LiberationJoyful
· Day 1108 of 1418
Minsk is liberated
Minsk
- enemy soldiers in the Minsk pocket
- ≈ 100,000
- enemy soldiers in the Minsk pocket
- days Minsk was occupied
- 1,100
- days Minsk was occupied
On 3 July 1944 Minsk, the capital of Belarus, was liberated. Today it is the country’s main holiday, Belarus Independence Day. By various estimates, one in four (or even one in three) people in Belarus died in the war.
East of Minsk a large enemy force was encircled. The city was almost completely destroyed; only a few buildings in the centre survived.
During the occupation hundreds of partisan units fought in Belarus, and whole partisan-held regions grew up in the forests. On 16 July the partisans held a parade through liberated Minsk.
See it on the map