Dozens of heroic biographies, unique fates of former employees of state statistics bodies... Almost a year and a half of work with archives, which was carried out by employees of the main statistical department of the Mogilev region, resulted in a large-scale project. On the eve of the professional holiday - the Day of State Statistics Workers, a museum of the Great Patriotic War was opened in Mogilev. It consists of four sections. One of them is devoted to statistics in the pre-war, war and post-war period, the second - to the leadership, who returned from the war with awards, two more - to veterans and partisans.
The creation of the Museum of the Great Patriotic War is the result of the search and research work of the entire team of the main statistical department of the Mogilev region during 2022-2023. His boss Elena Morozova noted that at first the materials were collected for the Book of Memory:
– The work began in the Year of Historical Memory. Information about our heroic employees was requested from the National Statistical Committee, the State Archive of Public Associations of the Mogilev Region, official sources: the information system "Memory of the People", "Partisans of Belarus", family archives of relatives. There was a lot of information: we managed to find information about more than 150 of our employees who have worked in statistics since 1945. Therefore, we decided not to limit ourselves to the book, but to make a real museum. It contains literature, statistical calculations of the pre-war and wartime, documents, photographs, biographies of people who fought for our Victory.
Elena Anatolyevna pays attention to personalities. For example, Alexander Antonovich Strikhanov worked in the Belynichsky Department of Statistics for almost 40 years. During the war, he was the commander of the battery 49 of a separate mortar division.
- Even being wounded in battle, he remained in the ranks and led the actions of his battery. He went through the entire war, honestly worked in peacetime. And there are many such heroic biographies: someone took part in the partisan movement, in major battles. This is our memory, and we must protect it. We discovered a lot of new information, including statistics. Yes, it may seem to someone that these are dry numbers. But behind them lies valuable information that shows how the national economy and other spheres of life developed. We even have preserved the first statistical collection, still pre-war, where you can study history in figures, - says the head of the main statistical department of the Mogilev region.
The most valuable exhibit of the museum is the Book of Memory. It contains photographs and other information about the participants and veterans of the Great Patriotic War, former employees of the state statistics bodies of the Mogilev region. Each page is unique - framed against the backdrop of the autobiography of each participant in the war. The book was published at the expense of the employees of the statistical department and district departments themselves.
The museum also reflects the history of the main statistical department of the Mogilev region. In 1941, the activities of the departments of national economic accounting of the BSSR were temporarily suspended. And in 1943, in connection with the beginning of the functioning of statistical bodies, the staff of employees began to form again. As the regions were gradually liberated from the fascist invaders, statistics faced new tasks: to take into account the population, production equipment, housing stock, cultural values, and also to determine the amount of damage caused by the enemy. All this was done in a short time.
It is planned that the museum will be visited by the employees of the Main Statistical Office, regional departments of statistics, youth, and schoolchildren. In addition, information about former employees, which formed the basis of the Book of Memory, will be published on the museum's page on social networks.
