Where your great-grandfather is buried. How improving cemeteries can erase the family's history

Recently, at a press conference in Minsk, Nikolay Rakevich, director of the CCD's special committee, attempted to justify the landscaping of the Minsk Military Cemetery. people almost never go to the cemetery, and most do not know where their great-grandfathers are buried.

When they started to get an answer, where did this statistic come from, he asked, "Who among you knows where your great-grandfather is buried?" And it was good when many journalists raised their hands. He rented, but, apparently, did not believe it.

I know where my great-grandfather is buried. And looking at the history of the military cemetery, I hold my fingers crossed so that this place does not once decide to equip a special combine harvester. As it is good that there are still pine trees and centuries old stones and crosses deeply sunk into the ground. And that the grave of my great-grandfather – under the same old stone monument, which he set in 1922, still my great-grandmother, who stands side by side, under a similar stone, but delivered already in the 1970s. We do not change the monuments into new ones, because we want it. The only thing you need is a graveyard – mow the grbad and keep the weeds from growing.

The second great-grandfather is buried nearby – a monument erected during the war. "He died in 1943". And behind this sentence in my head – the story of the second great-grandmother, who lost her husband and daughter for war, and collected the remains of his relatives in a hem to bury. That's all – the story of my family, which we will remember as long as these markers remain, clues of our past. My ancestors – ordinary peasants, they simply lived, they did not write pictures, they did not broadcast selfies on the Internet. Let the special factory go there – and my story will not stay. How can there be any history of those whose monuments are not tolerated by epitaphs, which in themselves are a sign of time.

I think my family has been living in Siberia for almost 10 years. In Belarus, there are many emigrants, is not it? We were lucky, we had parents here who took care of our common graves. But we just have a big family, and if it was not the case? I do not know what could be worse than coming back from a trip that dragged on for a decade, and did not find the graves of my loved ones. Do not find the witnesses of your loved ones, only these standard head restraints

I do not know my great-grandfather because I do not remember my father either. I put the monument to him when I grew up, in another cemetery – when I myself realized what was needed. It is good that I managed to do communal services before. To find the graves of great-grandfathers in the same cemetery (and they have almost no more descendants) and start to woo them, I need to do a lot of work in the family and in the archives. If a combine manages to reach the graves that I do not know before me, my story will not stay. And the chances of restoring it too …

The fight against the serious fences is surprising. In the decent cemeteries, the metropolitan communal workers have decided, they do not need anything. It is said that they once started being put only because the cattle are not used to go to the graves, they say, as a village remnant. And I'm going to tell you what story for me draws a fence behind me, which grabs the graves of my grandparents. Grandpa Petya died in 1979, and grandmother Nadia in 2004. Looking at their common fence, I remember how, in our old age, aspiring to an early departure Petenka Nadenka closely linked the fence gate, in therefore. "Woon how many women have been pampered," she listened cunningly to the names of the deceased neighbors. – The cabin is not hadzi yes ikh guljat. Grandmother does not exist, but we all continue to tie the fence door.

CCD Special Works employees say they act in accordance with the law. At the press conference on July 12, they were supported by the executive committee of the city of Minsk and the Ministry of Culture.

We open laws, without even touching the historical and cultural value of the military cemetery itself. Here is the law "on funeral and funeral business". It really allows a specialized organization, first notifying those who occupy burials, but not waiting for a reaction in two years, to dismantle and dispose of monuments and fences whose degree of destruction excludes their repair and restoration

. it was considered irreparable? The answer in the Rules of the maintenance and the completion of the places of the burial place was found by the volunteers. If the tombstones are destroyed completely or partially – to the point where they can fall. A fence – if destroyed more than half. No matter how much I try, I can not call it closing on the same grave of Professor Vydrin – well, not what it is. And about many other monuments and fences, which are indicated by volunteers, I can not say either.

The prosecutor's office admits that they dismantled the military cemetery, including what needed to be simply painted and repaired. And it is not clear what will end.

The landscaping could be done. Drive calmly, not "inventory" the reach of the monuments, which still do not split in half, without damaging the fences, which were previously less damaged. Fend on such a thin topic to create a scandal and erase so many family stories – it still had to be able to do it. And then, alas, it turned out.

The opinion of the authors may not coincide with the point of view of the editorial board of TUT.BY.