May 7, 2019, at the invitation of the Committee on External Relations of St. Petersburg, delegations from 22 countries of the world arrived in the northern capital: Abkhazia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Germany, Georgia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Moldova, Romania, USA , Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Finland, France, Czech Republic, Sweden, Estonia.
In honor of the celebration of the 74th anniversary of the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, the Committee invited 90 compatriots, including veterans of the Great Patriotic War - participants of the defense of Leningrad, residents of the blockade city living abroad, as well as activists of the youth-patriotic wing of the Russian emigration abroad.
On the morning of May 8, together with all Petersburgers, they took part in the solemn mourning ceremony of laying wreaths and flowers at the Piskaryov Memorial Cemetery. Compatriots laid flowers and a wreath with the inscription: "From veterans of the Great Patriotic War, participants in the defense of Leningrad, residents of the besieged city living abroad" to the Mother Motherland monument, paying tribute to all those who defended the city, to all who survived, fought and won. At the end of the general ceremony, compatriots laid flowers at the mass graves, where their relatives and friends who died during the siege are buried. Veterans noted the high organization of the solemn mourning ceremony. Before the entrance to the memorial complex a tent of the Ministry of Emergency Situations was set up; Of course, it was not without tea and buckwheat porridge from the field kitchen, which was immediately distributed free to anyone.
After lunch, our compatriots waited for a festive concert in honor of Victory Day, which was attended by stars of Soviet and Russian pop. The Acting Governor of St. Petersburg, together with the Chairman of the Legislative Assembly and the Commander of the Western Military District, congratulated the war veterans and blockade on the stage of the Oktyabrsky Concert Hall. Alexander Beglov and Vyacheslav Makarov wished health to veterans, long life and thanked for the Victory.
So, Alexander Beglov, in his address to the audience, said: “Many thanks to all the boys and girls, those who are in the hall today, who have come a long way to the end and remained a patriot of our city. And it shows how to love our city, how to relate to history. Thank you so much guys and girls of the 1940s!”
Vyacheslav Makarov, Chairman of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, said: “The Great Victory came seventy-four years ago. Stopped the beat of death. The death pulse stopped, the pulse of life began to beat. This is the day of our national pride - always for centuries. We have proved to the whole world that a nation united by the goal of being free, independent and living in a great state can.”
The next day, May 9, our compatriots became spectators of the Parade of Forces of the St. Petersburg Territorial Garrison of the Western Military District on Palace Square. On Victory Day over St. Petersburg planes and helicopters flew by. In total, about 4.5 thousand servicemen, 90 samples of ground-based military equipment and 45 aviation units took part in the parade dedicated to the 74th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War. The veterans also saw the legendary tank of the T-34 model, which traditionally headed the mechanized column, and the launch and transport-loading machines of the S-400 anti-aircraft missile system, which were participating for the first time in the Parade. 250 musicians of the joint orchestral battalion provided the Parade musical accompaniment. Marches, waltzes - the most solemn melodies sounded on this day in honor of the winners.
In the evening of the same day, a gala dinner was organized for compatriots on behalf of the Government of St. Petersburg. The participants were addressed by the first deputy chairman of the Committee for External Relations of St. Petersburg, Sergey Markov. He congratulated everyone on the 74th anniversary of the Victory on behalf of the Acting Governor of St. Petersburg Alexander Beglov and myself: “Best wishes from the Governor, from the Government of St. Petersburg! We have been holding such events for the seventeenth year and never get tired of being surprised at your courage, your desire to come to our hometown. And thank God that the Lord God loves both our city and our country, and today the beautiful sunny weather, which in no way prevented the solemn parade, the procession of the "Immortal Regiment", in which about a million of Leningrad and St. Petersburg residents took part. Thank you so much for coming to our city! It seems to me that today we will have one of the warmest evenings that exist in life in general, because it will be an evening filled with memories, the most sincere words from you first and foremost. With pleasure we will listen to you, with pleasure we will sing military songs accompanied by artists of St. Petersburg, we will relax, we will communicate. Have a good evening and once again with our great Victory! ”
By tradition, the participants themselves also took the floor. So, the chairman of the Blockade Society of the hero-city of Leningrad and their family members (New York, USA), Isabella Svetlozanova, presented the book Children of the Blockade in America, which, she said, was written for several years just because people did not want this remember. She emphasized the importance of preserving the memories of fathers so that the memory of the blockade and the Victory would never fade.
- “Many thanks to the organizers of this meeting. So everything went organized, thoughtful, warm! And this is very important, because our blockade fraternity, unfortunately, is melting, and the rest should love, feel sorry for, indulge each other! ”- concluded Isabella Svetlostanova.
As part of the cultural program of the evening, a concert with the performance of military, Russian folk and Soviet pop songs was presented to the attention of compatriots. Verses of Olga Bergholz, Boris Pasternak, Vitaly Shvedov were read.
During the evening, many warm words were said to the organizer of this trip, the Committee on External Relations of St. Petersburg, which for many years supports blockaders abroad and considers this work to be its priority.
At the end of the evening, a trip to the walls of the Peter and Paul Fortress was organized for all the guests, where they, together with the whole city, watched a fireworks show.
Since compatriots are especially acutely aware of their remoteness from their homeland, on their requests, on the final day of their stay in St. Petersburg an additional excursion program was organized. The participants made a sightseeing tour of St. Petersburg and visited a specially prepared exhibition at the Lenreserv Museum. The monumental exposition, open to the 75th anniversary of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the blockade, where a full-scale street was built, left a strong impression on the veterans. They plunged into the atmosphere of the besieged city, maneuvering between destroyed houses and unexploded shells the size of human height. Also, an excursion to the Museum of Urban Electric Transport was organized especially for guests, where they were told about the development of this infrastructure in St. Petersburg from the beginning of the 20th century to the beginning of the 21st century. In total, the compatriots were presented with 22 trams (starting from the first horse and ending with modern cars) and 7 models of trolleybuses, including the unique pre-war trolleybus JATB-1, the only one in the world.
Anatoly Grigoriev, Latvia: - “I am very pleased with the three days spent in St. Petersburg. Memories. I spent the entire blockade in Leningrad. I wish the young generation to be healthy and live for many years! Do sports! I myself still swim daily in the pool. I am 85 years old."
Frida Ginzburg, Germany: “All three days were very intense, the program was beautifully built. In addition to satisfaction and moral status, it gave mood once again to visit the beautiful city where I was born, and to visit wonderful places that are very memorable for me. ”
The next day, our veterans were waiting for parting with their beloved city, but each of them was full of hopes for a speedy return and that the memory of the great Victory Day will live forever, passing from generation to generation.
