Press releases

Partisan Chronicles: Rear to the Front. Defense Fund

MINSK, 20 March (BelTA) - In July 1941 hundreds of workers called for setting up a special fund to raise money and material assets for the Red Army. A few days later, offices of the USSR State Bank opened accounts with people donating personal savings, gold, silver, bonds…

Half-starving civilians in the rear gave everything they had for the manufacture of tanks, aircraft and other vehicles. Risking their lives, people all over occupied Belarus and partisans donated their money and valuables for the capacity building of the army. Having emerged spontaneously, the defense fund went down in history as one of the most massive patriotic movements to help the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War.

“Partisan Chronicles: Rear to the Front. Defense Fund” is a new page of the joint project of BelTA and the Belarusian State Museum of the Great Patriotic War History. The project is based on a unique collection of handwritten partisan journals provided by the Belarusian State Museum of the Great Patriotic War History. The collection was assigned the status of historical and cultural value of international importance (Class 1).

Every week BelTA brings these chronicles to light and posts their digital copies. Each of them sheds light on various aspects of partisans’ life, gives a glimpse into thoughts and feelings of people who risked their lives to fight a battle behind enemy lines.

Till 3 July 2019 BelTA will publish digests of these chronicles and upload their digital versions complementing the unique content with photos from its own archives.

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