We deal with the questions on perpetuating the memory of a young partisan in the Ivatsevichi district

In Belarus, preserving the historical truth about the Great Patriotic War and its heroes is a truly national matter. There can be no minor facts and insignificant details. Therefore, an appeal to the editorial office of SB Belarus Today, a resident of Minsk, Sergey Zagorsky, that insufficient measures are taken in the Ivatsevichi district to perpetuate the memory of the 17-year-old partisan-subversive Nikolai Levchuk, who died in battle with German punitive forces in April 1944, immediately entails a business trip for our correspondent. Minchanin, on almost ten pages with applications, outlined what, in his opinion, is manifested by formalism in perpetuating the memory of a young bomber, who is his uncle. The essence of the appeal boils down to the following: the burial of the guerrilla is not paid due attention, initiatives to hold commemorative events in his honor are not found in the area of response. The applicant raises the issue that state bodies refuse to assign the name of Nikolay Levchuk to an unnamed street in his native village of Priborovo and refer to the results of the meeting of local residents, which, according to the author of the appeal, was held in violation of the law.

Dedicated to Nikolai Levchuk stand in the Ivatsevichi Museum of Local Lore. The solution is Priborovo - a village in just one street. 11 people are constantly registered and live here. But all households 52: picturesque edges attract summer residents. And a significant part of them are those who inherited the property.

To meet with the villagers, we go accompanied by the managing director of the Bytensky village executive committee Olga Razumeychik. She tells how the same village gathering took place on June 27, to which Sergei Zagorsky had complaints:

- At the local meeting, which was previously reported on the website of the district executive committee and in the village wire chat, 25 people out of 64 eligible voters were present. The results of the open vote are as follows: 24 people opposed the assignment of Levchuk street. There was only one relative of the applicant. Zagorsky did not attend the meeting and later called it illegal due to the fact that the gathering took place on the street, not indoors. This procedure does not contradict the requirements of the legislation on republican and local assemblies.

The villagers are frustrated with the need to return to an issue on which a collective decision has already been made. Retired Tatiana Lukashik, whose father was a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, emotionally expresses a common position:

- Veterans lived in almost every home. All their lives they walked along this nameless street, and no one demanded to name it after anyone. Even the brother of the deceased partisan Pavel Ivanovich Levchuk, who was secretary of the party organization of the state farm, then a teacher of history, never singled out his brother from dozens of other dead countrymen. We voted to leave everything as it is.

Another resident of Priborovo, Raisa Grinchik, voices a decision that, in her opinion, would suit everyone:

- No one diminishes the merits of Nikolai Levchuk. At the age of 16, at the call of the heart, going into partisans is already a feat. But here many fought in partisan detachments and at the front. It is better to put at the beginning of the village a stele with the names of all who fought and died in the Great Patriotic Countrymen. We can raise the money ourselves.

In the conversation, the villagers touch on another important point. Nikolai Levchuk found rest in his native land, near his parents. In 2022, for budgetary funds, a new monument was installed on his grave, the maintenance of the military burial is provided by the Bytensky executive committee, the Ivatsevichi housing and communal services, as well as students and teachers of the Bytensky secondary school. Tatiana Bogdanovich, director of Byten High School, notes:

- According to the approved plan, we must clean up here twice a year: in November and on the eve of Victory Day. But we do it more often: this year alone, seven times. And the hero's memory is sacred. Thus, on April 17, 2026, in the presence of teachers and students of the school, as well as the nephew of the deceased guerrilla hero, a plaque with a QR code was solemnly installed at a military burial in the framework of the international historical and patriotic project "Digital Star", implemented in our country by the NGO "BRSM".

Tatiana Bogdanovich. By phone, Sergey Zagorsky clarified his position regarding the care of the military burial of partisan Nikolai Levchuk and the perpetuation of his memory:

- The grave of my uncle is primarily a burial not of a relative, but an officially entered into the database “Book of Memory of the Republic of Belarus” and a military burial under strict state protection. We can clean the grave, and we come and clean it – it is not difficult for us. But there are regulatory legal acts adopted in the state on the care of such military graves. And I asked the representatives of the school supervising the burial of Levchuk N. I., to inform me when they will restore order there or lay flowers to do it together. Somehow they're ignoring my request. Sergey Zagorsky recalls: when on April 17, 2026, a QR-plate was solemnly installed at the grave of his uncle as part of the Digital Star project, representatives of state bodies and public associations present at the rally said that he was a hero and you need to look up to him, always remember his feat.

- I do not understand the position of the chairman of the village council, referring to the number of military graves as the reason for the fact that on May 9, 2025 (and this, let me remind you, was the year of the national celebration in the Republic of Belarus of the 80th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War), no one but us, relatives, came to the grave of my uncle. For example, in the Lida district, there are also many such burials. And there came up with an annual action - to collect patriots-automotives, who on the eve of Victory Day go around many memorable places in the area and lay flowers to them. Such an event can be included in the celebration plan in the Ivatsevichi district with a visit to the village of Priborovo. Director of the Ivatsevichi Museum of Local History Raisa Gorbachev says that it is physically impossible to perpetuate every partisan in the name of the street: In our district, more than 3,000 people fought in partisan detachments. Of these, more than a thousand are of Komsomol age. Only natives of Bytenshchina were 386 people, including 11 from the village of Priborovo. Emphasizing the undoubted importance of research on the national avengers, the director clarifies that the expositions of the museum and the memorial complex of partisan glory “Khovanshchina” contain information about Nikolai Levchuk. Moreover, the main data about it were taken from the website "Partisans of Belarus" - a special project of the publishing house "Belarus Today" and the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus. On the personal page of Nikolai Levchuk - 11 archival documents. Of them, it is known that the young bomber was posthumously awarded the medals "For Courage" and "Partisan of the Patriotic War" of the first degree.

Currently, on the territory of the Ivatsevichi district there are 133 military graves and 106 monuments of history and culture, memorial signs, pedestals, memorial plaques, monuments of military glory. And every one of them needs care. Deputy Chairman of the Ivatsevichi District Executive Committee Svetlana Zavadskaya cites data:

- In 2025, more than 138,000 rubles from the district budget and almost 16,000 sponsorship funds were spent for these purposes. This year, 15 monuments have already been replaced, seven burials and four obelisks have been repaired. For the first half of the district budget for these purposes sent almost 87 thousand rubles.

Responding to comments about the lack of proper support for initiatives to perpetuate the memory of Nikolai Levchuk and the fact that on May 9 and July 3, rallies were not held at his burial, Svetlana Zavadskaya stressed: We honor the memory of all the heroes of the Great Patriotic War - natives of our district equally sacredly. In the Victory Square in Ivatsevichi, we hold state holidays and solemn rallies dedicated to memorable dates. Such activities are also taking place in rural areas. But it is impossible to organize commemorative actions simultaneously at 133 military graves. By the way, in Priborovo to the centenary of the birth of Nikolai Levchuk – this is October 8, 2026 – there will be a rally with the participation of schoolchildren and local authorities, thematic classroom hours, excursions to the museum. To remember the war means to respect and honor the memory of those who defended our country, its peaceful future. To honor the memory of all the fighters against fascism, and not to insistently strive to single out one. Respect doesn’t have to be loud. The important thing is that it's real.

poplavskiy@sb.by