Participants of the international "March of Peace" have arrived in Vitebsk

Participants of the international "March of Peace", dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Belarus from the Nazi invaders, have arrived in Vitebsk. The delegation comprises about 40 people, 15 of whom are school principals and their deputies.

Having started on July 15 from the Kursk Memorial to the Fallen in the Great Patriotic War, the march participants will visit Minsk, Grodno, Brest, Motol, Nesvizh, Mogilev, and Gomel until July 21. Peace rallies, laying of wreaths and flowers at memorials, as well as presentations of the "Kursk Character" project will be held at the stops.

Six cooperation agreements between educational institutions of Russia and Belarus are planned to be concluded in the regional centers. Agreements between Kursk Secondary School No. 43 named after G. Zhukov and Polotsk Secondary School No. 16, as well as Kursk Secondary School No. 61 named after P. Mikhin and Novopolotsk Secondary School No. 2 named after E. Trapeznikova were signed at the V. Lenin Vitebsk Regional Library.

– The Great Patriotic War almost destroyed Vitebsk. Of its 180,000 residents, only 118 met the liberators in 1944, – noted Viktor Glushin, Deputy Chairman of the City Executive Committee. – It was said that the city could not be rebuilt, but the residents managed. And today, the blooming 1050-year-old Vitebsk proudly welcomes the participants of the "March of Peace".

Lidia Asadchikh, Chairperson of the Kursk Education Committee, expressed gratitude to the people of Vitebsk on behalf of the Russian guests for the warm welcome. Russian educators are keenly interested in learning about a friendly country that cherishes the memory of the Great Patriotic War and knows firsthand the price of Victory.

– There are fewer and fewer witnesses to the terrible events of the Great Patriotic War. And there are more and more people who want to rewrite our history, to desecrate the bright memory of those who fought for Victory at the cost of their own lives, – reminded Lidia Asadchikh. – We must do everything to preserve the historical truth about the events of those terrible years.

Representatives of the city authorities and the Peace Fund presented the guests from Kursk with a commemorative album reflecting the history and present of Vitebsk, and other pleasant souvenirs. Tatyana Tumanova, Chairperson of the Board of the Vitebsk Regional Branch of the Belarusian Peace Foundation, emphasized that people's diplomacy, including children's diplomacy, and jointly planned educational projects are a transition from the theory of patriotic education to practice.

She also recalled that the Vitebsk region organisation closely cooperates with the Russian Peace Foundation, which unites 45 regions. The closest friends of the Belarusian organisation are residents of Smolensk and Pskov. According to Tatiana Tumanova, personal meetings allow for a better understanding of the strategy of like-minded people and for exchanging useful experience.

There was also an honouring of activists. Dmitry Khoma, Head of the Main Department for Education of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee, and Nadezhda Ponomareva, Co-Head of the "March of Peace", Chairwoman of DOSAAF for the Kursk Region, Deputy Secretary of the Kursk Regional Branch of the "United Russia" Party, were awarded jubilee medals for the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Belarus by decision of the region's leadership.

vitebsk-region.gov.by