Dear Tatarstan citizens!
Dear veterans and home front workers!
With all my heart, I congratulate you on this unfading and truly national holiday - Victory Day of the multi-ethnic Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War.
Seventy-seven years have passed since that unforgettable spring evening of May 9, 1945, when the long-awaited Victory Salute, which marked the end of the bloodiest, cruelest and most inhuman war, sounded in the sky over our Motherland like a peaceful resounding thunder. Hardly ever in the past millions of people felt so exalted, undisguised joy, so sincerely and warmly thanked the soldiers-liberators, who defended the honor and independence of their country.
The Great Victory is a historical peak of the greatness of our Motherland, an imperishable symbol of the tenacity and steadfastness of the people's spirit, a shining example of the triumph of truth and justice over the forces of evil and lawlessness. Being inextricably linked with the past, present and future of our country, Victory Day is firmly imprinted in the memory of postwar generations, visibly embodied in the bronze and granite of numerous monuments, names of cities, villages and streets, museums and panoramas.
World War II was the most terrible catastrophe in the history of mankind, inflicting irreparable damage to many nations and peoples. But it brought the greatest devastation and human losses to our country, coming to every home, to every family.
And today, as we celebrate our glorious victory, first and foremost we bow before those who perished in the monstrous crucible of war, heroically defending our native land and the whole world from the Nazis, those who perished under barbaric bombardment and shelling, were destroyed in concentration camps and died a starving death in besieged Leningrad. We remember those who suffered the horrors of occupation, were forced to leave their homes and became refugees, we pay tribute to the children of war and the disabled.
Over seven hundred thousand of our countrymen defended our homeland with weapons in their hands: more than half of them did not return home. Not all of them were honored with high awards, but everyone made his significant contribution to the sacred cause of defeating fascism. The names of Musa Dzhalil, Mikhail Devyataev, Maguba Syrtlanova, Pyotr Gavrilov, Gani Safiullin, Nikolai Stolyarov, Farid Fatkullin, Boris Kuznetsov, Gazi Zagitov, Mikhail Simonov and many other Tatar citizens were inscribed in the history of the Great Victory.
Our tireless home front workers, who forged the fearsome weapons of victory in the workshops of the factories and supplied the struggling country with the agricultural products, also deserve a huge tribute. One of the tangible acknowledgements of their feat was the awarding of Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, the well-deserved title of the City of Labor Valor.
In our challenging times, it's especially important to follow the ideals bequeathed to us by the generation of victors. Today the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of veterans of Tatarstan are honestly fulfilling their military duty, defending the interests of our multinational Fatherland, including in the framework of the special military operation in Ukraine. I am convinced that each of them is aware of the high degree of responsibility that history itself has entrusted to us.
The results of the Great Patriotic War instill confidence in the inevitability of punishment for all those who impose the "brown" Nazi ideology, no matter how lightly they dress up, who trample the inalienable rights and freedoms of citizens and incite hatred and hostility between peoples. I am sure that, just as in the victorious 1945, history will make its fair and only correct choice, once again proving that the absolute evil of Nazism has no place in the modern world.
I sincerely wish war and labor veterans health and well-being, and to all the heirs of the military and labor glory of our people - warriors, laborers, new successes in strengthening the defense capability, economic and cultural development of the country.
Peace to you, happiness and vital optimism! Happy Victory Day, dear friends!
President of the Republic of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: official website of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan
Based on materials from the official website of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan