Presidential Library participates in II Forum of Union State "Russia and Belarus: Common history, common destiny"

The II Forum of the Union State, Russia and Belarus: A Common History, A Common Destiny, is being held in Kaliningrad from October 2-4, 2024. The Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University will serve as the main venue for this meeting of historians, legal experts, social activists, and educators from both countries.

The primary goal of this forum is to foster the preservation of shared historical memory between Russia and Belarus and to provide a fresh impetus for collaborative efforts to combat attempts to distort history and re-evaluate the outcomes of World War II. A significant focus of the event will be on educational initiatives, where teachers from both nations will share their experiences in implementing projects aimed at fostering patriotic and moral values among young people.

The plenary session, held on October 3rd, was attended by Yuri Nosov, the Director General of the Presidential Library. In his presentation, he spoke on the topic of The Presidential Library as the guardian of Russia's and Belarus' shared historical memory: materials from the foundation.

Yuri Nosov emphasized that 2024 will mark the 80th anniversary of Belarus' liberation from Nazi occupation for the Union State of Russia and Belarus. This year will be a special one for commemorating the shared Victory over the Nazis.

In recent years, both Russia and Belarus have seen similar trends in countering attempts to falsify the historical past. In May of this year, the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin "On the approval of the foundations of state policy in the field of historical education" was issued. The priority direction for the state is "the dissemination of reliable and scientifically based knowledge in society in order to form a scientific understanding of the past and present of Russia, which is one of the foundations of the all-Russian civic identity and collective historical memory, as well as in order to counter attempts to belittle the feat of the people in the defense of the Fatherland."

The President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, recently signed the law "On the Genocide of the Belarusian People", which was committed by the Nazis and their collaborators during the Great Patriotic War and in the post-war period up to 1951. This law recognizes the genocide and emphasizes the inevitability of punishment for inhumane crimes with no statute of limitations.

The implementation of this law aims to prevent distortion of the results of World War II and promote unity within Belarusian society.

The Forum of participants from the Association of Schools of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus is the result of close cooperation between the Ministries of Education of both countries. This collaboration aims to create a unified pedagogical and educational space, as well as to promote patriotic education among young people.

Russia, like Belarus, has been placing a strong emphasis on the importance of including authentic historical documents in the education system. This approach helps to foster a deeper understanding of history and culture, and to instill a sense of pride in one's country and heritage.

Since 2009, the Presidential Library has worked closely with the Library Assembly of Eurasia (LAE), and during this time, several joint projects have been successfully completed. In September 2023, a general meeting of LAE members took place in Minsk, where participants discussed plans for events dedicated to the 80th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War.

The Presidential Library has proposed the creation of a multimedia resource featuring audio recordings of poetry about the Great Patriotic War, not only in Russian but also in the native languages of all the republics of the former USSR, combined with a video sequence featuring portraits of heroes of the Soviet Union from different nationalities. This proposal was approved and a working group has been formed to coordinate future activities. After the completion of the project, the media resources will be transferred to the project participants - LAE members for further use, including for information support of events dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory celebration.

In recent years, there has been an increasing desire to develop relations between Russia and Belarus, not only in the economic sphere but also in terms of cultural cooperation. This includes museum and archival work, which has led to the formation of a constantly growing electronic collection of documents called Russia - Belarus: the History of Relations at the Presidential Library.

These official documents, research papers, archival records, cartographic materials, and pictures reflect the political, legal, military, socio-economic, and cultural aspects of Russian-Belarus cooperation. They tell the story of the beginning of the formation of Belarusian identity in the early Middle Ages, during the era of ancient Russia. They mention the first mention of the name Belaya Rus, its unification with some Lithuanian lands, and its eventual incorporation into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and then the Commonwealth at the end of the 16th century.

Archival materials from the late 18th and early 20th centuries show that almost the entire territory of modern-day Belarus was incorporated into the Russian Empire as new provinces, including Vitebsk, Grodno, Minsk, Mogiliov, and Polotsk. These materials allow readers to see the unity and cooperation of the people during the time of the Russian Empire. After the revolutionary events of 1917 and the Russian Civil War, the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic was established, which later became part of the USSR in 1922.

The largest number of materials are presented on the Second World War. Since 2020, the Federal Archival Agency has been forming the most complete set of documents for the period from 1933 to 1945 in accordance with the instructions of the President of the Russian Federation V. V. Putin, which was given during the address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation dated January 15, 2020. These documents are publicly available on the portal of the Presidential Library in the collection World War II in archival documents (a set of digitized archival documents, film and photographic materials).

Belarusian archives – the National Archive, the Belarusian State Archive -the Museum of Literature and Art, and others took an active part in this large-scale project. The documents allow us to trace the reunification of the Belarusian people in 1939, the heroic resistance of Soviet troops on the territory of Belarus and the horrors of the German occupation regime. Government directives, resolutions, reports, orders, special messages, and memos are presented. A section of the collection titled Russia - Belarus: the History of Relations is dedicated to war-time leaflets stored at the National Library of Belarus. Based on this library's collection of military periodicals, a section called "Partisan Press" was created, which includes underground newspapers from partisan formations in various regions and districts of the Belarus SSR, as well as a handwritten magazine from one of the partisan brigades. The creation of this section formed the basis for the digital collection titled Memory of the Great Victory, dedicated to the 65th anniversary of the event. This collaboration between the Presidential Library and Belarus began in 2010.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, a new era of diplomatic cooperation between the Russian Federation and Belarus continued as part of the process of implementing the treaty to create a unified state. Both countries are closely linked by shared experiences and achievements, united by the goal of preserving their historical heritage and unique national cultures.

Through the joint efforts of Russian and Belarusian institutions, it is possible to preserve traditional values and protect historical truth, preventing the distortion of history.

On October 3rd, a cooperation agreement was signed between the Presidential Library of the Administrative Directorate of the President of the Russian Federation and the State Scientific Institution "Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus". The agreement was signed by Yuri Nosov, the Director General of the Presidential Library, and Vadim Lakiza, the Director of the Institute.

A trilateral cooperation agreement was signed between the Presidential Library of the Administrative Directorate of the President of the Russian Federation, the Center for International Cooperation of the Ministry of Education of Russia, which is a founder of the Association of Russian and Belarusian Schools, and F. Skarina Gymnasium No. 1 in Minsk, Belarus, which is also a founder of this association. The document was signed by Yuri Nosov, General Director of the Presidential Library; Sergey Malyshev, acting Director of the International Cooperation Center; and Natalia Bushnaya, Director of F. Skarina Gymnasium No. 1.