Dear veterans of the Great Patriotic War,

Dear compatriots,

Distinguished foreign guests,

Today the Belarusian people like thousands of millions of people around the planet celebrate the sacred and cherished holiday – Victory Day. We are now celebrating the sixty-fourth peaceful spring that swells with bird songs, children’s laughter and the joy from creative labour on the native land.

As years go by, the world-wide historic significance of the liberating exploit performed by the Belarusian and the entire Soviet people becomes increasingly evident.

Certainly, we appreciate the contribution of the United States of America, Great Britain, France, Poland, China as well as other countries who countered the Nazis to the elimination of this brown plague.

But there is no forgetting that the brunt of this most ferocious and bloodiest war in the history of mankind was born by the Soviet Union. It was the Soviet Union that became the major impediment preventing the Hitlerites from realizing their aggressive ambitions to achieve world supremacy.

A priceless contribution to the Great Victory was made by the heroic Belarusian people.

All our land became one line of defence. It was here that for the first time the Hitlerite military machine broke down having met with fierce opposition from border guards at the Brest Fortress, having experienced first-hand the resistance and retaliatory attacks of the Red Army units and citizen soldiers near the towns of Bobruisk, Borisov, Vitebsk, Gomel, Zhlobin, Lepel, Minsk, Mogilev and Rogachyov.

One and a half million natives of Belarus fought in the Red Army on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War. Over sixty evacuated Belarusian companies toiled in the rear helping provide for the nation’s defence needs.

In the occupied territory, thousands of civilians stood up to defend their Motherland. They vowed die in combat but not to let themselves, their families and the Belarusian people being cast into enslavement by insidious fascism.

The liberation struggle became truly nationwide. Never before had resistance been so large-scale. There were 1,255 partisan squads in Belarus, comprising a total of 370,000 fighters. Four thousand underground organisations united more than 70,000 patriots .

Among the specimens of unshakable fortitude and courage was the defence of the Ushachi partisan area, during which 17,000 people’s avengers were fighting a 60,000-strong Nazi force. Imperishable glory covers the legendary Rudobel partisan republic and the Surazh gates, exploits of the heroes of Minsk, Vitebsk and Orsha underground movements.

Belarus illustrated a unique example of friendship between people of various nationalities. Belarusians, Russians, Ukrainians, Jews and people of other nationalities of the Soviet Union fought shoulder-to-shoulder in partisan squads with more than four thousand European anti-fascists. Many citizens of our country risked their lives saving prisoners of concentration camps and ghettoes. Over five hundred of them were awarded the title ‘Righteous Among the Nations’.

On the Belarusian soil there began one of the Red Army’s greatest offensives in the history of the Great Patriotic War–Bagration Operation. It played the decisive role in ousting the invaders from the Soviet Union, and opened the way to the liberation of entire Europe. A Nazi force numbering more than 100,000 was crushed in the ‘Minsk pocket’.

But the freedom and independence of the Motherland were gained at a terrible cost. In that war Belarus lost its every third citizen. Moreover, most of those people killed by the Nazi barbarians were civilians.

It was a sign of reverent recognition by the international community of the great achievements and sufferings of the Belarusian people that our republic became a founding member of the United Nations Organisation.

Dear friends! I suggest we observe a minute of silence to honour the memory of all those who were killed in the fight against the invaders, who fell victims to fascist genocide.

(A minute of silence)

Please see the Russian version of this site for the full text of the Presidential Remarks