Names of around 1,800 Fatherland defenders ascertained in Vitebsk Oblast in 2010

VITEBSK, 1 April (BelTA) – Around 1,900 names of Fatherland defenders, who were buried in Vitebsk Oblast, were ascertained in 2010, BelTA learned from Sergei Olsevich, Deputy Military Commissioner of the Vitebsk Oblast Military Commissariat. Field excavations were arranged in Gorodok District, Beshenkovichi District, Braslav District, Vitebsk District, Polotsk District, Dokshitsy District, Verkhnedvinsk District and Tolochin District. Personnel of military unit No 28443 worked at 27 sites, unearthed 210 remains of the military who died during the Great Patriotic War, with names of another eleven soldiers ascertained. Last year another earlier unaccounted-for military graveyard was categorized. A lot of efforts were put into immortalizing the fallen war heroes, said Sergei Olsevich. Three major reinterment ceremonies took place in July and October 2010. Remains of 26 soldiers were reburied in a communal grave near the town of Beshenkovichi. Remains of 69 people were re-interred in the graveyard of the village of Kopti, Vitebsk District. Remains of 84 military now rest in the military graveyard in Titov Street in Vitebsk. Search efforts to ascertain the names of the dead involved military commissariats, local authorities, public associations, veteran and youth organizations as part of the Vitebsk Oblast plan for immortalizing the fallen Fatherland defenders and for patriotic upbringing of the youth. All in all, there are 1,238 military graveyards in Vitebsk Oblast, including Belarus’ only graveyard for officers in the village of Stasevo, Liozno District. In Vitebsk Oblast 384,500 defenders of the Fatherland rest, including nearly 207,000 ones whose names are unknown.

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