Opinions & Interviews

Minsk church hosts concert to celebrate 75th anniversary of Soviet victory in Great Patriotic War

MINSK, 15 November (BelTA) – Belarusians do not usurp this great victory. Belarusians celebrate and will celebrate it together with everyone else, BelTA learned from Archpriest Fyodor Povny, senior priest of the Church of All Saints in Minsk, before the concert To the Glory of the Common Victory began in the church.

The concert was organized as part of the campaign To the Glory of the Common Victory. The campaign is dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the Soviet nation’s victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. The campaign is meant to perpetuate historic memory and preserve truth about the Great Patriotic War.

“We show that Belarusians do not usurp the great victory. We celebrate and will celebrate it together with everyone else. Representatives of over 20 nationalities, who defended our country and who helped us destroy fascism, are buried in our land,” Fyodor Povny said. “Today’s concert is dedicated to the 75th anniversary – the date all the Belarusians hold dear, which we will solemnly celebrate in May 2020. It can also be the answer to recent complaints that claim Belarus is revising its views on the great victory. It can also be the answer to signals about the danger of forgetfulness.”

The priest emphasized that Belarus had felt the full brunt of the war. “The Great Patriotic War steamrolled through the Belarusian land. Belarus was a witness to monstrous massacres of partisans and local residents, a witness to genocide and holocaust. Our peace-loving people have ever taken up arms only for one reason – to protect the small part of the planet where they live. And every time we paid the dreadful price for peace – people’s lives,” Fyodor Povny noted. “We remember how Russians and Ukrainians, Kazakhs and Tatars, Armenians and Moldovans, Azerbaijanis and Turkmen, and many other people helped us restore the destroyed cities and enterprises. We remember how rapidly homes, schools, and factories rose up, how towns changed. We appreciate the contribution of every nation to the victory and treasure the common memory.”

According to Fyodor Povny, soil from all Great Patriotic War graves in Belarus as well as memorials of hero cities and military glory memorials of Russia and other post-Soviet countries will be brought into the undercroft of the Church of All Saints. “Nobody will dare distort history or accuse our nation of forgetfulness in the face of these voiceless witnesses. Belarus lives as long as its residents keep history in their hearts, as long as they honor the memory of the fallen,” he added.

Great Patriotic War veterans, defenders and residents of the blockaded city of Leningrad, underage inmates of concentration camps, and veterans of the wars that happened in other countries attended the concert on 15 November. Representatives of government agencies, public organizations, heads of diplomatic missions, and religious denominations were invited to attend the event.

The concert was organized by the state institution Belarusian Cultural Center of Spiritual Renewal and the Church of All Saints parish of the Minsk eparchy of the Belarusian Orthodox Church.

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