Today, on March 19, first-year students of the Faculty of Engineering and Pedagogy, accompanied by Yulia Susha, Deputy Dean for Ideological and Educational Work at the Faculty of Engineering and Pedagogy, visited the Khatyn Memorial Complex. The trip was timed to coincide with March 22, the Day of Remembrance of the victims of the Khatyn tragedy, which will forever remain one of the most sorrowful pages in the history of the Belarusian people.
The tour began with a walk along the mourning avenue of the complex, which leads visitors to the site of the former village. The students saw the symbolic crowns of the log cabins, the concrete foundations of each burned-down house, and the only surviving chimney pipe topped with a bell. The participants of the trip honored the memory of the 149 residents of Khatyn, including 75 children, as well as all those who died during the Great Patriotic War, with a minute of silence at the mass grave.
The tour continued at the "Cemetery of Villages," a symbolic memorial that contains the earth from 186 settlements that shared the fate of Khatyn and never recovered after the war. The tour concluded with a visit to the museum of the memorial complex. Modern exhibitions, including multimedia installations and authentic documents, allowed first-year students to gain a deeper understanding of the scale of the tragedy and to feel the pain of each family.
As Yulia Ivanovna emphasized, it is important for first-year students, who are just beginning their journey in pedagogy, to develop their moral and patriotic values.
– There are places that do not require unnecessary words; they need to be felt. Khatyn is an unhealed wound on the body of our country. This year, we have timed our visit to coincide with the anniversary of the tragedy. For the Faculty of Engineering and Pedagogy, this is not just a "weekend excursion." It is part of a deep-rooted ideological work. Our students are future teachers and training masters. Tomorrow, they will be the ones shaping the worldview of the younger generation. To learn about love for their homeland and the preservation of peace, they must first understand the value of this world.
The trip to Khatyn left a lasting impression on the first-year students. The architectural ensemble of the memorial does not leave any generation of Belarusians indifferent, reminding them of how fragile the world is and how important it is to preserve the memory of the past for the sake of the future.
