"And What If "Citizens" Do Not Want To See Monument To Lenin?"

The chairman of the Union of Artists of Belarus has asked the Minsk City Executive Committee the hard question.

The Minsk City Executive Committee has explained why the commemorative plaque to the BPR's 100th anniversary is not yet installed. The reason is the appeal of "a number of citizens with a negative attitude," Belsat reports.

As follows from the official response of the Minsk City Executive Committee, which the Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Hramada) has received, the commemorative plaque is not yet installed at the request of citizens. " We have received a number of appeals from citizens of Belarus and members of the public with a negative attitude towards the installation of a commemorative plaque at 9 Valadarski Street. The Minsk City Executive Committee is considering the expediency of installing the memorial board," – the letter from Minsk City Executive Committee Deputy Chairman Ihar Yurkevich reads, nn.by reports.

This year in March, the city authorities gave their permission – even the date of the opening was set. People collected money for making the plaque within a few hours. 7500 rubles (although only 6000 were necessary) were donated via the Taloka crowdfunding platform. The plaque was cast in bronze, sculptor Ihar Zasimovich worked on it.

But suddenly, not long before the installation, the authorities changed their mind. The meeting of the artistic bureau under the executive committee was postponed several times for various reasons (for example, because of the functionaries’ holidays). As a result, the question remained open. The correspondence with the Minsk City Executive Committee was carried out by the chairman of the Union of Artists of Belarus Ryhor Sitnitsa.

– They are the masters of their word, you can see that – they gave the word, they took it back. For our part, we did everything according to the law, I cannot answer for the behavior of officials. This "group of citizens" simply decided to cancel the historical fact. Tell me, when citizens write an appeal that they do not want to see the monument to Lenin on the central square – will they remove it? I think that those who are terribly disgusted with the Belarusian history and statehood advocate this. You can do anything "at the request of the working people, – Sitnitsa said in his comment to belsat.eu.