From April 1st to June 14th, a book exhibition “The law of memory” timed to the 70th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945 runs in the Legal information reading room (auditorium 207b).
The war had led to essential changes in the state legal system and the establishment of war laws which concerned all the branches of law. The Constitution of the USSR и constitutions of union and autonomous republics stayed the basis to legislation, but laws directly concerning the questions of defense took on special significance. The citizens’ duty to defend the Fatherland was defined by a number of statutory acts of the Soviet state published in the first days of the war, first of all the Decree of the USSR Supreme Soviet Presidium ”About the martial law” of June 22nd, 1941. Some institutes of the Soviet right which had not be applied in peacetime during the war were widely adopted becoming important tools of solving new challenges.
The civil law justified the principle of state ownership allowing the state to manage quickly and operatively its property with a view of the adjustment of war effort and mobilization of all existing resources on the struggle against fascism. Contractual relationship reduced, and the role of administrative acts and plan targets increased.
Special decrees protected the rights of military men and members of their families.
In the family law the institute of official marriage was fixed, the process of divorce became more complicated, large families and birth rate were encouraged, the state support of pregnant, large families and lonely mothers increased.
The labor law was called to solve the problems of the wartime labor mobilization with the application of emergency measures. Overtime works became obligatory, only adolescents under the age of 16 had the right to holiday. The labor feat and enthusiasm became the norm.
In criminal law the responsibility for a number of crimes which public danger amplified in the conditions of war increased, and new structures characteristic to the wartime were introduced.
Many statutory acts adopted during the war had been abrogated even before its ending, others – soon after the end of war. However a number of wartime acts were designed for the future and a long-term action. Such a tendency of legislation in the future, the intention of the Soviet legislation during the war to solve the questions of the after-war period were based on a deep belief in the victory over fascism.
The offered exhibition presents about 50 documentary and archival materials about the unforgettable events of the Great Patriotic War and people who added glorious pages to the chronicles of heroic deeds.
The exposition includes the thematic sections as follow:
- The Soviet law during the Great Patriotic War.
- Legal groundwork to branches of armed forces and classes of services in the wartime.
- Legal status of military men during the Great Patriotic War.
- Milestones of the Great Victory: the fights and battles which had changed the course of war.
- Here the rear was the front: partisan movement during the war.
- The period of occupation and liberation of Belarus.
- Bibliographic and archival sources on the study of legal documents of the Great Patriotic War.
The exhibition is designed for amateurs of military history, veterans, students, cadets, military men, jurists and teachers.
Useful links
Legal acts adopted during the Great Patriotic War (1941–1945);
Archival documents on the war;
”Belarusian villages burnt down during the Great Patriotic War”: electronic database;
The Red Army operations during the Great Patriotic War: combat reports, communiqués of Sovinformburo, orders of the NKO, letters from the front and other documents, military maps are presented; there is a section “Divisions: the list of units, subordinated departments, the history and combat way”, and also the list of armies which were part of the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War and the Second World War;
”Memorial”: generalized computer databank containing information on defenders of the Fatherland, victims and the missing during the Great Patriotic War and the post-war period;
”The Victory Vitebsk”: the site is dedicated to the memory of those who perished defending and releasing the city of Vitebsk, those who could not survive in the terrible years of war; also the site feature pages of the Belarusian Republican association “POSHUK” , and the Vitebsk youth public association “The Military and Patriotic Club “POISK”;
”The people’s feat in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945”: public electronic databank of documents;
The search group “Backaushchyna”: in close contact to the administration for the perpetuating of the memory of defenders of the Fatherland and victims of wars at the Ministry of Defense of Belarus, the search group carries out a purposeful work on the revealing of unknown burial places of soldiers of the Red Army perished on the territory of Belarus during the Great Patriotic War;
”Soldat” (The Soldier): the site contains the Books of Memory of several regions of Russia, numerous electronic directories on the structure and units of the Soviet Army, old administrative division of the USSR and RSFSR, data on the military losses, scanned versions of original documents of military times and other materials;
”The documentation centre”: research establishment at the association “The Saxon Memorial Foundation dedicated to the memory of the victims of political terror” (Dresden); the site features a database about Soviet prisoners of war in camps or working battalions, basically placed on the territory of the Reich, and also a database on burial places of Soviet citizens on the territory of Saxony;
”The Electronic Book of Memory of Ukraine”: an electronic search base contains information released by the search and publishing agency ”The Electronic Book of Memory of Ukraine” form 1994 (about 400 volumes dedicated to more than 10 million Ukrainians perished during the great Patriotic War and those who died and was buried on the territory of Ukraine).
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