The preparatory work for the гер Immortal Regiment ’action on Victory Day in the hero-city of Minsk, the public associations of Belarus that formed the Unity Coordination Council, began in advance. Activists of the action submitted an application for registration of the Public Association “Immortal Regiment” twice (09/14/2018 and 11/12/2018) to the justice department of the Minsk City Executive Committee and both times were refused. On March 27, 2019, the founders of the NGO “Immortal Regiment” filed a complaint against the decision of the Minsk City Executive Committee to the Minsk City Court, but the Ministry of Justice also refused to allow the complaint. The applicants disagreed with this verdict of the Minsk City Court, finding it illegal and unreasonable. Therefore, on 12.04.2019 they filed an appeal to the judicial division in civil cases of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Belarus.
Without waiting for a decision on the registration of the NGO "Immortal Regiment", the leaders of the OET "Fatherland" (VB Zelikov), the PO DSP (VV Draco) and the RPO SKPS (L. Ye. Schoolchildren) submitted an application to the Minsk City Executive Committee the action "Immortal regiment" on Victory Day in the hero-city of Minsk. The action included a procession of veterans, working people, youth with portraits of participants of the Great Patriotic War and laying flowers at the Victory Monument and the Eternal Flame in Victory Square. In 2018, the Minsk City Executive Committee initially refused a similar request, but after sending a letter to Belarusian President A.G. Lukashenka and the talks personally with the chairman of the Minsk City Executive Committee A.V. Shorts, the procession along the stated route was still allowed.
This year everything was different, the applicants of the action twice (April 24, 2019 and May 03, 2019) were invited to the Minsk City Executive Committee to resolve the issue of holding the “Immortal Regiment” action. The officials of the Minsk executive authorities gave the applicants a written negative reply, in which they were signed by the deputy chairman of the Minsk City Executive Committee A.N. Tsurana reported: “Considering the above, the Minsk City Executive Committee cannot allow the holding of this mass event.” Justification - The Law of the Republic of Belarus “On Mass Events in the Republic of Belarus” and the decision of the Minsk City Executive Committee “On the determination of places for holding mass events in Minsk”, where Independence Avenue (the central avenue in Minsk) does not fall.
Then, orally, the officials proposed two options: the first option - they allow the procession not along the central avenue of the city, but on Kommunisticheskaya side street, and for a fee; the second option is a collection at the House-Museum of the 1st congress of the RSDLP with our attributes, followed by passage to Victory Square (about 100 meters) and laying flowers to the Eternal Flame in Victory Square. The amount that had to be paid with the first option (in case ten thousand participants of the march gather) was equal to 6375 Belarusian rubles, which corresponds to 3000 dollars.
Of course, the applicants do not have such money, so they agreed to the second option. However, the very fact of demanding money for a procession with portraits of the victorious relatives is outraged! Is it possible to arrange a business trade in the sacred for our people Victory Day? Unless it was impossible on that day to allow the march along the central avenue for free? As far as is known, they have never thought of this anywhere else. Reason refuses to believe that this is happening in Belarus, where every third resident of the republic died in the last war. This is blasphemy, this is immoral.
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In accordance with the verbal agreement with officials of the Minsk City Executive Committee, on May 9, at 10.00, the Immortal Regiment rally gathered at the House-Museum of the 1st Congress of the RSDLP. Among those who gathered were people of different ages, there were many young people and children. In their hands were portraits of participants of the Great Patriotic War, in the design of which pride was felt for their relatives.
The Bolsheviks came with the standard AUCPB, portraits of VI. Lenin and I.V. Stalin, the flags of the USSR and the BSSR, banners “Glory to the Red Army!”, “Our cause is just - victory will be ours! - I.V. Stalin "and" All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) - the organizer and inspirer of the Victory of the Soviet people "and a copy of the Banner of Victory.
The mood of the crowd was elevated, although many expressed dissatisfaction with the ban of the procession of the "Immortal regiment in the center of the city. They sang songs of wartime, including “Katyusha”, “Get up, great country”, “Gunners, Stalin gave an order”, etc.
Correspondents of local and foreign media talked with the participants of the action. Answering the question of the correspondent of the local site TUT.BY “Why the participants of the action“ Immortal regiment ”do not join the state event“ Belarus remembers ”, the author of these lines answered:
“The Soviet Union collapsed, the army was taken apart and now blasphemously hauled away the memory of our common victory in national apartments, this is unacceptable. The action “Belarus remembers” ... We agree, we also remember. But we firmly remember that not only Belarusians fought for the liberation of Belarus: they were Russians, Tatars, Kazakhs, and other peoples of the great Soviet Union. We keep the memory of our common victory. Some say that the action "Immortal regiment" is Russian. It is not right. This is an international action! And today more than 90 countries of the world take part in it. It is incomprehensible to the end why our action “Immortal Regiment” is being put in constant obstacles.
At the end of the state event, the participants in the action "Immortal Regiment" were sent directly to Victory Square, where they laid flowers at the Eternal Flame.
After laying flowers, the participants of the Immortal Regiment, gathered on the steps of the Victory Monument, took pictures on its background and sang again military songs.
Then the members of the AUCPB and our supporters built a “Bolshevik rank” with attributes brought on the site in front of the Victory Monument and continued to work among those gathered. They handed out leaflets of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Communist Party "Happy Victory Day!" To the Victory Square and distributed the Bolshevik Sickle and Hammer, Revolution and Forward.
Thus, despite the obstacles of bourgeois power, the action of the “Immortal Regiment” in Minsk on Victory Day, though in a “trimmed” form, did take place. Moreover, thanks to the attributes of the AUCPB, leaflets and newspapers, the political direction of the commitment to Soviet ideals was given. The media of the Belarusian nationalists on this occasion went berserk and frigid, throwing mud at the Bolshevik activists, who were holding the portraits of V.I. Lenin and I.V. Stalin.
But the wind of history is blowing in our direction, more and more people are becoming under the Red Banner of Victory, which is inseparable from the great people of V.I. Lenin and I.V. Stalin.
V. B. Zelikov
