100 days to the Great Victory. Through the pages of Belarusian newspapers in 1945

It’s possible to make this 100-day journey along with the National Library of Belarus from January 30 to May 9 and daily get acquainted with the news and events of the winter-spring of 1945. Farther away from us are those 1,418 days of the war. Already much has been forgotten and much has become known. But our surprise remains unchanged by the courage of ordinary people who defended their right to life with a rifle or in the enterprises on the home front. Yellowed newspapers are informational witnesses of those days. We wanted to erase the gold dust from those events and to see ordinary people with their worries, labors and dreams by choosing specific newspaper news.

The Red Army had been fighting far beyond the borders of the BSSR during this period and had been moving steadily towards Berlin, towards the end of the heavy war. On the one hand, it was easier to fight: family homes are already out of danger. But on the other hand, everything around was unfamiliar and alien, the danger could be scorched from any window, turn of the road, forest thicket, whether in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary or Germany, where there were fights at that time. The German Army knew how to fight, and, like a mortally wounded beast, snarled mercilessly. But our army was not waiting for mercy. We learned how to win. Although the main victory was yet ahead.

Here, on the territory of Belarus, the piercing sounds of war were not heard for several months already. The restoration of the activities of enterprises and institutions was in full blast.