The Red Army's liberation campaign, which began on September 17, 1939 and ended with the reunification of Belarus, is the best reason to establish a new state holiday, the National Unity Day.
This opinion was expressed by a famous Russian historian, director of the Foundation "Historical Memory" Alexander Dyukov to our TV channel. According to the expert, the annexation of the Western lands to the BSSR became a progressive impetus for the development of the region and the improvement of the people's lives.
Alexander Dyukov, Director of the "Historical Memory" Foundation and researcher at the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences:
In my opinion, the events of September 17 for Belarus are beyond any doubt a holiday of all the Belarusian people, who were disunited. And in general, I do not see any questions here. There's no doubt that the annexation of the Western Belarusian lands to the BSSR was a progressive phenomenon, because the vast majority of the population really began to live better after that, we know it from the statistical data, the system of education, medical care in the Western regions of the BSSR. This process was interrupted by the WWII, but we see those positive changes in 1940 and the first half of 1941.












