“We are true to this memory”: an exhibition of military-patriotic clubs, detachments, and school museums dedicated to the 80th anniversary of Victory opened in Vitebsk
Military-patriotic search teams play a special role in preserving historical memory, with their primary objective being to immortalize the memory of fallen soldiers. Behind every relic found by searchers on battlefields lies the fate and name of a person who was considered missing in action for all these years.
A thematic exhibition titled "We Remain True to This Memory" has been presented at the Museum of History of Private Collections in Vitebsk. The initiative to create this exhibition project came from Larisa Brueva, Chairperson of the Council for Interaction of Search Teams of the Vitebsk Region "Poshuk". The exhibition showcases materials on the history of the search movement in the Vitebsk Region from 1984 to the present day.
The first search teams and clubs began to emerge in the Vitebsk Region in the 1980s: "Iskatel" (Seeker) of Vocational School No. 96 and "Poisk" (Search) of Vocational School No. 19 in Vitebsk, "Razvedchiki voinskoy slavy" (Scouts of Military Glory) of Secondary School No. 2 in Novopolotsk, and "Rusichi" of Vocational School No. 110 in Orsha.
The first "Watches of Memory" and search expeditions in Belarus were conducted in the Dubrovno, Vitebsk, Liozno, Shumilino, and Polotsk districts of the Vitebsk Region. Following the first regional search camp for educational institutions held near Lake Losvido, search teams began to be formed based on the councils of school museums of military glory.
In April 1991, the Vitebsk Region had about 30 teams affiliated with the Vitebsk Regional Association "Poshuk," which was registered by the All-Union Association of Search Organizations "People's Memory of Fallen Defenders of the Fatherland."
The glorious traditions of the search movement in the Vitebsk region, as part of the Belarusian-Russian program "Sky of the Motherland," are today continued by searchers from the "Razvedchiki Voinskoy Slavy" team of Novopolotsk, the "Gromovtsy" team of the State Educational Institution "Secondary School No. 40 of Vitebsk named after M.M. Gromov," and the "Aviapoisk" team of Borisov.