Belarusian State Museum of the Great Patriotic War

Belarusian State Museum of the Great Patriotic War The Belarusian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War is a state cultural institution of the Republic of Belarus, the world’s first museum of the history of the Great Patriotic War, has the largest collection of artifacts on the history of the Great Patriotic War. On the area of more than 3000 m2, you can see over 8 thousand exhibits that tell about the history of the Great Patriotic War. The funds contain about 145 thousand rarities collected during the hostilities in Eastern Europe and Germany, as well as transferred by the embassies of different countries in peacetime. Military rarities comprise 28 collections and are exhibited in 10 thematic sections: • «Peace and War»; • «The World before and in the first years of the Second World War»; • «Road of War»; • «The beginning of the Great Patriotic War. Defensive battles in Belarus in the summer of 1941. Smolensk Battle. Moscow Battle in 1941-1942»; • «A radical change in the war course. Soviet rear»; • «Nazi occupation regime on the Belarusian territory in 1941-1944»; • «Partisan movement and anti-fascist struggle in Belarus. Participation of Soviet people in the European Resistance movement in 1941-1945»; • «Liberation of Belarus. Defeat of Nazi Germany, its allies and militaristic Japan»; • «Belarus after liberation. 1944-1950. Memory of the war»; • «Heirs of the Great Victory». The magnificent Victory Hall ends the exposition. It’s decorated in the form of a glass dome of the Berlin Reichstag, over which Soviet soldiers hoisted the Victory Banner in 1945. Nowadays, the Belarusian flag waves over the museum, and inside a drawn stork (the symbol of Belarus) on a stained-glass window adorns its transparent dome. You can relish a magnificent panorama of the city and a picturesque view of the Svisloch River and Victory Park.