Liberation of Belarus: September 1943 - July 1944

On July 21, the Museum of Political History of Russia hosted the solemn opening of the exhibition “Liberation of Belarus: September 1943 - July 1944”.

The exhibition became the first step of cooperation between the Museum of Political History of Russia and the Belarusian State Museum of the Great Patriotic War. The document on cooperation has been signed in May this year.

Svetlana Alexandrovna Potupchik, the chief curator of the funds of the Belarusian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War, noted in her welcoming speech: “Our museum acts as an institution of public memory of the peoples of the Soviet Union in the fight against fascism. We dare to hope that the exhibition will not go unnoticed by the residents and guests of Saint-Petersburg and will serve to strengthen our relations and preserve our common memory”.

Yulia Sergeyevna Usacheva, a deputy general director of the Museum for Scientific Work, in her speech shared her plans to create an exhibition at the Belarusian State Museum of the Great Patriotic War History.

A curatorial tour for the guests was conducted by Yulia Mikhailovna Koltovich, a senior researcher of the Belarusian museum and a curator of the exhibition. “The main attention in our exhibition is focused on the story of specific feats and the fate of a man in the war”, she emphasized.

The exhibition consists of three main sections. The first one - the fall - winter of 1943 - 1944. It tells about the beginning of the liberation of Belarus and the forcing of Dnieper by the Soviet troops, the fierce struggle to hold and expand the bridgeheads. The second section is devoted to the operation “Bagration”. It was the most outstanding operation of the Red Army in terms of boldness of plan and thoroughness of preparation, in terms of scope and military and political results. The Soviet troops defeated more than one million German troops, expelled the invaders from the territory of Belarus, liberated most of Lithuania, part of Latvia, a significant part of Poland and approached the borders of East Prussia.

The third section of the exhibition is based on a collection of the field mail letters. Front letters convey the tragedy of the war time and heroism of people.

The “Field Mail of Memory” tablet presents quotes from the letters of the front-line soldiers who died during the liberation of Belarus. These unique personal documents reflect the hard work of soldiers, the pain of losses and the joy of victories of Soviet soldiers united by a single goal - to defeat the hated enemy.