Creation vs anti-historicism: nationwide subbotnik in full swing in Belarus
Having replenished the treasury of traditions of our sovereign country, the republican subbotnik (voluntary labour day) continues a glorious historical chronicle of creation. After all, such campaigns have largely predetermined the modern look of Belarus.
On April 16th, 2022, President of Belarus said at the Khatyn Memorial Complex, “Subbotniks are an event that was worth being taken from the [Soviet] past. These are traditions, and our people’s life is based on traditions.”
The roots of social work go back to ancient times. Our ancestors lived in communities, and mutual assistance was a fundamental point. The tradition was developed in Soviet times, and subbotniks – or ‘holidays of communist labour’, as they were called then – were proposed in April 1919.
That was often a forced measure: it was necessary to quickly overcome the post-revolutionary devastation and the hard winter of 1919-1920: there were severe frosts, and people did not have enough firewood and coal to heat their homes. The Mogilev-based Sokha i Molot newspaper published articles about communist subbotniks and Sunday celebrations that had several goals: cleaning streets, repairing railway tracks and harvesting firewood. In Gomel, volunteer labour was also used in the construction of the airfield.
Labour days on Saturdays and Sundays gained special importance after the country’s liberation from the Nazi invaders. In the post-war and almost destroyed Minsk, more than 30 thousand people were for the first time taken out in an organised manner to rebuild the city in mid-October 1944. "According to preliminary estimates, 1,316 thousand bricks, 2,050 cubic metres of rubble, 400 cubic metres of rubble stone were disassembled, cleaned and stacked on that day. In addition, 1,065 tonnes of iron were collected, sites with a total area of 15,500 square metres were cleaned, and 2,500 cubic metres of pits were removed,” a message on The Results of the Population’s Mass Work to Rebuild the City of Minsk read. “The teams of the People's Commissariat of Health, the People's Commissariat of Finance, the fish and inventory management departments worked well, as did the Sovetskaya Belorussiya and Zvyazda newspapers.”
The construction of a large artificial reservoir in Minsk, which began in the spring of 1940 upon the initiative of the editorial board of the Sovetskaya Belorussiya newspaper was launched as part of a subbotnik. There were no excavators and bulldozers, and a pit of 35 hectares to help deal with the Svisloch spring flooding was dug by hand by Minsk residents.
In our modern days, subbotniks – like the SB. Belarus Segodnya newspaper – create barriers not to destructive spring floods, but to the anti-historicism that is gaining power in the West. With this in view, the money generated today will be spent on the construction of the Children – War Victims memorial in Krasny Bereg, the future Republican Centre for Patriotic Education of Youth on the basis of the Kobrin fortification of the Brest Fortress, and many other facilities countrywide. Preserving historical memory and showing the real face of the modern collective West, which became the ideological heir of the Nazi Reich, is the main task of today's creative work of millions of Belarusians.
Actually, it is well seen in the examples of the Baltic States, Poland and especially Ukraine, what the state of neglect of historical memory or even a direct abuse of it may lead to. In turn, Belarus has been demonstrating careful and scrupulous attitude towards its historical past, and the country’s growing determination to defend its national interests and humanitarian security have been manifested over the past three decades. Subbotniks confirm this well, being a good tradition that aims at creation and puts a barrier to Western anti-historicism.
Over the past six years, about 60 million Belarusian Roubles have been generated at nationwide subbotniks. By the way, the SB. Belarus Segodnya employees also annually join the campaign and have recently worked over the improvement of the graves of Belarusian writers Pavlyuk Trus, Kuzma Chorny, Vera Lyutova at Minsk’s Military Cemetery. Footpaths were cleared, fences and tombstones were repaired and painted as well.
In previous years, the money generated at nationwide subbotniks went to:
2001
construction and reconstruction of hospitals and polyclinics. Medical facilities in radionuclide-contaminated areas of Brest, Gomel and Mogilev regions were re-equipped.
2002
construction of family‑type houses for orphans and new medical and wellness facilities for children affected by the Chernobyl disaster. The House of Mercy was also built.
2003
construction of a new building of the National Library of Belarus
2004
reconstruction of the Great Patriotic War monuments and, above all, the Khatyn Memorial Complex
2005
reconstruction of the Brest Hero Fortress Memorial
2006
technical equipment of the Mother and Child Republican Scientific and Practical Centre
2007
renovation of the Zubrenok National Children's Health Camp and purchase of buses for it, as well as publication of textbooks and teaching aids for children
2008
purchase of emergency vehicles and medical equipment for children
2009
landscaping of agro-towns, memorial complexes, places of military glory, graves of the Great Patriotic War soldiers and partisans
2010
creation and development of infrastructure of agro-towns in order to improve the quality of life in rural areas
2011
rehabilitation and sanatorium treatment of children living or studying in the territory of radioactive contamination
2012
construction of a new building of the Great Patriotic War History Museum and creation of its museum exposition
2013
purchase of special ambulance (emergency) medical care vehicles with a complete set of their medical equipment
2014
construction of the Republican Centre for Positron Emission Tomography
2015
purchase of artificial lung ventilation devices for providing medical care to children and implementation of events dedicated to the 70th anniversary of Victory
2016
construction of the Gomel Regional Children's Clinical Hospital
2017
preparation of children's health and sports camps for the summer season, as well as educational institutions for their work
2018
purchase of medical equipment for the emergency hospital, as well as reserve beds in case of emergency hospitalisation of participants and guests of the 2nd European Games 2019
2019
capital repairs and modernisation of the monument to partisans and soldiers and the Eternal Flame on Victory Square in Minsk
2020
National Art Museum to complete its restoration, and Gomel’s Regional Executive Committee to reconstruct the mass grave on the site of the burned village of Ola
2021
restoration of historical and cultural values and places of military glory from the times of the Great Patriotic War, as well as the Healthcare Ministry facilities
2022
financing of major repairs with modernisation and restoration elements of the Khatyn State Memorial Complex
2023
reconstruction of the memorial complex to the Ozarichi death camp prisoners in the Kalinkovichi District, as well as creation of the Republican Centre for Patriotic Education of Youth on the basis of the Kobrin fortification of the Brest Fortress
The Finance Ministry has established the procedure for transferring funds generated during the nationwide subbotnik. In line with it, the republican bodies of state administration and other state organisations subordinate to the Government, as well as local executive and administrative bodies, transfer money to separate bank accounts of district and city executive committees. In turn, district and city executive committees transfer the funds to separate accounts of regional executive committees on a daily basis. As regards regional executive committees and the Minsk City Executive Committee, they transfer 70 percent of the money to a separate bank account of the Finance Ministry at the National Bank.
