Military History Museum named after Hero of the Soviet Union K. S. Zaslonov

The short but bright life of K. S. Zaslonov served as a model for more than one generation of Soviet people. To immortalize the name of the famous guerrilla commander, the Memorial Museum of Hero of the Soviet Union K. S. Zaslonov was opened in Orsha on August 1, 1948 by the decision of the Council of Ministers of the BSSR № 230.

Initially the museum was located in the left wing of the Kirov Railwaymen's House of Culture.

On April 20, 1952, the building of the former House of Pioneers of the railway junction on Molokova Str., 9 was transferred to the museum. On November 14, on the day of the 10th anniversary of Zaslonov's death, the new exposition was opened for visitors. The Belarusian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War provided great assistance in creating this exposition. Former partisan-defenders, Zaslonov's comrades in transportation, and residents of Orsha participated in the collection of materials for the museum.

In 1976 the exposition of the museum was redesigned. The leading Minsk artists Soloviev V. N., Malinovsky R. S., Ermonin V. N. took part in its creation.

In 1994, a new chapter in the history of the museum was opened: it became a branch of the cultural institution "Museum Complex of History and Culture of Orshanshchina".

In 2016 a hurricane wind damaged the building of the Museum and it was decided to demolish the building.

From 2016 to May 2022 the Museum items were presented at the stationary exhibition "Legendary Kombrig K. S. Zaslonov", located in one of the halls of the Museum of History and Culture of Orsha.

The leadership of the city and the region received numerous appeals and requests of labor veterans of the Orsha railway junction and veterans of the Great Patriotic War to restore the Museum, in connection with which in 2020 it was decided to build a building on the former site in the area of the railway station of the city of Orsha.

In June 2022, the construction of the building for the Memorial Museum of Hero of the Soviet Union K. S. Zaslonov was completed. Due to the increased exposition area, the museum's permanent exposition was expanded. On the basis of the decision of Orsha District Executive Committee the museum was renamed into the Military Historical Museum named after Hero of the Soviet Union K. S. Zaslonov.

On August 18, 2022, in the Year of Historical Memory, the museum opened its doors to visitors.

The new museum is a tribute not only to the legendary Kombrig partisan, the exposition of the new museum covers the events of the entire period of the Great Patriotic War in Orshanshchina. The "Zaslonov" storyline is organically woven into the general military one and, at the same time, is to some extent an independent section of the exposition.

Ideological embodiment of the exposition allows to present the power of patriotism, the aspiration of the Soviet people to win the victory over the invaders and occupants. The dramatic moments include the boundary of peaceful life and the first hours of the enemy invasion, the capture of the city; the establishment of the occupation period; the Orsha ghetto, the execution of Orsha underground fighters as evidence of the genocide of the peaceful population of Belarus, the fatal wounding of K. S. Zaslonov.