“We are faithful to this memory”: an exhibition of military‑patriotic clubs, squads and school museums opened in Vitebsk for the 80th anniversary of Victory.
The Belarusian people carefully preserve the memory of the tragic events of the Great Patriotic War, of the heroism and courage of their grandfathers and great-grandfathers, of the human sacrifices and the price of the Great Victory.
A special role in preserving historical memory belongs to military-patriotic search teams, whose main task is to immortalize the memory of fallen soldiers. Behind every relic found by searchers at battle sites lies the fate and name of a person who has been considered missing for all these years.
At the Museum of the History of Private Collecting in Vitebsk, a thematic exhibition titled "We Are Faithful to This Memory" was presented. The initiator of the exhibition project was Larisa Bruyeva, the chairperson of the Council for Interaction of Search Teams of the Vitebsk Region "Search". The exhibition features materials from the history of the search movement in the Vitebsk region from 1984 to the present day.
The first search teams and clubs began to appear in the Vitebsk region in the 1980s: "Seeker" Vocational School No. 96 and "Search" Vocational School No. 19 of Vitebsk, "Scouts of Military Glory" Secondary School No. 2 of Novopolotsk, and "Rusichi" Vocational School No. 110 of Orsha.
The first "Watches of Memory" and search expeditions in Belarus were held in the Dubrovno, Vitebsk, Liozno, Shumilino, and Polotsk districts of the Vitebsk region. After the first regional search camp for educational institutions was held in the area of Lake Losvido, search teams began to be formed based on the councils of school museums of military glory.
In April 1991, there were about 30 teams in the Vitebsk region that were part of the Vitebsk Regional Association "Search," registered by the All-Union Association of Search Associations "People's Memory of Fallen Defenders of the Fatherland".
The glorious traditions of the search movement in Vitebsk region within the framework of the Belarusian-Russian program "Sky of the Motherland" are today continued by searchers from the teams "Scouts of Military Glory" of Novopolotsk, "Gromovtsy" of the State Educational Institution "Secondary School No. 40 of Vitebsk named after M.M. Gromov," and "Aviasearch" of Borisov.
Thanks to the efforts of searchers, over 35 years, the remains of more than 4,000 fallen defenders of the Fatherland have been exhumed and buried in the Vitebsk region. The search teams "Seeker" and "RVS" have found the crash sites of eleven aircraft from the 1st and 3rd Air Armies and long-range aviation, exhumed the remains of the crews, and established and immortalized their names. Thanks to many years of research work with archival documents, many relatives of the fallen soldiers learned about and were able to visit the places where the remains of their loved ones rest.
They actively cooperate with searchers and conduct significant archival and memorial work, including the People's Museum "History of the Zaronsky Region" of the Vitebsk District, the People's Museum of Military Glory of the 39th Army at the State Educational Institution "Gymnasium No. 5 of Vitebsk named after I.I. Lyudnikov," the People's Museum of Military Glory of the 251st Vitebsk Rifle Division, the Historical Museum of the State Educational Institution "Voronovskaya Secondary School of the Vitebsk District named after I.E. Beshklebny," the People's Museum of the State Educational Institution "Secondary School No. 2 of Novopolotsk named after E.A. Trapeznikova," and the Historical and Local Lore Museum of the State Educational Institution "Matyushevskaya Basic School of the Polotsk District named after P.E. Kupriyanov."