In November 2023, the National Library of Belarus and the National Archive of the Republic of Belarus began a cycle of exhibitions "Dawn of Liberation is Breaking Over Belarus", dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the country from Nazi invaders.
The cycle is called according to the famous appeal of the classic of Belarusian literature, the national poet of the BSSR (1926) Yakub Kolas to Belarusian people. In March 1942, three months after the Battle for Moscow, one of the turning points during the Great Patriotic War, when the Soviet army launched a counteroffensive against the enemy, the words of the poet were printed in the newspaper poster "Crush the Fascist serpent": "The dawn of liberation is breaking over Belarus. ... The great battles have begun and will end on you, the Belarusian land. ... The Red Army is marching to the West, sweeping out the plundering hordes of rabid fascism with an iron broom."
The second exposition presents a chronicle of the liberation from January to March 1944. In the book-documentary series – facts and participants of the Kalinkovichi-Mozyr (January 8 – February 8) and Rogachev-Zhlobin (February 21-26) offensive operations of the Belarusian Front.
In March 1944, one of the tragic pages of the history of Belarus during the war unfolded, related to the genocide of the Belarusian people. On March 18–19, the 65th Army of the 1st Belorussian Front released prisoners of the Ozarich death camps who were in inhumane conditions, in the snow, in the open air, without heat and food. Until now, more than 50 thousand civilians driven by the Nazis behind barbed wire remained 33.5 thousand prisoners, half of whom were children under the age of 13.
The exhibition shows books, periodical and illustrative editions of the Great Patriotic War, modern academic and archival publications-encyclopedias, scientific manuals, monographs, memoirs of participants, copies of archival documents – acts, orders, lists of freed prisoners, photographs of the daily life of newly liberated cities.
We invite you to get acquainted with the exposition and recreate the events of the chronicle of the liberation of Belarus, turn to books and documents that preserve and perpetuate the memory of those heroic times, about participants and witnesses of the Great Patriotic War.
The exhibition runs from January 23 to December 31, 2024 in the ring gallery on the 3rd floor.
The completion date can be changed.
The opening hours of the exhibition correspond to the Library opening hours.
Admission is by a library card or by the Social and Cultural Center ticket.
The books presented at the exhibition can be ordered through the E-catalogue of the National Library of Belarus.
For more info: (+375 17) 293 29 80.
The material is presented by the Department of Gallery and Exhibition Activities.
