«Volunteers of Victory» KRSU honored the memory of the heroes of besieged Leningrad
The head of the movement «Victory Volunteers» of the Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University Nasiba Eshmuradova took part in commemorative events on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the siege of Leningrad. The memorial event took place from September 6 to September 9, 2021 in St. Petersburg. It was attended by delegations from Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, which included volunteers, search engines, and descendants of those who defended Leningrad during the Great Patriotic War.
Kyrgyzstanis and Kazakhstanis arrived in the city on the Neva at the invitation of the Committee for External Relations of the Government of St. Petersburg and the All-Russian Public Movement «Victory Volunteers». They took part in a video conference with Victory Volunteers and residents of besieged Leningrad from 15 countries, including Lebanon, Germany, Belgium, Serbia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Egypt and others. Young people involved in preserving history exchanged experiences and spoke about the implementation of one of the most important projects of this year – «Word of the Winner. Blockade». As part of the project, volunteers create an archive of family documents about the blockade and record video memories of eyewitnesses of those terrible events.
As part of the visit, delegates from Kyrgyzstan Nasiba Eshmuradova and Dmitry Teklyuk visited blockade survivor Valentina Ivanovna Efimova. When the blockade began, an 11-year-old schoolgirl went to agricultural work, where she collected for the harvest to help her fellow countrymen survive. At the age of 13, the girl was awarded a medal «For the Defense of Leningrad».
Participants in the commemorative events were told about the contribution of the Kyrgyz SSR to the defense of Leningrad. They were delighted by the feat of 16-year-old Toktogon Altybasarova, who worked at such a young age as the chairman of the village council of the village of Kurmenty, and in August 1942 accepted and became a mother for 150 evacuated Leningrad children.
A landmark event was the planting of a tree by all participants in the patriotic rally – guests from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, representatives of the public, leaders of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region – in memory of those killed during the evacuation along the Road of Life. This was the request of the siege survivor – Irina Uvarova, who now lives abroad. The action, which took place on the territory of the museum-reserve «Breakthrough of the Siege of Leningrad», was called «Alley of Memory».
«The meeting that took place on the Neva, – said Nasiba Eshmuradova, – personally made me once again remember our great ancestors, who set an example for their descendants of dedication, mutual assistance and love for their Motherland, for their people».
