"We remember this, and therein lies our strength" - Lukashenko's speech at the requiem rally in Khatyn

Speech by President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko at the republican rally-requiem "Lampada of Memory", dedicated to the 78th anniversary of the Khatyn tragedy

Speech by President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko at the republican rally-requiem "Lampada of Memory", dedicated to the 78th anniversary of the Khatyn tragedy

Dear compatriots!

Guests of Belarus!

The tragedy of Khatyn and thousands of villages and towns with a similar fate is an unceasing pain in the hearts of Belarusians, of all Soviet people. Today, we, representatives of different generations, religious denominations, philosophical and political views, have gathered together to honour the memory of the innocent and to defend the truth about that war.

This truth is cruel, this memory is heavy. Think about it: the occupiers and their accomplices, the policemen, burned down 9,200 Belarusian villages. Of these, more than five thousand were burned down with their inhabitants. And we know how it all begins: with ideas of racial and genetic, or any other, superiority of some peoples over others, with the division into superior and inferior. What is frightening is that these theories still find their adherents all over the world today. But, thank God, the fascist ideology is alien to our Belarusians, whose genetic memory has become a true national immunity.

This memory holds much pain and suffering, it contains tragic historical experience. It is a fact: World War II was not just a war, it was a systematic extermination of our Slavic peoples.

And on this memorable evening, on the eve of another anniversary of the Khatyn tragedy, I would like to address those who are deliberately trying to revive the symbols of Nazism. Let them be a few (as they say, there's always one in the family), but unfortunately, there are such people in modern Belarus.

I appeal to all those who are convinced that fascism "brought civilisation to our land"; who glorify murderers; who worship the white-red-white flags under which the genocide of the Belarusian people was carried out. We have taken up this problem, and we will prove and show the whole world what genocide is and that those who are trying to lecture us today on how to live, at the very least, have no right to do so. To all of you, the misguided and deluded, I say: "Go and see!" Go to Khatyn, Borki, Olla, Dalva, Usakino, Shunevka, Ozarychi, to the memorials "Trostyanets", "Yama", "Krasny Bereg".

See: through the eyes of a child who survived under the body of a murdered mother; through the eyes of children abandoned to die in a well; through the eyes of a shot pregnant woman who never knew the joy of motherhood; through the eyes of a father who recovered his dead son from the ashes; through the eyes of hanged helpless old people.

Go and listen to the Khatyn Bell, in whose ringing the children's cries, the mothers' weeping, and the bitter fatherly grief of millions of Belarusians have merged into one. Belarusians who experienced inhuman suffering, but were not subdued and not defeated. We must always remember this, and not be afraid, on great holidays, whatever misfortune may befall us (the COVID pandemic or other illnesses), to come on the bright Victory Day and pay tribute to those who died for us. Because if they had not died, we would not be here.

And let these voices from the past remind every generation how fragile peace is, how precious human life is, and how easily all this can be lost. And as long as this bell rings, Belarus remembers.

We will never forget the terrible pages of the history of the Great Patriotic War. We will never forgive the cruelty, inhumanity, and atrocities of the enemy on our land. We remember this, and in this lies our strength.

Eternal memory to the killed, tortured, and torn apart. Let us bow our heads and honour their memory with a minute of silence.

BELTA