Today is June 22: Day of Remembrance and Sorrow. Beginning of the Great Patriotic War. June 22, 1941 is one of the saddest dates in our history, the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. This day reminds us of all the dead, tortured in fascist captivity, who died in the rear from hunger and deprivation. Until 1992, the day the Great Patriotic War began was not an official memorial date. Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council Russian Federation On July 13, 1992, this day was declared the Day of Remembrance of the Defenders of the Fatherland. By decree of the President of Russia of June 8, 1996, June 22 - the day the Great Patriotic War began - was declared the Day of Memory and Sorrow. On this day, the State flags of the Russian Federation are flown at half mast in the country. Cultural institutions, television channels and radio stations are recommended not to include entertainment events and programs in the program on this day. We remember the glorious defenders of the Motherland who defended native land We are proud of the courage, heroism, steadfastness of soldiers, officers, selflessness of home front workers - women, the elderly, children. We bow our heads deeply before all the dead. Everlasting memory heroes!
At 4 am on June 22, 1941, after massive artillery and aviation training, German troops crossed the border of the USSR, and at 05:30 Adolf Hitler announced the start of the Third Reich's war with the Soviet Union. Soviet troops were taken by surprise. Thus began the Great Patriotic War - a tragedy that lasted 1418 days and nights. The sacrifice made by the peoples of the USSR must forever remain in the memory of mankind. According to the statistics of 1998, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia, the total irretrievable losses of the Red (Soviet) Army amounted to 11,944,100 people, including 6,885,000 people killed, missing, 4,559,000 captured. In total, the Soviet Union lost 26,600 000 citizens. Among the victims of the war, 13.7 million people are civilians, of which 7.4 million were deliberately exterminated by the invaders, 2.2 million died at work in Germany, and 4.1 million died of starvation during the occupation. During the war years, 1710 cities, more than 70 thousand villages, 32 thousand plants and factories were destroyed in the USSR, 98 thousand collective farms were plundered. The Red Army soldiers and commanders everywhere showed mass heroism, however, without ammunition, fortifications, air and artillery cover, our troops were forced to retreat from the border, suffering millions of losses. The Wehrmacht in the first months of the war managed to practically bleed the cadre army of the USSR. Only our people could withstand such a blow. Almost no one in Washington and London doubted that the Soviet Union was doomed. The US ambassador in Moscow reported to Washington that the USSR would fall within a week. The Minister of War predicted that Moscow would fall within one - a maximum of three months. However, these predictions did not come true. The country began to implement a program of emergency measures under the motto: “Everything for the front! Everything for the victory! All the forces of the people - to defeat the enemy! With stubborn resistance, not sparing their lives, the soldiers of the Red Army bled the advancing Wehrmacht, destroyed the plans of the German command. Our cause is right. The enemy will be defeated. Victory will be ours. Forward to our victory!
On June 22, on the Day of Sorrow, let's remember those heroes who fought the enemy and, despite the defeats of the first days, brought Victory Day closer. Also, let's not forget that in those years representatives of all Soviet republics. So this Day of Sorrow is common for millions of people, even though they are now separated by borders.
On the night of June 21-22, as part of the Day of Remembrance and Sorrow, two significant events will be held in Moscow: “Memory Line” on Krymskaya Embankment and “Memory Watch. Eternal Flame" in the Alexander Garden.
Action "Line of memory"
The action "Line of memory" will be held from 21 to 22 June on the Crimean embankment. An installation of 1418 candles will be created on the embankment, each of which symbolizes one day of the Great Patriotic War.
On June 22, 1941, the Great Patriotic War began, which lasted 1418 days. Every day of this terrible war is a symbol of mass heroism, courage and steadfastness shown by the people of Russia in the fight against the Nazi invaders.
Cultural program Promotions:
- 19:00 - gathering of spectators;
- 20:00 - musical and dramatic performance "We will live";
- 21:30 - official part. Solemn lighting of the first candle. The first candle is lit by a participant in the Great Patriotic War, the last - dedicated to last day war - the young great-grandson of an honored participant in the Great Patriotic War;
- 22:00 - lighting of all candles of the Memory Line;
- 22:15–00:00 — concert and theater program.
Anyone can join the action and light a candle in memory of one of the important days of the war for his family. Keepers of the Flame will be present at the site, who will tell visitors about those difficult times. Candles will be maintained by the Keepers of Fire until midnight on June 23, that is, they will burn for more than a day.
Action “Memory watch. Eternal flame"
The Memory Watch action, which will be held in Moscow for the 26th time this year, will begin on June 22 at 03:00. Boys and girls from youth associations, public organizations and patriotic clubs, together with veterans of the Great Patriotic War, will take part in the Action to remember the events of 1941, honor the memory of those who died for the Motherland and lay flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
The laying will take place at the well-known (thanks to the song to the words of Boris Kovynev and the music of the popular waltz by Jerzy Petersburgsky “The Blue Handkerchief”) time: “June 22, exactly at 4 o’clock ...”.
Points with audio broadcasts of military songs and screens on which military chronicles will be shown will be installed on the site. At four o'clock in the morning the voice of Yuri Levitan will announce the beginning of the war. After laying flowers, the participants will commemorate the victims with a minute of silence.
Day of memory and sorrow in 2020 is celebrated on June 22. This is a memorable date in Russia. The holiday is timed to the date of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War (WWII). In 2020, it is officially held in the Russian Federation for the 25th time. Commemorative events are attended by the first persons of the state, war veterans, relatives dead soldiers, people who are not indifferent to the events of the war, youth and charitable organizations.
The purpose of the holiday is to honor the heroism of the soldiers of the Great Patriotic War.
history of the holiday
The Day of Remembrance and Sorrow was established by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation B. Yeltsin dated June 8, 1996 No. 857. Before that, June 22 was declared the Day of Remembrance of the Defenders of the Fatherland, according to the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation of July 13, 1992. In 2007, the Day of Memory and Sorrow became a memorable date in Russia.
The date of the holiday is timed to the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. On June 22, 1941, at 4 o'clock in the morning, Nazi troops invaded the territory of the USSR.
Holiday traditions
On the Day of Memory and Sorrow in Russia, state flags are flown at half mast. Wreath-laying ceremonies are held at the memorials of the heroes of the Great Patriotic War. Minutes of silence are announced. The President of the Russian Federation lays a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow.
Memorial services are held in the temples for those who died during the Second World War.
The all-Russian patriotic action “Memory watch. Eternal flame". Participants light the Candle of Memory to pay tribute to the heroism of the soldiers of the Great Patriotic War. The campaigns “A candle of memory on June 22 - a candle of memory on my window”, “Line of memory” are taking place. On the eve of the holiday, the action "Train of memory" is held. The train with WWII veterans and youth organizations follows the Moscow-Minsk-Brest route. On June 22, train passengers take part in the requiem rally “Let's bow to those great years” in the Brest Fortress. They light candles from the Eternal Flame and lower them into the Bug River.
Charitable foundations raise money to help combatants. Thematic history lessons are held in schools. Young people meet with war veterans.
Exhibitions are organized military equipment. Concerts are organized military song. Open-air cinemas broadcast films about the war. TV channels and radio stations remove entertainment programs from the air.
- As a result of the Great Patriotic War, the USSR lost 26.6 million people. 4-5 million were captured by the Nazis.
Mom called at 6:00 this morning. She said that the candle that she lit at 3 in the morning had burned out. So I couldn't sleep in the excitement. She said that she remembered a lot, some of which she managed to write down. She asked to listen.
The following text is verbatim...
June 22, 2017 Four o'clock in the morning. I lit a memory candle and placed it on the window. At this early hour, back in 1941 Nazi Germany, violating the treaty, interrupting the peaceful sleep of citizens, treacherously attacked my country. Tanks were moving along the ground, bombs were falling from the sky. The Great Patriotic War began. That night before the war, my father, a native of the Stavropol village of Severnoye, who served in the Far East, also slept peacefully in the barracks. In a dream, perhaps, he saw his native village, mother, sister. He did not see his father in a dream, because. does not remember him, because he, among other villagers, was hacked to death in the field by whites in 1918 - there was a civil war. Was he red? - What was it red? He returned wounded from the First World War, he had a family, children. At the front, he dreamed of peace, of a house, of land, but when he returned wounded, he fell into a millstone. civil war and died at the age of 26, leaving a four-year-old daughter and a one-year-old son, my father.
The family, in the absence of a breadwinner, experienced a very difficult years, and in 1941 my father had to return from service. But the Great Patriotic War began, and he Far East was transferred to the front, was a signalman. During the fighting near Stalingrad, he was seriously wounded, spent 11 months in the hospital, survived and again went to the front from the hospital, ending the war in Königsberg (Kaliningrad), but only in the fall of 1945 he returned to his native village Severnoye, where he had not been for 7 years. He did not like to remember the war, these memories were too heavy, and the wound made itself felt. The father died in 1980, when his grandson, whom he loved very much, was 5 years old. The war caught up with him, and he did not see how his grandson grew up, how he grew up. When was the 70th anniversary of the victory in Battle of Stalingrad, my son, his grandson, was in Volgograd, walked on the land that his grandfather defended, where his grandfather was seriously wounded and miraculously, through his mother's prayers, he survived. Then the son experienced an inexpressible feeling, as if he himself participated in those battles with his grandfather!
And my grandfather on my mother's side was also called to the front at the age of 45, was a nurse, saved the wounded, went through the entire war without being wounded and lived for 95 years! He is with big love and warmly recalled his front commander Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov, at feasts he sang a song: “I’ll sing a song for you about my service….” and wept at the memories.
Yesterday I watched the third episode of the film "Putin". One of the dialogues between journalist Oliver Stone and our President was about relations between Russia and the United States. They showed NATO military bases located along the border of our country. What were these bases for? Allegedly, to protect countries, members of NATO, from the worldview of the USSR. But at the present time there is no danger of transferring the revolution, godlessness, communism, coming from the Bolsheviks. The film spoke about the possibility of a preventive missile strike against Russia, that the first strike would be on military targets, the retaliatory missiles would be destroyed, and the second strike would be on cities. It was crazy to hear.
I remember the Gospel text, when the Jews seized stones and wanted to beat Jesus Christ, who did many miracles and healings, and He said: “I showed you many good works from My Father, for which of them do you want to beat Me?” (John 10:32). And so I want to ask: “Why do you want to kill us?”. Maybe because at the incredible price of the lives of 27 million people who died during the war years, we defended our country and liberated humanity from fascism? Or for the fact that instead of men who went to the front, women and teenagers worked at the machines, for overcoming the blockade of Leningrad, which lasted 900 days and claimed the lives of more than a million people? Or because the country's economy was restored with incredible efforts, selfless work of the entire people in an incredibly short period of time, and we went further forward? Launched first artificial satellite earth, our Soviet man was the first to fly into space, our man was also the first to go into space. Or because the USSR collapsed in 1991, and the existing economic ties between the republics were destroyed and, therefore, the economy of all the republics was destroyed? Or for the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia and the disintegration of this country into several countries? Or for Desert Storm and the deaths of several hundred thousand people in Iraq? Or for the "color" revolutions in the Middle East, in Ukraine, which led to chaos, war, devastation? Or for deploying a missile defense system on the territory of Bulgaria, which we twice liberated from enemies?
I stand at the window in front of a lit candle and remember my grandfather, father and thank them and everyone who defended our country and humanity from fascism. It's getting light. A plane flew high in the sky, a trace from it is visible and a sound is heard - the city noise has not yet drowned it out. Peaceful plane. In the open window you can hear the singing of birds, you can even hear the nightingales that appeared in our yard this year. It was getting light the same way, the birds sang the same way in that distant 1941... And I, who was born in the post-war 1947, just recently turned 70 years old, and I celebrated my anniversary with my family and friends. I was able to note. I dream that my son and grandchildren will celebrate the same anniversary.
This lit candle at the window is not only my memory of the war, of my loved ones, of all the people who defended our country from the enemy at the front and in the rear, not only my gratitude to them, it is also my dream, faith and hope for a peaceful sky above my country ... Give, Lord.
Every year on June 22, on the day when the Great Patriotic War began, mourning events are held in Russia and state flags are flown at half mast, the website reports with reference to TASS.
Every year on June 22, the Russian Federation celebrates the Day of Memory and Sorrow - a memorable date for the start of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.
The Great Patriotic War
In 1941, on this day, German troops crossed the border of the USSR and attacked the Soviet armed forces along its entire length, German aircraft bombed Kyiv, Minsk, Riga, Sevastopol and other cities.
The war lasted 1418 days. The total irretrievable losses of the USSR amounted to about 27 million people, of which 18 million accounted for the civilian population, and about 8.7 million for the Armed Forces. 4 million Soviet citizens were killed and tortured in concentration camps, more than 2 million out of 4.5 million Soviet military personnel died in captivity.
History of the memorable date
On July 13, 1992, by a resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation, June 22 was declared the Day of Remembrance of the Defenders of the Fatherland. On June 8, 1996, by decree of the President of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin, it was renamed the Day of Memory and Sorrow. October 24, 2007 included in the list of days of military glory and memorable dates in Russia, established federal law March 13, 1995
How the day is celebrated
On June 22, state flags are flown at half-mast in Russia. All cultural institutions, television channels and radio stations are recommended not to include entertainment programs and advertising in the program.
The country's leaders lay mourning wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow. Meetings with veterans and other events dedicated to the memory of those who died during the Great Patriotic War are held in the regions. Minutes of silence are held in many cities.
"Memory Watch" and other promotions
Since 1994 Moscow has been hosting the annual “Memory Watch”. The event, which is held on the night of June 21-22, is attended by activists of youth movements, war veterans, and representatives of the Moscow government. As part of the action, at 4 am on June 22, a minute of silence and the laying of flowers take place in the Alexander Garden at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
In 2007, representatives of the organization "Youth Yabloko" initiated the action "1418 candles for each day of the war." In Moscow, it is held on Poklonnaya Hill near the memorial plate "1941", in St. Petersburg - on the Fontanka embankment near the memorial "Blockade Polynya", in Volgograd - near Mamaev Kurgan.
Since 2009, an annual all-Russian action"Candle of Remembrance" It begins on June 21 at the Yelokhov Cathedral in Moscow with the lighting of a candle, which is then delivered to Poklonnaya Gora, to the Hall of Memory and Sorrow of the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War. From this candle, many others are lit, which are transferred to military burial sites and memorial complexes throughout the country. In 2015, in connection with the 70th anniversary of the Victory, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Belarus and other CIS countries joined the traditional Russian action "Candle of Memory".
In 2009, the Alley of Memory was opened on Sparrow Hills in Moscow, where candles are lit every year on the night of June 22 and bells are tied on tree branches, paying tribute to those who died during the war.
The action "Train of Memory" along the route "Moscow-Minsk-Brest" is also dated for this day. The train with veterans and representatives of youth organizations leaves on June 20 from the Belorussky railway station of the capital and arrives in Brest on June 22, where solemn memorial events are held.
On June 17, 2017, the demilitarized armored column "Road of Courage" set off from Moscow to Brest. As part of the action, more than 15 vehicles will pass through Moscow, Odintsovo, Golitsyn, Mozhaisk, Vyazma, Smolensk, Orsha, Minsk, Brest, Bereza, after which they will return to the Russian capital. The column will overcome 2.3 thousand km - the route, according to the organizers, completely coincides with "the one on which our troops defended in 1941."
It was also reported that by June 22, the Moscow authorities will install an installation of LED strips “Live Fire” in Victory Park on Poklonnaya Gora.
Memorable dates in different countries
In Belarus, June 22, by the decision of the Supreme Council of the Republic of June 21, 1991, was proclaimed the Day of National Memory of the Victims of the Great Patriotic War. In Ukraine, the Day of Sorrow and Commemoration of the Victims of the War on June 22 was established by a decree of President Leonid Kuchma dated November 17, 2000.
In Belarus and Ukraine, solemn commemorative events are held on this day - in particular, flower-laying ceremonies at memorials, in which the first persons of the state take part, a minute of silence is announced. On the territory of Belarus, state flags are flown at half mast.
During the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, the Azerbaijani people, along with others, Soviet citizens fought to win over Nazi Germany and thus made a huge contribution to the Victory.
Every fifth inhabitant of Azerbaijan fought in this war with a weapon in his hands. About 700,000 Azerbaijanis went to the front, more than 10,000 of them were women. About half of those who went to the front died on the battlefields and were wounded. Over 400 thousand Azerbaijanis were awarded military awards and medals, 14 soldiers - full cavaliers Order of Glory, 123 - heroes Soviet Union. 87 battalions, 1123 self-defense detachments were created on the territory of Azerbaijan, the 77th, 223rd, 396th, 402nd and 416th national rifle divisions, with battles passed from the foothills of the Caucasus to the Baltic states, of Eastern Europe, Berlin.
During the war, Azerbaijan was the main supplier of oil and oil products to the front. Over 70% of the total volume of oil produced in the USSR at that time was provided by Baku. Baku oilmen in 1941, taking into account the increased demand for oil, reached a record level of oil production - more than 23 million tons. Thousands of oil workers went to fight at the front, their place in the fields was taken by women. Considering that the Germans blocked the traditional routes of transportation through the North Caucasus, it was decided to export oil through Central Asia. During the war, more than 130 types of weapons and ammunition were produced in Baku. More than 400,000 fighters treated in Azerbaijani hospitals Soviet army, including from the North Caucasus.
