The presidents of Russia and Belarus - Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko - unveiled Rzhevsky memorial to Soviet soldier. The heads of state arrived at the memorial square, where a group of veterans was waiting for them. After warmly greeting each of them, Putin and Lukashenko led the procession of laying flowers at the monument.
Following the honor guard, who carried a composition of red flowers decorated with a St. George ribbon to the base of the memorial, the two presidents with bouquets of red roses in their hands walked to the monument, exchanging brief remarks.
During the procession, a military band performed the song "Juravli" ("Cranes") by composer Jan Frenkel based on poems by Rasul Gamzatov, musically complementing the image of the Rzhevsky monument - the figure of a Soviet soldier, at the base of which is depicted a flock of cranes.
After laying a wreath and flowers, Putin and Lukashenko honoured with a minute of silence the memory of soldiers. Then the anthems of Russia and Belarus were played, and the presidents moved away from the monument, giving the veterans an opportunity to lay flowers.
After the ceremony, the presidents of Russia and Belarus took part in the "Garden of memory" campaign, which is held throughout the country. Putin and Lukashenko planted fir trees in memory of soldiers who died in the war.
The leaders of Russia and Belarus also visited the Victory Museum. Director of the Museum Alexander Shkolnik and head of the search expedition of the military historical center of the northwestern federal district Sergey Machinsky gave Putin and Lukashenko a special tour of the exhibition dedicated to the battle of Rzhev. The exhibition includes numerous finds made in these places by search engines.
After speaking at the monument's opening ceremony, Putin and Lukashenko went to bilateral talks.
Rzhevsky memorial
The initiative to build the memorial came from Great Patriotic War veterans. In 2017, they wrote to the Committee of the Union State of Russia and Belarus and to scouts of the Russian Military Historical Society (RMHS) asking them to perpetuate the memory of their wartime comrades on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of Victory. Sculptor Andrei Korobtsov and architect Konstantin Fomin won the contract following an open international competition for best architectural and artistic design for the project. It involved a 25-metere bronze statue of a Soviet soldier to be installed in the centre of the memorial complex standing on a ten-metre high mound.
Putin: Russia will not allow the feat of Soviet people during the war to be smeared with lies
President Vladimir Putin declared the need to always remember the feat of Soviet soldiers who saved the world from Nazism. The head of state is sure that this feat cannot be covered up with lies and falsifications.
"We will always remember the high price the Soviet people paid for the Victory, the brunt borne and repelled by the Red Army," Putin noted. He recalled that "representatives of all Soviet republics and ethnicities fought side by side. More than 8.5 million Red Army soldiers never returned home; they perished in battle, in captivity or died in hospitals" "And this statistic is not yet final," the President noted.
"The Rzhev memorial is another symbol of our common memory, a symbol of reverence for the great and selfless feat of a hero soldier, a liberator soldier, a soldier who saved Europe and the whole world from Nazism," the President stressed. He is sure that "time has no power over this feat and it should never, can never be forgotten, let alone erased, smeared with lies and falsifications". "We will not allow this!" Putin assured.
According to him, "the destinies that ended in war will always respond to us with an unhealed wound." "The most important moral reference point, as now, will be the courage and perseverance of our fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers, their boundless love for the Motherland, devotion to the Fatherland," the President is convinced. He said: "We must be worthy of this highest moral standard in our actions today, and preserve the historical truth as a living thread that unites generations both in our country and abroad."
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS