The Armenian Heritage of Europe – the Film of Valery Balayan

In early June 2011, visitors from many countries like Armenia, Italy, Russia, and regions of Ukraine arrived at the Cemetery of the Defenders of Lviv. But most of the guests were from Poland.

Among them were the minister of national minorities, the senators of the Polish Sejm, and representatives of the clergy of the Polish Catholic Church.

All these people went to that part of the cemetery called Lviv Eaglets, where Polish soldiers killed in different conflicts are buried.

Once, the Soviet government desired to wipe clean the memory of them. In general, their plans concerned the Polish history and destiny of Lviv along with the graves of not only Polish but the so-called Ukrainian nationalists. The Communist government wanted to destroy the very memory of the pre-Soviet life in Galicia.

In 1972, a group of Catholic parishioners infiltrated this cemetery and unsealed a crypt in order to move the coffin of the person buried there to another family crypt. The next day, the Chekists came to destroy that person’s grave but found out that the crypt was empty.

Armenian legacy of Europe

“Армянское наследие Европы”. Фильм Валерия Балаяна