The 'Candle of Memory' was carried through the streets of Vitebsk
June 24, 2025
In Vitebsk, on the Day of National Remembrance of the Victims of the Great Patriotic War and the Genocide of the Belarusian People, students of the military-patriotic classes of Secondary School No. 45 named after Hero of the Soviet Union V. Margelov lit a lamp of memory at the Eternal Flame of the memorial complex dedicated to the liberator soldiers, partisans, and underground fighters of the Vitebsk region.
The students solemnly carried the symbolic flame along Kalinin, Zamkovaya, Pushkin, and Suvorov streets to the military burial site on Uspenskaya Hill. A rally and a ceremony of laying wreaths and flowers were held here, attended by representatives of the local authorities, deputies, war and Armed Forces veterans, clergy, and youth. This event is a tribute of respect and remembrance to those who gave their lives for freedom.
Olga Ivanova, Chairperson of the Vitebsk City Council of Deputies, recalled the tragic events of June 22, 1941, when Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union without a declaration of war. The deputy emphasized that Belarus became the scene of major battles, and the heroic resistance of the Soviet people began in the Brest Fortress and gained strength in the powerful partisan movement.
– On the day this treacherous invasion occurred, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Molotov concluded his radio address to the people with the words: "Our cause is just. The enemy will be defeated. Victory will be ours." And the enemy was indeed defeated. But this happened after 1418 days and nights filled with trials, hunger, cold, tears, pain, fear, and grief, – said Olga Ivanova. – The Nazis chose the policy of genocide and mass bloody terror as the main means of imposing their order.