Anti-Bolshevik resistance hero remembered in Barysau

A memorial cross was unveiled on May 23 in the city of Barysau to commemorate Yurka Monich, the hero of anti-Bolshevik resistance in Belarus, local historian Andrei Alyakhnovich told Belapan news agency. Some 30 people attended the unveiling ceremony. Some 10 police officers and KGB agents were nearby to monitor the event. They copied  the personal details of the action participants on the grounds that a 1812 cannon had allegedly been vandalized several days before.

In 1919-1924, Monich headed the anti-Bolshevik movement in the country's central districts and served as the chief of staff of the 1st Partisan Belarusian Unit of the Belarusian Popular Republic's armed forces. He participated in the Slutsk uprising in 1920. The Belarusian heroes were executed by Stalin's secret police OGPU in 1920s in Krupski district. Monich's body was taken to Barysau and allegedly buried at the site of mass executions of innocent local residents in 1920-30s. The participants of the 1932 hunger uprising in Barysau were also buried at the same site.