GRODNO, 11 May (BelTA) – The school course in history does not provide the full knowledge about the Great Patriotic War, Ivan Pavlovich Bokhan, a representative of the Grodno council of veterans, retired lieutenant colonel, told BelTA.
According to the veteran, the course is very short so that schools students could take in the knowledge about combat operations and the difficult situation of people. “We need to organize more meetings of children with living witnesses of the war. More so as those who can share their impressions about the war are getting fewer every year,” Ivan Pavlovich believes. Young parents also show the lack of interest in patriotic upbringing of their children, the veteran says.
Ivan Pavlovich said he often meets with school children. He initiated creating a museum of partisan glory in secondary school No22 in Grodno and took part in the creation of the museum, Belarus Undefeated, in gymnasium No10. Veterans meet with young people in these school museums, conduct excursions and tell about the life on the frontline.
Ivan Bokhan joined the Kotovsky partisan squad in 1943 at the age of 16. Later on he became a member of the Shchors squad of the Chapayev brigade. The partisans of the brigade liberated the town of Kopyl and held it until the arrival of the Red Army. The veteran, whose name has been included into the Book of Glory of Grodno, meets with young people to tell the truth about the partisan movement. The veteran says that there have recently been attempts to distort this truth. “It is a fact that there were 374,000 partisans and 70,000 resistance movement members. That was a true partisan front in the rear of the enemy rather than isolated groups as some history falsificators try to prove,” he says.
For the veteran, his family ad friends, 9 May is the main holiday. It brings pride for the heroic deed and joy for the peace.
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