Grodno Festival of National Cultures to pay tribute to war veterans
Baku, May 6 (AZERTAC). The events to celebrate the 70th anniversary of liberation of Belarus from Nazi invaders will make part of the Festival of National Cultures which will be held in Grodno on 6-8 June, Mikhail Rybakov, the Director of the National Center of National Cultures at the Culture Ministry of Belarus, told a press conference on 3 May.
“Representatives of every ethnicity will pay tribute to the Great Patriotic War," said Mikhail Rybakov. He said that the national communities will conduct the activities to mark the 70th anniversary of the liberation all year long to celebrate the anniversary of Great Victory in 2015.
"The Victory Day is very dear and important for all people of Belarus, all the republics of the former Soviet Union. We used to think that the war killed every fourth Belarusian. New evidence suggests that it was every third Belarusian. The Great Patriotic War and World War II was a very hard and very frightening event for the Soviet people. Now we see bad trends appearing in the world: attempts are made to rewrite the history and demonize those who sacrificed their lives,” said Mikhail Rybakov. As an example, he cited the following statistics: 9% of the German population under 25 considers that the war was started by the Soviet Union and that the United States won the war. Every fifth inhabitant of Germany does not know about the concentration camps.
"The people who survived the war and who can tell about it are getting fewer. The main thing is that we do not want to lose our memory,” said Mikhail Rybakov.
The Festival of National Cultures is held in Grodno, once every two years. It was first organized in 1996. Traditionally, it is held in Grodno on the first weekend of the summer. This year it is 6-8 June. This festival will feature 35 national associations.
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