Monument to academician Radzim Haretski unveiled in Minsk at the Northern Cemetery PHOTO FACT
On June 22, exactly one year after the death of academician Radzim Haretski, a tombstone monument to him was solemnly unveiled at his grave in Minsk's Northern Cemetery. Photos of the monument appeared on social networks.
Photo from social networks
About 40 people gathered for the solemn unveiling of the monument. Its author is the famous sculptor Ihar Zasimovich, and its base is a boulder from the Braslaŭ region.
Radzim Haretski lived a very long, 96-year life, during which he always strived to serve his homeland and his people, although by fate he was forced to spend several decades outside his fatherland.
Radzim Haretski was born on December 7, 1928, in Mensk (Minsk), into the family of Haŭryla Haretski, one of the founders and first full members of the Belarusian Academy of Sciences, and Larysa Haretskaya (née Parfianovich). He is the nephew of Maksim Haretski, a Belarusian writer.
Due to repressions against his family, Radzim spent his childhood in Russia, where in 1952 he graduated from the Moscow Oil Institute and then worked for more than 20 years at the Geological Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Only in 1971 did he return to his homeland, where from 1977 to 1993 he headed the Institute of Geochemistry and Geophysics, and from 1992 to 1997 he was Vice-President of the Academy of Sciences of Belarus.
Radzim Haretski became one of the founders of the modern Belarusian school of tectonics; his research helped discover numerous mineral deposits, for which he was awarded the State Prizes of the USSR and Belarus.
In addition to science, he was actively involved in public activities, headed the Association of Belarusians of the World "Batskaŭščyna" (Fatherland) and wrote a number of artistic and documentary books about the history of his family and the repressed Belarusian intelligentsia. In the book "I Sacrifice My 'I'... (Maksim and Haŭryla Haretski)" (1998), Radzim Haretski described the tragic fate of his relatives.
He wholeheartedly supported the movement for Belarus' independence and helped establish Belarusian civil society. From 1993, he became president of the Association of Belarusians of the World "Batskaŭščyna".
Radzim Haretski lived to see the 2020 protests and the associated repressions, and in September of that year, in an interview with the newspaper "Narodnaya Volya", he spoke about the feelings he experienced in connection with this:
"On the one hand, it pains me greatly to see all this. Armored personnel carriers, paddy wagons are driving through peaceful Minsk, the Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War is entangled in barbed wire, as if in wartime! The authorities somehow inadequately perceive the situation. Peaceful people are walking in the streets. People say: we went on a peaceful procession! Why beat them up? Why did Lukashenka give such an order to his subordinates? How many have already been beaten, how many crippled and wounded, there are already dead. Horrible things…
On the other hand, I am simply happy that I lived to see this time, when the entire Belarusian people finally woke up. And felt its strength, understood that it wants to live in an independent and democratic Belarusian state. When I see a sea of white-red-white flags, my soul rejoices."