The Road Home, Which For Now Leads Through the Front. The History of the Kalinoŭski Regiment is Shown at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra
The idea for the exhibition's design emerged after yet another relocation of the regiment's warehouses: items traveled in boxes from one place to another, and with them, photos and memories. Now these boxes have become part of the exhibition.
In one cardboard box – a photo of a "Pokrovsk" sign with Ukrainian and white-red-white flags. On its flaps – a destroyed house and a Ferris wheel frozen above the city. On another box – a smiling soldier in a helmet. Next to it, his name is written by hand: "Molakau Mikalai Mikalayevich." And here is a photograph of a warrior with the callsign "Alhierd," regimental chevrons, and a small white-red-white flag.
These boxes now stand in the Great Lavra Bell Tower in Kyiv and preserve the history of people who have not been able to return home for more than four years.
This is how Kyiv presents "A Long Journey Home" – a photo exhibition about the Belarusian volunteers of the Kastuś Kalinoŭski Regiment. The idea for the exhibition's design emerged after yet another relocation of the regiment's warehouses: items traveled in boxes from one place to another, and with them, photos and memories. Now these boxes have become part of the exhibition.
More than 150 photos show the combat work of the warriors, their training, their daily life at positions, and personal mini-stories of the Regiment's fighters that reveal their personalities. Here, a military medic monitors a screen in a vehicle. Here, a fighter sits on the ground next to a dog. In another shot, a serviceman brings a pipe to his lips amidst a winter landscape. Nearby – smoke over a village, fire, and people in trenches. The exhibition allows us to see those whose faces are usually hidden by masks, through their work and brief moments in between.
The floor of the hall indicates the regions where Belarusians fought. The route leads from Bucha and Irpin through Sievierodonetsk, Bakhmut, and Chasiv Yar to the Kharkiv region and Zaporizhzhia. The viewer can walk this route in a few minutes. For the people in the photographs, it took years, and the journey is not yet over.
A company of Belarusian volunteers appeared in the Ukrainian army in early March 2022. Later, the Kastuś Kalinoŭski Battalion was formed, which grew into a regiment. For these Belarusians, the defense of Ukraine also became a struggle for the opportunity to someday return to a free Belarus. But this "someday" has already stretched into its fifth year.
The history of the regiment is being preserved through photographs. Last year, the Museum of Free Belarus in Warsaw showcased "Through the Photographic Film. Daily Life of Warriors" – photos by fighter Yauhen Zhuravski, "Salam," about their daily life and training between battles. This year, the exhibition "A Long Journey Home" first took place in Zaporizhzhia, and has now arrived at the Great Lavra Bell Tower of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra in Kyiv. The Regiment's film with combat footage received an award in the "War in the Lens" competition in June.
Now reading
The electronic "Belarusian Encyclopedia," created as a space for "reliable knowledge about Belarus," was quietly liquidated along with its editorial team. A heap of articles was handed over to Gigin 55
Comments
Талантливый человек!