School of Peace, bearing the name of the hero: in Minsk opened a memorial installation in honor of Ivan Paromchik

In the secondary school No. 191 of the city of Minsk, bearing the name of Ivan Paromchik, on September 11, 2026, the solemn opening of a memorial installation dedicated to the Soviet and Belarusian state and party figure, the organizer of the guerrilla movement in the Minsk region took place. The ceremony was attended by the Chairman of the Minsk City Council Artem Tsuran. Details - in the material of the correspondent of the agency "Minsk-Novosti".

The event began with a video in which school students of different ages answered the question “What is memory?”. For second-graders it is “an opportunity to look at the portrait of the hero and say thank you to him”, for fifth-graders – “a thread that connects the past and the present”, for high school students – “responsibility” and “roots without which people disappear”. The video ended with the symbolic words: “Memory is a candle that we light so that darkness does not come again.”.

A special symbolism of the ceremony gave the lighting of candles. Students of the school, representatives of the volunteer detachment "Heirs of Victory" from the secondary school No. 70 named after L. N. Gurtev, as well as honored guests put their candles to the common symbol of memory. Students of the school as representatives of the “School of Peace” took part in the ceremony of transmitting the Flame of Memory, lit from the Eternal Flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow. They brought a part of this fire to the school symbol of memory in order to unite living generations and fraternal peoples with an invisible spiritual thread of common history.

- So from hundreds of small candles, an eternal flame of memory is formed, the students noted. All present honored with a minute of silence the heroes of the Great Patriotic War - known and unnamed, fallen and survivors.

Ivan Pavlovich Paromchik is a participant of three wars, the organizer of the guerrilla movement in the Minsk region during the Great Patriotic War. From June 1945 to March 1946, he headed the Minsk City Executive Committee, supervised the restoration of the destroyed capital of Belarus. Together with his comrades, he petitioned for Minsk to be awarded the title of hero city. In the summer of 1946 he became deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the BSSR, and after retirement - consultant to the Supreme Council of the BSSR.

Since February 2024, the school proudly bears the name of I. Feromchik. Since then, there have been frequent meetings with his daughter Inessa Ivanovna, who could not hold back tears of gratitude at the opening ceremony. She expressed gratitude for the fact that the memory of her father is immortalized in the walls of the school.

In her speech, the daughter of the hero lifted the veil of unknown facts from the biography of Ivan Pavlovich, explaining why it was he who was entrusted to lead the fight against the enemy in the rear.

- Why was Ivan Pavlovich, my father, sent behind enemy lines? To organize here, in the Minsk region, a partisan struggle against the fascists. It was prepared, she said, telling about her father’s combat path: participation in the First World War, joining the Bolshevik party at the age of 20, fighting near Pskov, early graduation from military school in Kazan, working as a deputy commissioner and studying at the Higher Military School of Command.

The honorary right to open the memorial installation was granted to I. Paromchik and A. Tsuran. The initiative to perpetuate the memory of I. The ferry came from the chairman of the Minsk City Council of Deputies.

Addressing the students, Tsuran stressed the importance of preserving historical memory:

- We met with you here to honor the memory of one of the leaders of our city Ivan Feromchik. Imagine that immediately after the war there was nothing. Everything was destroyed, the whole city was completely in ruins.

People like Ivan Pavlovich came from the front and from the guerrilla forests, where they lost friends and saw death every day, but found the strength to rebuild the country.

A beautiful city, which we are now proud of, is the brand of the Republic of Belarus, its capital. We, the people who are now making certain decisions, are also developing it, trying to build new districts, bridges and roads. But we are building this because they restored our city then, in those difficult years, he said.

The Chairman of the Minsk City Council emphasized that the memorial in the school is not just an ornament, but an important symbol.

- If we do not remember this military feat of the Great Patriotic War, we will not remember our history. Therefore, dear guys, it is very important that such a symbol appeared in your school, Tsuran said.

During the ceremony, the educational institution was awarded the honorary title “School of Peace”.

Chairman of the Minsk City Branch of the Belarusian Peace Fund Dmitry Karan presented the certificates. The event ended with the performance of the exemplary dance ensemble “Assorti” and words of gratitude to everyone who took part in the creation of the memorial installation. Special gratitude was expressed to the deputy of the Minsk City Council, director of the municipal production unitary enterprise “Minskreklam” Tatiana Kalitina for the manufacture, decoration and installation of the installation.

- We will try by our actions, our achievements in school, in sports, in extracurricular work to constantly confirm the right to bear the name of Ivan Pavlovich Paromchik.

Concluding his speech, Tsuran congratulated all those present on City Day and National Unity Day:

- We will continue to build our flourishing, bright, sovereign and independent Belarus.

The opening of the memorial installation was a vivid evidence that the connection of generations in Minsk is strong, and the memory of those who defended independence and revived the city from ruins is carefully preserved and transmitted to young citizens of the country.

Photo by Elizabeth Davidovskaya