Our conversation with Vladimir Myakish, a history teacher and head of military—patriotic education at the Lan Secondary School, tells us how the search took place and what is important for everyone who took part in it.

— Vladimir Vladimirovich, what prompted you to start looking? 

— When I saw the graves of unknown soldiers, I was always overcome by conflicting feelings. Yes, it’s good, I thought, that this is how the memory of the nameless dead during the Great Patriotic War is perpetuated. And their graves are well maintained. But the thought that every soldier who did not return home had a first and last name during his lifetime, and had relatives who were waiting for him to return, haunted me. I went through Afghanistan as an internationalist soldier myself. And he met death face to face. And the dead have been buried. But they weren’t nameless. That’s also why the inscription «Unknown» on the tombstones aroused my sympathy and desire to find the name of the hero. Something inside me shrank when I thought that the relatives of the dead were still searching for at least some information about them, who had disappeared into oblivion, hoping to find a resting place, some for their father, some for their brother, or their husband, and now for their grandfather and great-grandfather. There are hundreds of monuments throughout Belarus, many of them perpetuating the nameless «Unknown». These may be big words, but remembering and remembering the heroes of the Great Patriotic War, including unknown ones, is important for preserving historical truth. Their exploits, courage and bravery should live in our memory and the memory of posterity. This will allow us to preserve our national memory and dignity as citizens of Belarus. That is why today we are taking care of the burial places of the heroes, the victims of the war.

— Yes, as Robert Rozhdestvensky wrote in the poem «Requiem»: «It’s not necessary for the dead, it’s necessary for the living.» These famous lines are known and remembered by many descendants of the victorious soldiers, they are stamped on memorial plaques and obelisks...

— And my students also know about this. And when valuable archival documents became available on the Internet, we decided to try to find the names of the buried unknown heroes in new historical conditions.

— Whose name was the first to come back from oblivion?

— It was Boris Negodaev. Until 1977, his last name was also not indicated on the tombstone: there were three unknown people. But thanks to the search work of students of the Lanskaya secondary school, pioneers of the Marat Kazey detachment, it was possible to establish that one of those buried was Boris Yakovlevich Negodaev, a native of the Orenburg Region. In the summer of 1944, he and two dead unknown soldiers were buried in a public cemetery in Lan. The guys wrote to his family and informed them about the established burial place. At the same time, a letter came to the school, written by Boris Negodaev’s daughter, which is now kept in the school museum. Here’s what she wrote (reads out): «Let’s try to remember those unforgettable, difficult war years. We, who were born in 1941, lived with heroes at that time, breathed the same air, and saw tears in our mothers’ eyes. And even if at first we did not realize the greatness of those historical events, we felt with our small, warm hearts that we, the children of war, lacked strong male hands, lacked a fatherly smile, and care.... What do I remember from my childhood? How soldiers’ overcoats smell, how our fingers are pierced with a needle (after all, my mother and I washed soldiers’ underwear, sewed buttons on soldiers’ hats with red stars). Back then, I sometimes found only traces of shag in the pockets of gym shirts, but there was no news of my father anywhere. It was a clear sunny day, the house was clean, and I remember my mother’s desperate cry well: my father was gone...»

That’s how, because of the grief of loss and the joy of liberation, the village of Lan in the Nesvizh District and the distant Russian Orenburg Region became related, which was known in our area only from the popular song «Orenburg Down Shawl» at that time.

— And the daughter came to her father’s grave?

— On May 9, 1977, daughter Anna Borisovna Bocharova and Negodaev’s wife Anna Antonovna Negodaeva arrived in Lan. The moments of the meeting, they said, were remembered for a long time. It turned out to be warm and cordial. And it caused a great sense of satisfaction: after so many years, the family was able to worship at the grave of their father and husband. The honorary guests presented the book «Orenburg Region» to the pioneer squad of the school with a commemorative inscription: «To the pioneers of the Marat Kazey detachment from the relatives of Boris Yakovlevich Negodaev, who fell in battle for the liberation of our Motherland...».

— How was the further search conducted? Perhaps there are old-timers in Lan who were able to orient you?

— You guessed it! We started the search by interviewing an old resident of Lan, Alina Kokonova. We knew that Alina Vikentievna had been living here for a long time: more than fifty years. Her house stands right next to a public cemetery. She also told about the burial place of the dead heroes and that she herself was there when the monument in honor of Boris Negodaev and unknown heroes was unveiled in May 1977. And then there were long searches in the documents of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, filed in the united database «Feat of the People in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945» — now it is known as the resource «Memory of the People». In the end, the search was successful: information was found about the military units that participated in the liberation of Belarus. Next, we identified specific formations that liberated the Kletsky District in June and July 1944, as well as neighboring Nesvizh and Lyakhovichi. In particular, they began to study in more detail the combat path of the 96th Guards Rifle Division. Valuable information was found in the journal of its combat operations: «The 291st Rifle Regiment captured: Kosmovichi, Lan, Osmolovo, Osmolovo village, Volkovshchizna, Pukelevshchyna, Osovets prison, Khristy, Bykhovshchyna, Mitkovichi, Sovkovo military settlement, Khodatovichi, Kamenka. By 21:00, the regiment reached the line west of the outskirts of Kamenka — west of the outskirts of Zarytovo.» 

When reading about such details, it is necessary to have a large-scale map in front of you for clarity. Then it will be easier to imagine how the offensive unfolded in the summer of 1944. Based on that information, we concluded that fierce battles were being fought for our area at that time. And, of course, there were casualties on the part of the Red Army. Further, in the Memory of the People database, we managed to find a log of the irretrievable losses of the 96th Division. Eventually, we discovered the names of the warriors who died or died of wounds in our area. They found specifically those whose earthly journey ended in Lan: Konstantin Timofeevich Otroshchenko and Andrei Grigorievich Andronov were buried together with Negodaev.

— As far as we understand, you have found two more: are there five names on the monument? 

— Studying the log of irretrievable losses, we were very surprised that there was an entry: grave No. 1.This meant that there were other graves in the village. We were lucky to find appendix No. 45960 to the map, a document with a diagram of the graves of the fallen soldiers. The document bears the seal of the 96th Infantry Division, the signature of its commander and the date of burial: 07/11/1944. Grave graves and graves of those who died of wounds, buried by medical battalion No. 170 of the 96th Division, followed from the document. Here is the information in the original language: «Grave No. 1: 1. Boris Yakovlevich Negodaev. 2. Konstantin Timofeevich Otroshchenko. 3. Andronov Andrei Grigorievich. Grave No. 2: 1. Cherepanov Vladimir Martynovich. 2. Baymuratov Nurkhan». Further on, in the journal of irretrievable losses of the 96th Division, we were already looking for Cherepanov and Baymuratov — and we found them! The local authorities have been informed about this. In 2022, Tatiana Shumovskaya was officially approached, at that time she headed the village executive committee and Maxim Vlasov, military commissar of the Kopylsky and Nesvizh Districts, with a request to perpetuate the names of four previously unknown heroes buried at the cemetery in Lan. We got the agreement, and in the end, that’s what happened. 

— Who was on the search team with you?

— During the research, my colleagues and students worked with me. Elena Nikolaevna Chizhik, the deputy director of the school for academic affairs, and Nadezhda Bogdanovich, a student of the 9th grade, showed particular interest in the search. We have identified the names, military ranks, time of death, and former home addresses of two unknown soldiers buried in grave No. 1 with Boris Negodaev: Andrei Andronov and Konstantin Otroshchenko. Information about the heroes buried in grave no. 2: Vladimir Cherepanov and Nurkhan Baymuratov, drafted into the army by the Guzar District military commissariat of the Bukhara region of Uzbekistan. 

— Has it been possible to establish contacts with their relatives?

— By the way, we recently provided information about Nurkhan Baymuratov to the Embassy of Uzbekistan in Belarus. They expressed great interest in honoring the memory of the countryman and looking for his relatives in the Bukhara region. We hope that there will be a continuation in this story.

As for the others, we have managed to establish contact with Vladimir Cherepanov’s grandson so far. And Vyacheslav Cherepanov came to Lan from Russia on a holiday — May 9, 2023. They laid flowers together at his grandfather’s grave, and honored the memory of the heroes. And this year, on Victory Day, we will once again organize a memorable event. Thanks to the leadership of Lan-Nesvizh OJSC and the Lansky Rural Executive Committee, a new monument with the names of all five already known was erected by Victory Day in 2024! — heroes of the Great Patriotic War. And we continue to search for the relatives of the dead, because we know that memory is alive as long as we remember the heroes ourselves. And we are doing everything necessary to ensure that there are as few «Unknown» inscriptions in memorial sites as possible. Another thing I am pleased to say is that we continue to search for information about our fellow countrymen who did not return from the war. In 1944, 375 people from the Lansky village Council went to the front after the liberation of the territory from the Nazis, and only 207 returned home. And not all the dead relatives know where they are buried. We also remember that among the defenders of the Fatherland were the teachers of the Lan school. Zakhar Pavlovich Petrachkov, a war veteran, was a recipient of the Orders of the Red Banner and the Red Star. And the former veteran Genrikh Yaroslavovich Puzinovsky was fond of local history, he created a school museum in 1985. Our teachers Viktor Adolfovich Guminsky and Vasily Fomich Kondrukevich fought with the partisans during the war. We remember the heroes, we honor their memory. 

— What did you and your comrades, including the younger ones, realize for yourself during the search and continue to realize?

— That we are not Ivanians who do not remember kinship, we are Belarusians who care about the history of our native country, therefore we strive to preserve it and pass it on to future generations. The work of the search engines is voluntary. They don’t get paid for it and work according to their hearts. But when they see the emotions of people whose close relative has returned from oblivion, they feel great joy. And this joy has no price. She is priceless.

Interviewed by Valentina Zhdanovich

Photo from the archive of the Lanskaya secondary school