Be Worthy the Remembrance of the Fallen

A documentary film dedicated to border guards of Belarusian border district who defended the state border on June 22nd, 1941 was presented in Minsk on June 17th. According to filmmakers, it was created preeminently for those who nowadays serve in the frontier troops.

A documentary film dedicated to border guards of Belarusian border district who defended the state border on June 22^nd, 1941 was presented in Minsk on June 17^th. According to filmmakers, it was created preeminently for those who nowadays serve in the frontier troops.

June 22^nd is a mournful day for the citizens of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and other CIS countries, the first day of the Great Patriotic War. The war that took the lives of millions of Soviet citizens ended in Berlin in May 1945. Yet, the first contribution to the common Victory was made by those who defended the state border of the USSR to the last ditch – border guards. The film, created by the State Border Committee of Belarus, is dedicated to those who first joined the battle against German troops.

“The film will receive its TV premi?re on “STV” channel. Besides that, the film will be shown in each state border unit. It is also planned to make more use of television, including Belarus-TV and other channels,” said head of the press service of the State Border Committee of Belarus Colonel Alexander Tischenko.

According to filmmakers, a lot of lost names were rediscovered in the course of film making. “At present, despite the fact that it’s already 70 years since the beginning of warfare, there are still a lot of blank pages,” said historian-researcher of border troops Leonid Spatkai. According to him, in the course of film making they explored a lot of documents that were not classified in the past but, nevertheless, were not made public widely. “For instance, at present State Security Committee hands over the documents to the relatives of those servicemen who were in German captivity,” he said.

The film presented will have a continuation. According to the script writer Tatiyana Novikova, only a small portion of the material collected was used during film making. “Probably, only 30% of those memories that we had been able to record were used in this film. In fact we had recorded lots and lots of material. So, when we started editing the film, we came to the conclusion that we should make a second film, and perhaps a third one as well,” she said.