Memorials
Государственный мемориальный комплекс
ХАТЫНЬ
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Memorial complex

"Khatyn"

History

March 2, 2015

History of Khatyn village

No one knows exactly when Khatyn village was founded. However, the first written mention of Khatyn dates back to the mid-16th century. Until the mid-16th century, the territory of Khatyn and other neighboring villages (Guba, Slagovishche) belonged to the service Tatars of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. What did the Tatars do in these lands? They served in the military. They had settled here since the time of Prince Vitovt.

In July 1551, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania Sigismund Augustus granted privileges to Minsk elder, Volkovysk ruler, and Smolensk voivode, Lord Vasily Tyshkevich, to purchase "lands and palaces" in Pilipovichi, Slagovishche, and Khotyn from the Tatars Furs Yukhnovich and Sheikh Ambekovich. From that year on, the Tyshkevich family held these lands for over 350 years.

Vasily Tyshkevich, statesman of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania

In 1566, Logoisk, Slagovishche, and Khatyn were assigned to the Vilnius Catholic Chapter. Khatyn was designated a selo (a settlement with a church or chapel).

В 1569 Сигизмунд Август за отличную усердную службу и выдающиеся подвиги возвел Василия Тышкевича в наследственное графское достоинство с присвоением ему и его потомкам права пользоваться этим титулом, применять герб Лелива и распространять этот титул на поместье Логойск.

Логойск на несколько веков стал резиденцией графов Тышкевичей, старинного шляхецкого рода Тышкевичей, который дал белорусской земле целую плеяду полководцев и дипломатов, политиков и ученых.

В середине XVI века Хатынь насчитывала 13 «служб». В те времена «служба» состояла из 2-3 и более «дымов».

Основным видом деятельности были охота, бортничество, добыча воска. Крестьяне сдавали владельцам земли дань — 20 пудов меда и несли денежную повинность.

«Кровавый потоп» середины XVIІІ века был опустошительным. От имения Хатынь остался всего лишь один «дым».

По данным 1763 года Хатынь входила в парафию греко-католической (униатской) церкви Святого Николая Логойского деканата.

После второго раздела Речи Посполитой (1793 г.) вместе с землями Минского воеводства ВКЛ в состав Российской империи вошла и Хатынь.

В конце XVIІІ века в Хатыни была построена деревянная греко-католическая церковь Рождества Девы Марии. Храм освятили 6 ноября 1794 года. После ликвидации в 1839 году унии и перевода греко-католиков в православие в Хатыни находилась церковь Рождества Богородицы. Среди прихожан насчитывалось 25 мужчин и 25 женщин.

3D- модель церкви Рождества Богородицы (конец XVIII века)

Рядом с церковью стояла колокольня на четырех столбах, покрытая дранкой, с тремя колоколами весом 50.30 и 23 фунта (соответственно 22,7, 13,6 и 10,4 кг) и старинное кладбище. И сейчас сохраняются каменные надгробья XVI- XVIІ в. с едва различимыми надписями, приземистые кресты с отверстиями (явно сделанные из отслуживших свой век жерновов), несколько могил жертв трагедии 22 марта 1943 года, единичные послевоенные захоронения.

Каменные надгробья XVI- XVIІ вв.

В 1816 году число крестьян в деревне составляло 63 человека (32 мужчины и 31 женщина). 23 сентября 1842 года в Хатыни насчитывалось 35 крестьян мужского пола и 34 — женского. В выкупном акте крестьянами земли с Логойского имения в 1864 году в деревне Хатынь насчитывалось 7 дворов (крестьянских хозяйств). В документах упоминаются следующие фамилии — Барановские, Желобковичи, Юрцевичи, Мироновичи. В к. XІX века в деревни жило более 120 человек. Список за 1909 год дает информацию о том, что в деревне жили 87 человек. В период проведения коллективизации, в 1935 году жители деревни Хатынь присоединились к колхозу «Красная звезда».

22 марта 1943 года во время карательной операции деревня Хатынь была сожжена гитлеровцами вместе со всеми ее жителями.

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March 2, 2015

The Khatyn Tragedy

You will not find this small Belorussian village on any of the most detailed geographic map today. It was destroyed by German fascists in spring in 1943.

The massacre occurred on March 22, 1943. Brutal fascists rushed into the village and encircled it. The inhabitants of the village did not know anything about the fact that in the morning a fascist motor convoy was attacked by fire on a motorway just 6 km away from Khatyn. As a result a German officer was killed. The inhabitants of Khatyn were innocent, however their death sentence had already been pronounced. All of them — young and old, women and kids — were driven from their houses out into the shed. The fascists roused the sick from their beds with rifle butts. They had mercy neither for the old nor for women with infants in their arms. The family of Joseph and Anna Baranovsky with their 9 children was among them. So were Alex and Alexandra Novitsky with their 7 children. Similarly, there were 7 kids in the family of Kazimir and Elena Iotko, the youngest boy was only 1 year old. Vera Yaskevich was also driven into the shed with her 7-week-old son Tolik. Little Lena Yaskevich first tried to hide in the farmstead, but then decided to take safe shelter in the wood. Fascists' bullets were not able to catch up with the running girl, therefore one of the fascists rushed to her and having overtaken killed the girl before the very eyes of her father who was distraught with grief. Among the perished there were also two people from other villages who by chance found themselves in Khatyn at the time. These were Anton Kunkevich from the village of Yurkovichi and Kristina Slonskaja from the village of Kameno.

None of the adults managed to escape. Only three kids — Volodia Yaskevich, his sister Sonia and another boy Sasha Zhelobkovich by name — were able to hide from the fascists. When all people were finally in the shed, the door was locked and the Nazis covered the shed with straw, spilt benzine over and set fire to it. In a moment the wooden shed was ablaze. The children were crying and suffocating in the smoke. The adults were trying to rescue them. The doors of the shed could not bear the force and the pressure of the dozens of people and so they crashed down. Horror-stricken people in their burning clothes took to heels. But the fascists with their machine guns dispassionately killed those who tried to escape from the flames of fire. 149 people, including 75 children under age were burned alive. The youngest baby was only 7 weeks old. The village was then looted and burned to the ground.

The girls from two different families Maria Fedorovich and Yulia Klimovich were saved by miracle. They managed to leave the shed and crawl to the nearby wood. Half dead or half alive, all burned they were found by the inhabitants of the village of Khvorosteny of the Kameno village council. Unfortunately, this village was later also burned to the ground and the tow girls were killed.

In the village of Khatyn only two children survived. They are a 7-year-old Viktor Zhelobkovich and a 12-year-old Anton Baranovsky. A young woman Anna Zhelobkovich by name was also in the shed. Together with some other horror-stricken people in their burning clothes she tried to leave the shed, which was ablaze. She was firmly holding her son Vitia's hand. A moment later she was fatally wounded and as she was falling down on the ground she covered the son with her body. The child was wounded in his arm. He lay on the ground under his mother's corpse till the Nazis finally left the village. Anton Baranovsky was also wounded in his leg by an explosive bullet. And so the fascists mistook him for a dead boy.

Inhabitants of neighbouring villages picked up all those injured and severely burnt children and brought them to an orphanage in a small town of Pleshinitsy where they were raised after the war.

The only adult witness to the Khatyn massacre, a 56-year-old village smith Joseph Kaminsky, also wounded and burnt, recovered consciousness late at night when the fascists were already gone. He had to suffer a hard blow, though. He found his injured son among the corpses of the fellow — villagers. The boy was fatally wounded in the abdomen and totally burnt. He died later in the arms of his father.

And so the only sculpture of the Khatyn memorial complex "The Unconquered Man" was based on this tragic story in the life of Joseph Kaminsky.

The tragedy of Khatyn is not just an occasional episode of this war. It is one of the thousand facts, which testify to the existence of the targeted genocide policy regarding the population of Belarus. And the Nazis were pursuing this policy during all those years of German occupation. Hundreds of similar disasters occurred within the three years (1941 — 1944) of the occupation of the Belorussian land.

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May 14, 2020

Nazi occupation policy

On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the USSR, and the Great Patriotic War began.

By the end of August 1941, the entire territory of Belarus had been captured by the Nazis, and new territorial divisions had emerged. The bulk of Belarusian territory was incorporated into the Reichskommissariat “Ostland”, centered in Riga, while the southern regions of Brest, Pinsk, Polesie, and Gomel regions were subordinated to the Reichskommissariat “Ukraine”. A harsh occupation regime, the so-called "New Order," based on terror and violence, was established in the captured territory of Belarus.

From the very first days of the war, it became clear that the war on Soviet territory was taking on a different character. German orders effectively declared and called for a war of extermination against the Soviet people. Numerous secret documents were developed to outline how the captured territory would be used in the future.

The key document, which the Germans preferred to keep silent about even at the Nuremberg Trials, was called the "Ost" plan, which translates from German as "East."

Для реализации этого плана в рейхе было создано специальное министерство по вопросам восточных территорий во главе с А. Розенбергом. Согласно плану, захваченные территории белорусской земли подлежали германской колонизации и онемечиванию. Предусматривалось 75% белорусов физически уничтожить или выселить. Примерно 25% —онемечить и превратить в рабов. При этом еврейское и цыганское население ожидало полное уничтожение.

План «Ост» дополняли другие секретные документы: «Инструкция об особых областях к директиве № 21», «О военной подсудности в районе „Барбаросса“ и об особых полномочиях войск», «Двенадцать заповедей поведения немцев на востоке и их обращение с русскими» и др.

Прежде всего нацистский «новый порядок» основывался на политике геноцида. Само понятие геноцид определено в «Конвенции о предупреждении преступления геноцида и наказании за него». В настоящей Конвенции под геноцидом понимаются следующие действия, совершаемые с намерением уничтожить, полностью или частично, какую-либо национальную, этническую, расовую или религиозную группу.

В Беларуси практически в каждом районе действовала целая система концентрационных лагерей с филиалами и отделениями. Всего было создано не менее 578 мест принудительного содержания.

Под предлогом уничтожения партизанских формирований на территории оккупированной Беларуси проводились карательные операции, в ходе которых уничтожались деревни вместе с мирными жителями. На территории Беларуси было проведено не менее 187 таких акций.

Уже в первые недели и месяцы войны оккупанты провели массовое уничтожение деревень, часто вместе с мирным населением. Первая карательная акция под кодовым названием «Припятские болота» состоялась еще в июле-августе 1941 года, в результате которой было сожжено 34 деревни. Населенные пункты Брестской и Пинской областей были превращены в пепелища.

Уже с осени 1943 года проведение тактики «выжженной земли» приняло наиболее широкие масштабы. Особенно жесткими мерами сопровождались операции карателей в Витебской, Минской и Могилевской областях. В результате одной из таких карательных операций и была уничтожена белорусская деревня Хатынь, все население которой, включая стариков, женщин и детей, даже самых маленьких, было сожжено гитлеровцами.

Итогом политики геноцида и «выжженной земли» стали массовые убийства, истязания военнопленных и мирных граждан, насильственный угон населения на принудительные работы в Германию, разрушение городов и сел. С белорусской земли исчезли целые населенные пункты, а масштаб потерь населения в результате геноцида был катастрофический. Так закончилась трагедия, унесшая не менее 3 000 000 человек, ставших невинными жертвами нацистского режима.

В целях социальной и исторической справедливости, устранения белых пятен истории, укрепления конституционного строя и национальной безопасности в апреле 2021 года Генеральной прокуратурой Республики Беларусь было возбуждено уголовное дело по ст.127 УК Республики Беларусь по факту геноцида населения Беларуси в годы Великой Отечественной войны и послевоенный период. 5 января 2022 года принят Закон «О геноциде белорусского народа». Цели расследования включают сбор доказательств, подтверждающих масштаб трагедии, установление всех фактов преступных действий карателей, привлечение к ответственности нацистских преступников и их пособников. В ходе расследования были допрошены тысячи потерпевших и свидетелей, установлены новые факты уничтожения населенных пунктов. Так, подтверждено уничтожение не менее 12 348 сел и деревень (до возбуждения уголовного дела эта цифра составляла 9 200). Из них 288 деревень полностью повторили судьбу Хатыни (вместо ранее известных 186).

Материалы расследования уголовного дела размещены на сайте Генеральной прокуратуры Республики Беларусь.

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January 22, 2025

Burnt villages

A characteristic feature of the "scorched earth" policy during the Great Patriotic War in the occupied territory of Belarus was the destruction of settlements along with their inhabitants. Thousands of villages were razed to the ground, the population was exterminated, deported to death camps or forced into Nazi slavery in Germany, and property was plundered.

In April 2021, the Prosecutor General's Office of the Republic of Belarus opened a criminal case under Article 127 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus for genocide against the population of Belarus during the Great Patriotic War and the post-war period. Prior to the investigation, it was believed that 9,200 settlements in Belarus were damaged, meaning completely or partially destroyed, including their inhabitants, during the occupation. The criminal case materials confirm the destruction of at least 12,868 settlements. Of these, at least 290 villages suffered the same fate as Khatyn (instead of the previously known 186).

The criminal investigation continues.

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About the Memorial

Fragment of I. Kaminsky's speech

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus made a decision in January 1966 to build a memorial complex Khatyn in memory of the hundred of Belorussian villages, destroyed by Nazis during the years of the Second World War, and also in memory of the great tribute and numerous lives sacrificed for the victory by Belorussians.

Хатынь A monument that stood on the grave of Khatyn residents until 1964
Хатынь 1969 Architects: Yu. Gradov, L. Levin, V. Zankovich
Хатынь 1968 Sculptor S. Selikhanov

In March 1967 a tender for preparing the material for the complex was announced. The group of the following architects won it: Y. Gradov, V. Zankovich, L. Levin and sculptor S. Selikhanov people's artist of the BSSR.

"We were absorbed in work, Leonid Levin remembers, we came up with the idea of putting bases of frameworks at the place of houses and of making obelisks in the form of chimneys, but something was still missing. The field overgrown with grass which was witness to the tragedy kept dead silence. And suddenly in this pinching silence a lark sang. Sound! We must have sound here!"

Memories of the architect Leonid Levin
Хатынь 1968 Sculptor S. Selikhanov

The whole country contributed to the collecting of building material. Granite was brought from open pits in Ukraine. White marble was brought from Russia. The first part of the complex was opened in 1968..

The final opening ceremony was held on June 5, 1969.

Хатынь
Хатынь
Хатынь

The solemn-mourning ceremony started in Minsk. Representatives of all districts gathered in Victory Square. There were veterans of the Great Patriotic War, Russian, Ukranian, Georgian, Moldavian and other delegations. There were foreign guests as well. A torch was lit from the Eternal Fire and then it was brought to the cup placed on an armoured troop-carrier. It was later escorted to Khatyn. I. Kaminsky and A. Zhelobkovich (witnesses to the tragedy) gave speeches at the mass meeting where many thousands of people were present.

Хатынь I. Kaminsky at the monument "Grieving Mother", erected in Khatyn in 1964 (photo 1965)

A warm welcome at “Khatyn”

30.09.2025

In anticipation of International Day of Older Persons, the management and trade union committee of OJSC “Novogrudskie Dary” prepared a gift for pensioners and labor veterans of their enterprise—a trip to the memorial, which has become a symbol of remembrance and grief for every Belarusian.

“Bagration”: Guarding Historical Memory

19.09.2025

The student group "Bagration" from Belarusian State Pedagogical University named after Maxim Tank has been working in Khatyn during the summer for the third year already.

In memory of the tragic pages of common history

12.09.2025

On September 9, 2025, as part of a working trip to the Republic of Belarus, memorial complex “Khatyn” was visited by Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation for State Policy in the Humanitarian Sphere, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Military Historical Society N. Ovsienko. He was accompanied by Director of the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus V. Lakiza and Deputy Chairman of the Standing Committee on Education, Culture and Science of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus V. Danilovich.

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Visit

Belarus, Minsk region, Logoisk district, Kamensky village council, park Cemetery of villages

Tue-Sun | 10:00-17:00


Admission
8,00 BYN
for a group of adults up to 20 people
8,00 BYN
for a combined group of up to 20 people
5,00 BYN
for a group of schoolchildren, up to 20 students
16,00 BYN
for a group of adults from 21 to 45 people
13,00 BYN
for a combined group of 21 to 45 people
10,00 BYN
for a group of schoolchildren, students from 21 to 45 people
24,00 BYN
for a group of adults from 46 people
18,00 BYN
for a combined group of 46 to 60 people
15,00 BYN
for a group of schoolchildren, 46 or more students

Fee for taking photographs on the territory of the complex
1,00 BYN
per unit of equipment
Video shooting for legal entities
15,00 BYN
60 minutes
Video shooting with a film crew
30,00 BYN
60 minutes

Memorial plan

План мемориала

Excursions

Excursion services are provided only by museum workers of the MK «Khatyn»!

How to book an excursion?

Excursion services are provided by prior arrangement only by museum staff of SMC “Khatyn”.

Book an excursion

TUE-SUN

+375 (1774) 26-183

+375 (29) 103-97-50  Viber, Whatsapp, Telegram

info@khatyn.by

Cost

The cost of excursion services can be found by phones:

+375 (1774) 26-183

+375 (29) 103-97-50  Viber, Whatsapp, Telegram

Payment methods

  1. Cash at the museum's ticket office (done after registration at the excursion department)
  2. Cashless payment

    To pay by bank transfer, you must download and complete the Application and send it by email info@khatyn.by (this is done after registering for the excursion)

Guest book

Visit all objects of the complex