News

Wednesday 22 June 2022

The Institute's Delegation Took Part in the Military-Patriotic Action "We Remember You, Soldier!

 
On the 22nd of June 2022, on the Day of Memory and Sorrow, the delegation of the Institute took part in a military-patriotic action "We Remember You, Soldier!"

The delegation consisted of N.G. Romanova, Deputy Director for Science, L.D. Garkotin, Deputy Director for General Affairs, as well as other members of the Institute’s staff, T.A. Kolevatova, N.G. Selimov, N.V. Avdeeva, and A.I. Zhukova arrived in Rzhev, the city of military glory and laid flowers during a mourning meeting at the monument to the soldiers who died heroically near Rzhev.

The Rzhev-Vyazemsky strategic offensive operation in the history of the Great Patriotic War is considered one of the most terrible and bloody ... The German troops could not reach Moscow during the 14 months of the hardest and severe fighting. This direction was very important for them.

Rzhev was the only front-line city visited by I.V. Stalin, Commander-in-Chief during the entire war. According to modern estimates, more than one million three hundred thousand soldiers and officers perished in the Rzhev cauldron only in offensive military operations. That was the price of these fierce battles...

All nearby fields and forests are littered with the remains of fallen soldiers. Every year, search teams conduct work to find and bury them.

The Rzhev memorial to the Soviet soldier was opened in the presence of V.V. Putin and A.G. Lukashenko in June 2020. The monument was built on the initiative of the Russian Military Historical Society by the means of public money and makes a strong impression: a 25-meter figure of a soldier made of bronze stands on a huge mound at the site of especially heavy battles. The figure of a bowed down fallen soldier is carried into the sky by cranes... Nearby, around the monument, the names of tens of thousands of the dead are carved on steel sheets.

Today, more than nine hundred remains of soldiers discovered by search teams were buried with military honors at the Soviet soldiers memorial cemetery in Rzhev.

The Directorate of the Institute of Oriental Studies (the Russian Academy of Sciences) thanks the Moscow Government and the Pomor Community for the opportunity to take part in this solemn and sad event.