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Zaslauye authorities ban exhibition about life in Western Belarus

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Zaslauye authorities ban exhibition about life in Western Belarus

The exhibition “Western Belarusian Atlantida” was to be opened today.

Organisers planned to show the campaign of September 1939 that involved the divisions of the Polish Armed Forces, which included many people born in Western Belarus, Novy Chas writes.

The exhibition planned to show original photographs, documents and art objects reflecting peaceful life of Western Belarus in 1921-1939. The exhibition items include uniforms of officers of the Polish Armed Forces, a soldier of an infantry regiment and a sailor of the Pinsk River Fleet. The exhibition consists of 300 items, most of them are original.

Historian Ihar Melnikau has been collecting the items for many years, but it turned out that the exhibition downgrades the role of the USSR and thus Belarus as the USSR's successor.

This conclusion was made by Ruslan Trukhan, the head of the main department for ideology, culture and youth affairs of the Minsk regional executive committee.

The official (a former BRSM chief in the Minsk region) neither saw the exhibits nor spoke to Ihar Melnikau. He just recommended Mikalai Pahranouski, the director of Zaslauye Historic and Cultural Museum, not to open the exhibition.

Ihar Melnikau has been preparing the exhibition for several months. He was installing showcases with the help of the museum staff and bought frames and other things at his own expense. He offered his collection to the museum for free and proposed to make the exhibition free, but the museum director didn't agree and said tickets should cost 15,000 rubles.

“I have been preparing the exhibition for almost 6 months. The idea was to show the courage of Belarusian soldiers of the Polish Armed Forces, who, along with the Poles, were the first in the world to say 'no' to Hitler.

In September 1939, they made a step to the victory of 1945. But Belarusian ideologists apparently don't find this page of our history interesting. They think the Belarusians were fighting against fascism only in the Soviet army. But our fellow citizens were struggling against the 'brown plague' on different fronts. They were fighting with courage and bravery. It is a strange and, I beg your pardon, silly position of our officials that did not allow such an interesting historic project to be opened in Zaslauye. I hope I'll find another opportunity to display my collection. By the way, I am open for any proposals,” Ihar Melnikau says.

Mikalai Pahranouski, the museum director, said the opening was postponed for technical reasons. Asked if it the reason was Trukhan's ban, Pahranouski said he would not comment on the situation until 15:00.

Ruslan Trukhan declined to comment until 15:00, too.

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