The Lithuanian government has responded to the appeal of more than 500 Belarusian public figures on this issue. The answer came to the editor-in-chief of the magazine “Nasha Historya” Andrei Dynko, coordinator of the collection of signatures on the appeal of the Belarusian public, “Nasha Niva” reports.
“Thank you for your interest and concern for the fate of the remains of the leaders and participants of the 1863-1864 uprising found in Vilnius Castle on the Gediminas Hill. The leaders and participants of the uprising will be reburied with honesty and dignity in the central chapel of the Rasos cemetery in Vilnius. The solemn ceremony is planned for 2019,” says the response of the First Deputy Chancellor of the Government of Lithuania, Davidas Matulionis.
Now Vilnius architects are developing a design concept for the chapel.
“The names of the leaders and participants of the uprising are supposed to be recorded in Lithuanian, Polish, and Belarusian languages,” the letter says.
The remains of 20 of the 21 executed rebels were found on the mountain of Gediminas. The remains of Kastus Kalinouski were identified with 95% accuracy.
The uprising of 1863-64 had a national liberation and social nature. For the first time in modern history, the leader of the uprising in Belarus — charismatic Kanstantsin Kalinouski — began to use the Belarusian language in his revolutionary agitation. While the participants of the previous uprisings fought for the restoration of the Commonwealth in its old sense, Kalinouski took up the initiative of shaping Belarusian national interests and goals. The password to the rebels were the words: “Whom do you love?” – “I love Belarus!” – “So do I!”
