G. Rapota: New generations should be worthy of the feat of their ancestors

“I wish you to be worthy of the feat accomplished by our fathers, grandfathers and great grandfathers during that brutal war. It is important and necessary to remember the Victory and commemorate war victims. But it is also necessary that actions of our and next generations should be worthy of the Great Victory that happened 75 years ago,” Grigory Rapota said.

He noted that Belarus and Russia pay a lot of attention to preserving the memory of the Great Patriotic War and the feat of the Soviet people. “The 75th anniversary of the Victory has been a core theme of our activities in the historical, cultural, and other areas. Of course, we always want to do better, but what is being done today is really a lot of work. The next major event will be the unveiling of the Rzhev Memorial to the Soviet Soldier on 30 June. After that, we will face a huge task to identify the names of Belarusian natives who fought and fell in that battle. I have heard there were around 600 people. But there were more of them. Soil from the site of the Battle of Rzhev was placed in the crypt of the All Saints in Minsk during the visit of Valentina Matviyenko [Speaker of the Federation Council of Russia's Federal Assembly] to Belarus. It was a very touching and important event,” he noted.

“Love for the Motherland is the most important trait of a civilized person. The sovereignty of any country exists only if a nation loves its homeland, its country. This is why preserving the historical truth and memory of the feat of the Soviet people, promoting patriotism among young generations and telling them about the deeds of the previous generations are our responsibilities,” Head of the Office of the Union State Standing Committee in Minsk Marianna Shchetkina stressed.

According to her, Belarus and Russia cherish the history and the Victory of the Soviet people. “We live in a very difficult time. We need to do everything for the truth to remain the truth. It is important that our countries hold a clear, stable, right position today. Aleksandr Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin have clearly expressed their opinion about the attempts to rewrite the history. This is unacceptable. We should act firmly and confidently and let no one rewrite the history and belittle the Soviet people's contribution to the Victory,” Marianna Shchetkina added.