous gifts displayed at the exhibition also testify to the fact,” said leading researcher, curator of the exposition Natalya Filippovich.

Two autonomous information blocks Pages of History and Museum Today are directly related to the creation of the museum in 1944. The rare museum items reveal the history of the museum. The interior exposition features stock furniture of war and post-war time. This is a kind of tribute to the memory of the first employees of the museum and its veterans.

The exposition features photographs and documents of people of different generations, nationalities, professions, and abilities, who had to live through that horrible war. The central part of the exhibition hall is occupied by samples of firearms and cold weapons, clothing, uniforms, military ammunition and household items donated to the museum by both state institutions and fans of military history, collectors.

Today, the Belarusian land still keeps many items that have become silent witnesses to the battles, heroism of soldiers and tragedies of civilians. The exposition displays archeological objects found in Nesvizh, where more than 1,000 people shot in October 1941 were buried, as well as the objects revealing the tragedy of the prisoners of the death camp Trostenets. The installation of a field army hospital showcases rare items representing medical service during the war.
  
The exposition also features paintings, drawings, and sketches of artists of the wartime, decorative and applied art objects and souvenirs from delegations from different countries, and rare photos made by participants of the war, famous war correspondents.

According to the curator of the exposition, the funds of the museum are replenished by donors. Many of these people were present at the opening of the exposition today. “Residents of Belarus and abroad donate the relics of war: documents, items, awards, photographs of the loved ones from their family albums,” she said.

The temporary exposition Returning the Time will run at the Belarusian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War through 31 December.

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