Date :
Tuesday, June 22, 2021
This article describes not only organized tours but also those that are still little known.
Due to its location in the center of Europe, Belarus has many times been a territory where fierce battles and horrific wars took place. Today it is a part of our history, which is preserved in various museums, memorials, and monuments. If you want to plunge into this topic you hit the mother lode because there are a lot of military history tours! This article describes not only organized tours but also those that are still little known.
Tribute to the Memory of the Victims of Fascism
This tour includes four places dedicated to the victims of the Great Patriotic War.
The Pit Memorial Complex. It consists of 27 figures on their way to execution in a deep pit, which are intertwined in the form of a ladder. There are no clear outlines or faces, just shadows and your imagination. During the war, hundreds of thousands of Jews died in the Minsk ghetto.
Address: city of Minsk, Melnikaite st.
Trastyanets Memorial Complex. There are monuments and steles dedicated to the former concentration camp of the same name.
Address: city of Minsk, Selitskogo st.
Memorial Complex to the Prisoners of the Azarychy Death Camp. Today the camp, originally created for the extermination of the Soviet soldiers, is only a memory in the form of a memorial located in the middle of the wasteland.
Address: Homel region, Kalinkavichy district, village of Azarychy.
Krasny Berah Memorial Complex. It is dedicated to the children who died in a donor center set up by the Germans to pump blood from small bodies. This place will definitely tug you at heartstrings.
Address: Homel region, Zhlobin district, village of Krasny Berah.
Military Patriotic Tour
Orsha. Katyusha Memorial Complex is located here. Back in the day, those very Katyushas, the rocket launchers which for a long time had been a secret weapon for the Nazis, were used here for the first time.
Address: city of Orsha, Mahilyowskaya st.
Lenina. The most brutal battles of 1943 between the Soviet and German troops took place in this small village. Today there is a memorial as a tribute to our soldiers on the former battlefield. Moreover, there is a museum built in the form of a military helmet.
Address: Mahilyow region, agrotown of Lenina.
Buynichy Field. This place is mentioned in The Living and the Dead novel. In 194 terrifying battles took place here. There is a reservoir called "The Lake of Tears" next to the memorial where military equipment is exhibited.
Address: Mahilyow district, village of Buynichy.
Mound of Glory. In 1944, the battles for the liberation of Minsk — "the Minsk Cauldron" — took place in this field. Now it is a seventy-meter mound with four bayonets, at the base of which there is a capsule with a message to the generations to come.
Address: Smalevichy district, 21st km of the M2 (Minsk — Minsk National Airport) highway.
Dzesyatniki. Visting this German cemetery, you will understand that war is not the struggle of ordinary people, it is the struggle of hierarchical superiors. There are no enemies or friends, war is about humanity and inhumanity.
Address: Minsk region, village of Dzesyatniki
Narach Region. There are defensive posts of the soldiers, which survived after the front line of the First World War, hidden in the bushes near Lake Narach. In addition, there are many graves here. Moreover, there is the Myadel Museum of People's Glory, where the guides will tell you about the plan of the Narach Operation and many other interesting facts.
Address: Minsk region, town of Myadzel, 1 Sharangovicha st.
Smarhon. It is a landmark but for some reason a relatively unknown site in the history of Belarus. However, many feats were accomplished here: in 1917 the women's battalion of death fought here, the local hospital was run by Leo Tolstoy’s daughter, and the city held the line for 810 days.
The military history tourism is well developed in our country, but, unfortunately, it is not often talked about. You can visit and explore plenty of different tours, routes, monuments, and memorials! In addition to the above-mentioned places, we advise you to visit Strelchyki, where Russian fortresses are located, Skoki, where there is the Nemtseviches' mansion, Ushachy, the residents of it performed a real feat, the Minsk fortified area, two percent of the buildings in which have been restored, Stalag 342, during the war called the "death camp", and many other sites.