The fire on Freedom Square was not coincidental. A Soviet soldier is suspected

The building on Freedom Square in Minsk before the fire. Photo: Archive of the author

Masquerade ball

Towards the end of December 1945, a New Year’s Eve party was being prepared in the building on Freedom Square in Minsk. The building, that survived the war and occupation, lost power on the night between December 31st and January 1st. The celebrations were therefore delayed until January 3rd. It was supposed to be a masquerade ball. The tickets for the event were distributed by the leadership of the Komsomol. They were given to the best students, activists and the children of high officials of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. There were also some who received tickets through their connections.

Lilia Chyzhyk, who survived the tragedy on January 3rd, said that she received a invitation from her friend at the university Lutsiya Rabtsevych. Her father, Aleksander, was a Hero of the Soviet Union and a commander of the NKGB club. Therefore, it was important to him that his daughter appeared at the ball in good company.

Entrance to the club on the day of the event was restricted to invitees. In the neighbouring wing of the building a commission was set up examining the war crimes of Germans and their allies. During the occupation the building on Freedom Square housed the Gestapo. Its archives were taken over by Soviet special branches after the liberation of Minsk in July of 1944. It is on these Nazi documents the members of the Soviet commission worked on. The entrance to this part of the building was blocked and guarded (later this would contribute to the tragedy of many that came to the ball). Additionally, there were cells in the basement holding Germans who were under investigation.

The tragedy

Many of the decorations had been made from materials that were highly flammable like paper and cotton wool. Over 500 people had gathered in the club. A brass band was playing in the ball room. Soon the awaited moment arrived when the garland on the Christmas tree was going to be set alight. And it did. Literally. The band was playing “Utomlennoe Solnce” (Tired Sun) when a cry pierced the room – “Fire!”. The dancing youth thought it was another New Year’s jest. After a few minutes everything was ablaze. The witnesses noted that the fire erupted in the “fairytale room” that was in front of the main hall. It was impossible to get to the exit through the flames which engulfed the room. The entrance to the stairs was also closed with an iron door.

One of the people who miraculously survived was Cicilia Yonicheva. According to her memoirs the first to arrive to the NKGB club on fire was the military, not the fire brigades. They began to carry out chests with Nazi documents. Cicilia begged the soldiers to open the doors to the staircase. A NKWD soldier told her that he could not as the staircase was connected to the other wing that housed the archives.

The whole building was covered by a corrosive yellow smoke. Understanding that there is no other exit, men began to smash the windows. They would then notice that the lower floor also was on fire. People began to jump from the third floor. Those who would jump later had more luck as they landed on the bodies of those who jumped earlier. One of the survivors, Alena Dzhemidovich (her parents thought she had perished as they could not find her), reminisced that there were terrible cries in German coming from the basement. They came from the arrested Germans. Alena decided to jump from the window. Another participant of the ball landed on her feet right next to her. Because of the high drop she received severe injuries. A soldier wanted to jump from the balcony. Behind him he had flames and below him he had a pile of dead people. After a brief moment, he took out a pistol from his holster and shot himself. A moment later the ceiling of the third floor collapsed.

Some managed to escape getting through the back door that was blocked by litter. Those doors were unlocked. Lilia Chyzhyk was saved by jumping out from the building. The girl was lucky – she survived. She looked for Lutsiya Rabtsevych on the street, but her friend did not make it. When the fires were extinguished, her father would find his daughter’s bracelets.

The remains of the victims were buried in zinc caskets

People were beginning to gather on Freedom Square the next morning. They were searching for their children. Burnt bodies and the remains were being carried out of the burnt-out building and laid along the road. There were many dead. People were trying to identify their children by their clothes and shoes. A few hundred young girls and boys perished that night. On January 4th 1946, a special session of the Central Committee Office of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic decided to view the fire in the NKGB club as an extraordinary event of a political character.

The director of the club was sentenced to six years in prison. Commandant Rabtsevich was arrested but released shortly after. His daughter was burned alive, so the authorities believed that he had paid a high price for “the neglect”. A special commission decided to investigate all the aspects of the fire as soon as possible. It also ordered to hand out shoes and textiles to the survivors, while the families received a one-time hand out. The exact number of dead has not been established until this day. Those that died jumping out of windows or from burns were buried in separate graves. Meanwhile, the burnt remains of other victims were buried in two zinc caskets in a mass grave on the military cemetery in Minsk.

Memorial at the mass grave in Minsk. Photo: Ihar Melnikau

This terrifying story remains unclear today. Why was there a fire? Was the tragedy caused by ordinary neglect? One of the most probable versions of events suggests that the fire was lit on purpose. The neighbouring wing of the building had a Gestapo archive with personal files of agents, informers and collaborators of the Germans. Not all of them fled westwards. Many remained in a liberated Belarus. They knew what would happen if the Soviet special services found out the truth about them.

It is possible that someone in a Soviet Army uniform helped the organizers of this arson attack. Leonid Vasilchikov, a soldier who played in the orchestra of the Byelorussian Military District, disappeared without a trace. He was most likely one of the victims of the fire, but it is also a possibility that he was behind the arson. The factual argument that supports the arson theory is also that there were two separate places of origin of the fire (the documents of the special commission that investigated the tragedy disappeared in 1953, when Lavrentiy Tsanava was arrested). A number of fire trucks did not arrive at the scene as they had left for a number of fake calls. This is why there was no one to extinguish the fire on Freedom Square. January 3rd 1946 will remain one of the most tragic dates in the history of Minsk and Belarus.

This article was first published in Polish by NEW.org.pl

The author is currently serving a 4-year sentence in a penal colony, accused by the Belarusian authorities of “promoting extremist activities”.

Ihar Melnikau is a Belarusian Ph.D. historian, essayist, journalist, blogger and editor of the history portal Historia Pobach. Associate Professor of Wrocław University. He is the author of various academic and journalistic articles and 18 books, including The border was near Minsk 1921-1941 and Forgotten Corps. The Polish Army in the Bobruisk Area 1918-1920, The death of Empire. The history of the Battle of Baranovichi in 1916, Collaboration. The anatomy of betrayal фтв щерукы in which he addresses little-known aspects of Belarusian history and Belarusian-Polish relations during the Second World War.

“We suport the Belarusian Awakening’24” is a project co-financed by Solidarity Fund PL within the framework of Polish development cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland in the amount of PLN 230,000.

This publication expresses the views of the author only and cannot be identified with the official position of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland.

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belarus, history, Minsk, Soviet Union