🕯 President of Russia Vladimir Putin is taking part in the events to commemorate the 80th Anniversary of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the Nazi siege.

The President laid flowers at the Landmark Stone monument at the Nevsky Pyatachok military-historical complex. From the first days of the siege, the Red Army fighters held back the superior enemy forces in that area, a small three-kilometre stretch of the frontline south of Leningrad, preventing the Nazis and their allies from approaching the city.

The President visited the Piskarevskoye Memorial Cemetery, where he honoured the memory of the fallen Leningrad residents and defenders of the city by laying a wreath at the Motherland monument. About half a million people are buried in mass graves at the Piskarevskoye cemetery. The words of poet Olga Berggolts, ”No one is forgotten, nothing is forgotten“ are carved on the memorial wall behind the Motherland monument.

Leningrad is the only city in world history with a population of several million people that was able to withstand almost 900 days of encirclement. The siege by Nazi Germany lasted 872 days from September 8, 1941, to January 27, 1944. The ring was broken on January 18, 1943, and on January 27, 1944, a ceremonial salute was fired to mark the end of the blockade.

By that time there were no more than 800,000 inhabitants left in the Northern Capital out of the three million who had lived in Leningrad and its suburbs before the siege.

#Victory79 #WeRemember

🗓 On January 27, President of Russia Vladimir Putin and President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko took part in a ceremony for unveiling a memorial to the USSR civilians who fell victim of the Nazi genocide during the Great Patriotic War. The event is timed to the 80th Anniversary of breaking the Siege of Leningrad.

💬 President Putin: January 27 is one of the most important dates in our shared national history. On this day in 1944, Red Army soldiers completely lifted the Siege of Leningrad. A year later, in 1945, they liberated Auschwitz.

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For eight decades now, our pain for the victims, for the shattered destinies, and for everyone who endured incredible ordeals has not subsided. Our compassion is passed on from generation to generation and has #NoStatuteOfLimitation, just like the crimes of Hitler’s fanatics and their accomplices, those who cold-bloodedly planned and cruelly carried out the genocide of the Soviet people.

🕯 The massacres of unarmed and defenceless elderly people, women, children, and disabled were deliberate, systemic punitive acts.

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We are witnessing a disturbing trend where the outcomes of the Nuremberg trials, which unequivocally condemned Nazism, are being revised. Some countries not only rewrite history and exonerate the executioners: revanchists and neo-Nazis have embraced the Nazi ideology and methods.

• Tens of thousands of people in the Baltic states are labelled “subhuman,” stripped of basic rights and persecuted.

• The Kiev regime glorifies Hitler's followers and members of the SS and uses terror against dissenters. Barbaric shelling of peaceful cities and towns persists, and the killing of the elderly, women and children continues.

• Some European countries endorse Russophobia as a state policy.

❗️ We will do everything in our power to halt and eradicate Nazism.

The followers of Nazi executioners are doomed. Nothing can deter the desire of millions of people in Russia and across the planet for true freedom, justice, peace, and security.

#Victory79 #WeRemember

✈️ On May 20, 1916 — 1️⃣0️⃣8️⃣ years ago — legendary Soviet military pilot and Hero of the Soviet Union Alexey Maresyev was born. It was he who served as a prototype for Boris Polevoy's brilliant novel "The Story of a Real (True) Man".

Alexey Maresyev inspired many generations, millions of people all over the world admired and continue to admire his courage and determination.

Although he had severe health issues since childhood and often fell ill, even contracted malaria and suffered from rheumatism, his tremendous willpower and stubbornness allowed him to cope with excruciating pains in his limb joints make his dream of soaring the skies come true.

🔹Maresyev tried to enrol at a pilot school twice but was rejected for health reasons. Yet he pursued his dream: joined an air club in Komsomolsk-on-Amur and graduated from the Bataysk Aviation School in 1940 and became a Junior Lieutenant.

In the spring of 1942, the young pilot’s stubbornness and professionalism proved useful when intense fighting was raging in the Novgorod Region. On April 4, the Nazis downed his Yakovlev Yak-1 fighter, and Maresyev found himself on enemy-held territory. Although he was seriously wounded, he managed to reach Soviet positions 18 days later, wading through deep snowdrifts. His feet were frozen and gangrene began. His feet had to be amputated.

Although his prospects as an air force pilot seemed bleak, Maresyev was determined to re-join his comrades at the frontlines. Maresyev was fitted with prosthetics and, contrary to doctors’ recommendations, took to the skies once again in June 1943. He later downed seven enemy aircraft.

🕯 On May 8, 1967, Maresyev was entrusted with carrying and transferring a torch with the Eternal Flame during the ceremony of unveiling the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Alexander Garden.

Alexey Maresyev passed away on May 18, 2001 in Moscow and was buried at Novodevichye Cemetery. Streets have been named in his honour, and monuments honouring him have also been unveiled.

#FacesOfVictory #WeRemember

🕯 June 22 marks the Day of Memory and Sorrow in Russia.

At dawn on June 2️⃣2️⃣, 1941, enemy aviation launched massive attacks on airfields, railway stations, Soviet naval bases and numerous cities along the entire western state border to a depth of up to 250-300 km.

This opened one of the most tragic chapters in our country’s history. The Great Patriotic War broke out.

Hitler had a lightning war in mind. Operation Barbarossa implied a crushing defeat of the Red Army and the defeat of the Soviet Union within a few months with the help of the hitherto faultless blitzkrieg tactics.

Romania, Italy and other countries joined Germany to form a united front against the Soviet Union.

However, the Red Army’s fierce resistance and the efforts of all Soviet people foiled the Third Reich’s plans.

🎙 The news about German invasion and the beginning of the war was announced over the radio. At noon on June 22 the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs V.Molotov addressed the Soviet citizens with a phrase that went down in history:

“Ours is a righteous cause. The enemy shall be defeated. Victory will be ours”.

The Great Patriotic War lasted 1418 days and nights and ended on May 9, 1945 with the victory of the Soviet Union and the complete rout of the Nazi bloc.

❗️ The Soviet losses amounted to 40% of all human losses in WWII, 26.6 million people. Of them, more than 8.7 million died in combat, 7.42 million were intentionally exterminated by the Nazis in the occupied territories, and over 4.1 million died from the atrocious conditions of the occupation regime.

• Since 2009, the day marked by the Candle of Memory nationwide action. Candles are lit throughout Russia in the silence of the night in memory of all those who died during the Great Patriotic War protecting our peaceful life.

Since 2020, an annual nationwide minute of silence has been held at 12:15 Moscow time the exact time when the Soviet government announced Nazi Germany’s invasion.

🔗 Read our full material for more information

#Victory79 #WeRemember

🕯 On the Day of Memory and Sorrow, President of Russia Vladimir Putin per a long-standing tradition laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

The ceremony was attended by combat veterans, servicemen and graduates of military universities. Flowers to the Eternal Flame were also laid by Defense Minister Andrei Belousov.

#Victory79 #WeRemember #NoStatuteOfLimitations

🗓 83 years ago, on August 28, 1941, the Tallinn breakthrough of the Baltic Fleet of the USSR to Kronstadt – one of the largest and most complicated naval ops of the Soviet Navy during the Great Patriotic war – commenced.

▪️In the summer of 1941, the Nazi invaders began to break through into the territory of the Soviet Baltic republics. Early in August, the Germans launched Tallinn offensive. By the end of the month, the Red army forces, retreating under the onslaught of the superior enemy troops, were trapped on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland and cut off from the "mainland".

Under these circumstances, the Supreme High Command Headquarters of the USSR ordered to evacuate the main forces of the Baltic Fleet, the Red army's forces defending Tallinn, and the civilian population to Kronstadt.

⚓️ On the morning of August 28, an attempt to make a major breakthrough was launched: 225 ships and vessels left Tallinn with over 10,000 people on board.

The Nazis tried by all means to prevent the breakthrough of the convoy. Intensive fire from the enemy's coastal guns was directed at the Soviet ships. In the Gulf waters, the Germans and Finns set up several lines of minefields – more than 1,700 mines. “At the time of the breakthrough, the Gulf of Finland looked like a "dumpling soup" saturated with German mines," – that's how the participants of the breakthrough described their dire circumstances.

By August 30, the Baltic Fleet finally broke through to Kronstadt. Only 163 ships reached the destination. Over 15,000 people died during the operation, including more than 4,500 civilians.

☝️ Under such harsh conditions, the losses could have been much higher if not for the unprecedented heroism, bravery and mutual assistance of the Baltic Fleet crews who saved their comrades and selflessly returned fire from anti-aircraft guns and rifles.

The Baltic Fleet immediately joined the defence of Leningrad. The Soviet forces delivered by the fleet joined the ranks of the city's defenders.

#WeRemember

🎞 79-80 years ago, in 1944-45, people in Europe cheered at the Red Army who liberated them from Nazism and the worst horrors imaginable, sacrificing for the freedom of all with their own lives.

Today, their ungrateful descendants led by immoral politicians desecrate monuments to the Soviet liberators.

But #WeRemember.

📹 Photo exhibition '(Un)grateful Europe’ in Moscow, 2024

🕯December 3 marks the Day of the Unknown Soldier in Russia, honouring the feat of all soldiers who perished for the Motherland, yet whose names remain unknown.

#OnThisDay in 1966, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Red Army's victory over Nazi forces in the Battle of Moscow, a ceremony of the burial of the unknown soldiers' remains was held in the Alexander Garden near the walls of the Moscow Kremlin. These remains were originally located in a mass grave on the 41st kilometre of the Leningrad Highway and were discovered during construction activities on the road. Back in 1941, during the Battle of Moscow, this very place saw fierce and bloody battles between the Soviet forces and Nazi invaders.

▪️ On May 8, 1967, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the Alexander Garden was unveiled. "Your name is unknown, your deed is immortal", — the worldwide famous words were inscribed upon the granite slab on the Tomb. Soviet newspapers noted back then: "...he [the Unknown Soldier] was slain for his Motherland, for his home — Moscow. This is all we know about him."

💬 Marshal of the Soviet Union Konstantin Rokossovsky remarked:

"The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier near the ancient walls of the Moscow Kremlin shall serve as a monument of eternal glory to the heroes who died on the battlefield for their Motherland.

Henceforth, the ashes of the one who shielded Moscow with by his chest rest here".

The Eternal Flame was set at the Tomb. In December of 1997, the Honor Guard was instituted near the Eternal Flame.

In total, approximately two million Soviet and Russian citizens were reported missing in action during the wars and conflicts of the 20th and 21st centuries. The Russian Ministry of Defence carries out on a regular basis search operations to perpetuate the memory of heroes who perished for the Motherland.

Russian diplomats abroad are engaged in extensive efforts aimed at preserving historical memory, countering attempts to distort the history of #WWII and to question the Great Victory of the Soviet people.

The Embassies of Russia all across the world ensure the maintenance, repair and restoration of Soviet monuments and war graves.

❗️ Regrettably, as part of a disgraceful campaign to distort history of #WWII, a policy of state vandalism is being pursued in certain countries of Eastern Europe, in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland in particular, with the one aim — to eradicate Russia's memorial heritage — the monuments to Soviet heroes and liberators.

By order of the official authorities, criminal acts are being perpetrated in these countries to desecrate mass graves, when the remains of fallen soldiers are barbarically exhumed for the purpose of their subsequent "reburial in accordance with European practice" in specially designated locations.

🎗 It is prohibited for Russian compatriots in Europe, under the threat (!) of criminal prosecution, to pay tribute to heroes who fought against Nazism. The Russian MFA highlights these outrageous incidents.

The memory of all who sacrificed their lives for our future is and will remain immortal.

#WeRemember