A road usually connects the populated points, the key word here - "populated," that is habitable, inhabited by people, filled with the sounds and smells of life. All roads do, but not this one, dead forest road with the sign "Litavets-4." The sign is heavy, laconic, of dead gray color.

The reason for this is that the sign points not towards a lively village, but to the village monument - a memorial complex, built in 1986 by the creative team headed by S. Borovoy.

Since 1942, lost in the forests village was one of the centers of the guerilla movements. Here the guerrilla group "Combat" under the command of Lieutenant B. Zhavrid was based. Dynamic combat activities of guerrillas were aimed at weakening the enemy fr om the inside, in the rear, on the occupied territories. It weakened the combat power of the enemy greatly and the guerrilla’s location centers could not go unnoticed.

By 1943, the occupants, suffering heavy losses, began to deploy punitive operations. These operations were not like the fight with a little effort, but of combat nature, with a thought-out strategy and the involvement of major combat units and weapons. Thus, on the 8th of January 1943, the operation "Jacob" resolved into going on the offensive on the territory of Stankovskiy forest from three sides (from three administrative districts). The armament was used is tanks, armored cars and guns; the number of people in the punitive brigade was 7 thousand men.

The 13th SS division (police) forces were aimed at destroying the guerrilla base in the village Litavets. But the destruction of the guerrilla forces was reduced to squaring of accounts with the civilians of the village. Driven together in a large shed, people were locked up in it. And the shed was set on fire. Prior to this, all the men whom the punishers were able to find in the village were lined along the wall and shot.

196 people - the total number of victims.

Litavets village was not revived; its name is present in the cemetery of the burnt villages in the memorial complex "Khatyn". And on the place of its death the already mentioned memorial complex is located.

Initially, before the creation of the memorial, a monument to the village was small, it only marked the place, and nearby at the former southern outskirts of the village, a monument to guerilla party “Boevoy” was set up.

Now the mood of sorrow is created on the way to the main bas-relief of the complex. Stone slabs symbolize the houses of the village. Dead, gray stones are located on the place of huts, wh ere even now could children laugh, and the following peaceful generation of Belarusians could grow.
The main bas-relief is a stone-carved image of the family, set on a stepped pedestal. It depicts several generations - children, adults and the elderly. People climb the stairs to bow their heads in the mournful memory of their martyr death.

And the silence is heard, and the Belarusian poems are loudly sounded, carved on another part of the complex, on the separately located stone. They sound loud even when read them silently to yourself. Poems about the living cry, which sprouted up as grass, on the land that will never cool down, and will keep the heat of the fire forever, in which people were dying.