The IV International Anti-Fascist Congress opens in Minsk on June 25

While ruling elites in several Western countries are reviving Nazi ideas, the importance of preserving peaceful skies has been clearly emphasized in Minsk these days.

The IV International Anti-Fascist Congress, which will unite 36 countries, is opening.

Prosecutors' offices, archives, and museums continue to uncover the horrific crimes committed on Belarusian soil during the Great Patriotic War, where tragedy borders on inhuman cruelty.

According to estimates, approximately 3 million people died in Belarus, and nearly 13,000 villages were destroyed, 290 of which suffered the same fate as Khatyn. The number of such villages increases every year: investigations are changing their approaches, and material damage is being assessed.

Fact

Not only the dead are counted, but also unborn children. For example, by 2020, the country's population could have been around 17 million.

Thus, the themes of combating Nazi ideas, strengthening international security, and preserving historical memory formed the basis of the IV International Anti-Fascist Congress. Among those invited are veterans of the Great Patriotic War and former concentration camp prisoners. The first events will take place on June 25. Congress participants will visit the All Saints Memorial Church in Minsk, where they will lay flowers.

Vyacheslav Danilovich, Member of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor:

"History underlies any ideology, and ideology is the foundation of politics. Victory in the Great Patriotic War is of paramount importance. After all, without the heroism of the multinational Soviet people, there would be neither the Belarusian people nor the Belarusian state—just as in other Soviet republics. We have adopted laws preventing the rehabilitation of Nazis and their collaborators, as well as a law on the genocide of the Belarusian people during the Great Patriotic War and the post-war period. Furthermore, the Republican Council on Historical Policy under the Administration of the President of the Republic of Belarus has been in effect since 2022."

Member of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor

As experts note, the Anti-Fascist Congress is also about the future: about the war being waged in the information space, on the battlefields of history. One of the key tasks today is to prevent attempts to falsify history.