“Immortal Regiment”: an action that united millions. “Immortal Regiment”: an action that united millions A meaning that cannot be imposed

The weather was not very good - it was drizzling, and even the air unit in the parade was canceled.
It’s good that we managed to admire it on the seventh in the bright sun and clear sky.
She headed, as usual, to Pushkinskaya.
I thought that the exit would already be closed, I’d get to Belorusskaya, walk to Pushkinskaya and go home.
And they still let us out, even though it was already two o’clock.
Here are the first march participants we met on Strastnoye

Passed through the frame

People are walking along Tverskaya from Mayakovskaya - Belorusskaya - Dynamo.
While it’s free, we line up and walk down to Red Square.

For those who have arrived a long time ago and are already hungry - a field kitchen.
They also give out water.

The column is gradually becoming denser.
Footage of satellites in the procession
Young people

At house seven on Tverskaya we stopped to wait for the march along Red Square.
From time to time the column thundered Hurray! - starting from the bottom from Okhotny and going up, beyond Tverskaya-Yamskaya. It sounded amazingly powerful. It made me happy.
The loudspeakers broadcast songs from the war years, both very old and newer ones.
They sang along together, including young people.
The rain began to rain harder, even with the snow there was a short-term charge, literally a few minutes,
and then the sky began to clear.
At approximately 14:50, our part of the column began to move, and they walked without stopping.

The historical museum column flowed around two streams, I walked on the right

There are a lot of police

And even more Victory volunteers

It's all together here

Spectators

The police are urging you on - Come on, come on, don’t linger!

Varvarka is blocked, we go to Kitay-Gorod by a roundabout route under the bridge and along the embankment.
It's impossible to get lost.

It should be mentioned that under the bridge and further to the metro in large quantities Toilets were installed, and there were queues of a maximum of two or three people.
These are not May Day demonstrations in Leningrad, where the only one was waiting
those suffering at the Campus Martius.
:)

The nearest entrances - at Varvarka, which are overcrowded, I went to the one at Ilyinka.
On the way, two monuments clicked

It was interesting to take part in the march of the Immortal Regiment.

Residents of Russia and the CIS are preparing to celebrate Victory Day in the Great Patriotic War, which will take place on May 9. On this day in many cities Russia will take place a patriotic event called “Immortal Regiment”, in which many would like to take part.

The “Immortal Regiment” in its current form was born recently. This does not mean that the Russian people previously neglected honoring veterans. It’s just that in 2012, the idea came up to perpetuate the memory of the war heroes in a special way, giving them their own victory parade.

The idea belonged to Tomsk journalists. S. Lapenkov, S. Kolotovikin and I. Dmitriev knew firsthand about people’s desire to carry portraits of their relatives as part of the honorary procession. All that was required was to organize actions that had been spontaneously held in Russian cities before, as well as to give them official status. Now the project has its own charter, headquarters and rules of conduct. Anyone can:

take part in the procession;
make a banner using typographic design;
contribute to the design of the event;
become a volunteer for an organization;
provide information support to the project.

Meeting place of the Immortal Regiment 2017 in Moscow

After the parade in honor of the 72nd anniversary of the victory marches along the cobblestones of Red Square, shaking the ground, military equipment thunders down, air power soars into the sky and festive performances take place in different parts of the city, the memory march will begin. At 15.00 the columns of immortal heroes will stretch along Tverskaya.

Driving route

From the Dynamo metro station along Leningradsky Prospekt, Tverskaya Street, Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street, through Okhotny Ryad, Manezhnaya and Red Square. Next, the procession column is distributed along the Moskvoretskaya embankment and the Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge. Source -, the best events in Moscow.

How to take part in the Immortal Regiment 2017 in Moscow

To join the procession of the Immortal Regiment, you just need to come with a portrait of your relative - a participant in the Great Patriotic War, who contributed to the victory over fascism, both at the front and in the rear.

It should be immediately clarified that there are no special rules when designing a banner, since participation in the action is exclusively a voluntary decision of a person. The sizes are not regulated, there are no manufacturing standards. However, the size of the plaque and photo must be taken into account based on the size of the original photo of the veteran so that it does not lose quality when scaled.

Also, the “Immortal Regiment 2017” involves volunteers, whose tasks include taking photographs, regulating the movement of the column along a given route, distributing St. George ribbons, flags and other attributes.

Photo: Press service of the Mayor and Government of Moscow. Evgeniy Samarin

Participants in the memorial procession carried portraits of their relatives and friends - veterans of the Great Patriotic War - through the center of the capital.

The patriotic action “Immortal Regiment” in Moscow set a record this year. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, more than 750 thousand people took part in it. They carried photographic portraits of their relatives and friends who worked in the rear and fought at the front.

The participants started from the Dynamo metro station. The column of many thousands proceeded along Leningradsky Prospekt, Tverskaya and Tverskaya-Yamskaya streets, through Okhotny Ryad, Manezhnaya and Red Square.

The participants were joined by Russian President Vladimir Putin and. The head of state came out with a portrait of his father, a front-line soldier, and the Mayor of Moscow carried a photographic poster with images their relatives who died in the Great Patriotic War.

Sergei Sobyanin noted that the “Immortal Regiment” action is part of the national memory that each of us carries within us. “There is no family in Russia in which loved ones, relatives did not die in the war, did not participate in these battles. For me personally, it is very important that I can join this feeling - a feeling of solidarity, a feeling of common memory, a feeling of patriotism, and pay my debt, tribute to those people who died for us, for the future of Russia,” he noted.

“In our family, my father’s four brothers went to the front. Two of them did not return. One of them died in Ukraine, defending Kharkov. The second died in the battle of Moscow, near Rzhev in February 1942. So for me, this is also a holiday, a close, dear holiday that the whole family remembers,” added the Moscow Mayor.

Sergei Sobyanin also thanked everyone who took part in the procession, despite the inclement weather. “Hundreds of thousands came. The entire Tverskaya is filled with people. We try to create a holiday for them, organizing concert venues. Even this year, they set up kitchens, tea, soldiers’ porridge, so as to at least a little create a festive mood for people in this inclement weather,” he said.

According to the Moscow Mayor, festive events continue at all main venues: parks, squares in the city center and in the districts. “In total there are about 140 events, including the largest ones will be on Poklonka, where will it take place concert. Well, in the evening, as always, there are big fireworks. I invite all Muscovites to take part in festive events", noted the Mayor of Moscow.

The “Immortal Regiment” campaign has been taking place since 2007. For the first time in Tomsk, on Victory Day, local residents took to the streets of the city with photographic portraits of their front-line relatives. More than six thousand Tomsk residents then took part in the solemn procession. In 2015, about 12 million people took part in the “Immortal Regiment” campaign throughout Russia. Last year, twice as many participants came out with photographic portraits of their veteran relatives - about 24 million people, and the event itself took place in 50 countries. In Moscow . Muscovites and guests of the capital then carried more than a million portraits of the defenders of the Motherland.

You can also perpetuate the memory of your relative - a participant in the Great Patriotic War, talk about his life, and show photographs on the website "Immortal Regiment. Moscow" . IN e-Book There are already more than 178 thousand records of participants in the Great Patriotic War and home front workers.

On May 9, the “Immortal Regiment” procession will take place on Red Square - a civil initiative to perpetuate the feat of soldiers of the Great Patriotic War, preserve the memory of the valor and heroism of the people, as well as to patriotic education of current and future generations.

Participation in the action implies that every citizen, honoring the memory of his relative-veteran, goes to the Victory Parade with his photograph, taking a place in the column of the “Immortal Regiment”.

Driving route

The history of the event began in 2007 in Tyumen and was called the “Parade of Winners”. It began to be called the “Immortal Regiment” since the 2012 march in Tomsk, and already in 2013 it spread to 120 cities. In 2014, residents of 500 cities in seven countries took to the streets with portraits of front-line soldiers. Since 2015, the action has officially become nationwide.

Exactly at 22 o'clock the first volleys of fireworks will sound. The brightest moment will come, literally, on May 9th. Looking into the evening sky, everyone will think about their own. But there is something that unites this day. With simple and warm thoughts, today almost eight million people across Russia took part in the “Immortal Regiment” procession. Two million more than last year. The action became truly nationwide. 850 thousand people came out in Moscow alone. This became important to all of us.

Especially from a bird's eye view you can see how this river of life and memory stretches through the center of Moscow. A real sea of people. And the day that united, connected all generations with the thread of Victory - both those killed in battle and the living; and those who had this happiness - to kiss their hands and hug them tightly, thanking for a peaceful life, and those who know their heroes only from stories and letters, from not always clear photographs, which they keep at home as the most valuable memory. They brought them out today for everyone to see - here he is, my hero!

Between the Dynamo metro station and the Belorussky Station Square, an hour before the start of the procession, there is a complete feeling of celebration. With us now are all those who decided to walk this entire path - almost six kilometers to Vasilyevsky Descent and always past the iconic place. After all, here, on the platform of the Belorussky Station, they said goodbye in 1941, seeing off to the front, and rejoiced, meeting those who survived and gave victory.

The faces are all one, simple and open. Eyes that know the price of life and such dear happiness - to live without war, without fear and tears. Their gift to us today cannot be appreciated in any way. All we can do is just walk with them in the same formation, clutching frames with cloudy photographs to the white knuckles and guessing as we go similar features in their great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.

Some have no cards left with their heroes at all. And it was a difficult time - there was no time for photographs. And some simply did not survive the terrible years. But what is important is that the memory is alive. And many carry whole scatterings of photographs. Families went to war.

“This is my father, this is his uncle, they survived the war. And the older brother - he went missing. These are three brothers, all of them survived. And one lost his memory and lost his family,” say the march participants.

Looking at the portraits, you clearly understand: from the first day they all believed in Victory, in the fact that they would soon return home, but they would never forget their fighting friends. They believed, and therefore did not extinguish their living feelings for their closest and dearest, who knew how to wait like no one else.

An amazing story happened today almost... live. Two sisters, who had never seen each other in 60 years, met during the “Immortal Regiment” - they recognized each other from identical photographs and told Channel One journalist Pavel Krasnov about their father.

“My granddaughter suddenly saw a portrait of our grandfather, my father. We approach, I say: you must be Lena! Daughter from his first wife. And this turned out to be our father. And so we met today,” says a participant in the action.

In the column of the “Immortal Regiment” today is Vladimir Putin with a portrait of his father, Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin. He went to the front in June 1941 and, defending the Nevsky patch, a key bridgehead during the breakthrough Leningrad blockade, was seriously wounded by a grenade fragment. And today there is not a single soldier’s fate, much less a feat, that would not stir the soul.

How often after the war they tried to find each other. That pain ached, but front-line friendship was stronger than tank armor and gave no rest. “Where are you now, fellow soldiers?” - they whispered all their lives like a prayer. And it seems to be heard everywhere today: “We are all here!”

People are cheerful and friendly, sincere and cheerful. But to fully describe the sensations from here, from inside the procession in simple words impossible. It's quite cool today, but the air itself seems to be heated with emotion. Here, on Pushkin Square, there are no longer hundreds of us, or even thousands, but tens of thousands - people with portraits are flocking from all the surrounding alleys. As they say, our regiment is arriving, and ahead is the heart of the capital.

For the first time in 75 years, in the hands of a great-great-grandson, a wooden accordion today began to sing “Katyusha” to the delight of the people.

“Our great-grandfather, he loved her, he never parted with her. Unfortunately, he died. And finally we convey these sounds, this joy to the rest of the people,” says a participant in the action.

Much of what keeps the warmth of the hands of the winners has been taken with them by their descendants today.

“This is my grandfather's helmet. He was a tanker until he became a pilot. During the war it was very noisy, there were explosions, and that’s why it was specially made so that at least a little you couldn’t hear them, it was quiet,” says a participant in the procession.

Military marches on bagpipes are not at all exotic for good spirits. Another reminder that this was our common victory over fascism with the allied countries, from where dozens of descendants of World War II soldiers also came. Thomas Connolly - Scots Guardsman. He smashed the Nazis in France, Belgium and Germany. His son Gordon Connolly says he couldn't help but come out.

“This war united everyone and showed what a feat Russia accomplished for the whole world. My father told me that we owe it to you for the fact that we now live in the world - it was you who lost millions of people, more than all other countries,” he says.

“My father fought shoulder to shoulder with Soviet soldiers. He said they were great guys. He liberated Europe, and it’s very important to me that today he is at this grand celebration,” says John Paterson, the son of a World War II veteran.

For the first time, the grandson of Yuri Nikulin, his full namesake, along with his great-grandsons Stanislav and Sophia, are walking with a portrait of his famous grandfather in the “Immortal Regiment”. Senior Sergeant Nikulin was awarded the medals “For Courage” and “For the Defense of Leningrad.” It is not easy to recognize another legend of our cinema in this photo - at the front, Anatoly Papanov commanded an anti-aircraft artillery platoon, and in 1942 he was seriously wounded.

“For him, of course, Victory Day was the most important holiday of the year. He put on his orders and medals because he had them. When their platoon occupied some village, and the whole village was burned out, and the next morning they hear a rooster crowing! Dad says: we covered him with an overcoat, gave him some water, fed him something, and they had this rooster as a symbol of peaceful life,” says Elena Papanova, daughter of Anatoly Papanova.

“Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, my grandfather’s sister, and even today people come up and ask. This is the same Zoya who was in the partisan detachment, who was the first woman hero Soviet Union. This is my duty, and it is very important for me that her feat is not forgotten. And so that people remember those who fought for them during the Great Patriotic War“, says Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya’s descendant German Kosmodemyansky.

The most poignant stories in this ocean of people are, perhaps, the fates of the “children of the regiment,” boys who had to endure something that even many adults can barely endure.

“At the age of 13, he was left an orphan, his parents died, and he was picked up by troops passing by,” says a participant in the procession.

And how many more such front-line stories are told in a voice trembling with excitement, how many soldiers' destinies and views - a countless number. But each of us is here today only to bow and say to those who, under fire and in the rear, did not spare themselves: thank you, dear ones, for the Victory! Thank you for not sticking to the price!

“We are grateful to them for the Victory, for this peace that we now have. They had a dream to walk along Red Square during the parade. Thanks to this campaign, we can make their dream come true. I brought my dad here; he died in February 1942. And so I brought him so that he could feel that he had contributed to this victory. It is important for us to see our grandfather through, because he himself could not pass here. I would like that he, even in our arms, would pass here, today on this day. This is our family holiday, our family tradition. We want to pass this on to our great-grandchildren, my daughter. We remember how they celebrated this holiday when they were alive. We weren’t told much; this is a celebration with tears in our eyes. But it was clear from their faces what they had gone through,” say participants in the “Immortal Regiment” action.

Here, on Red Square, it seems that the people in the portraits even look at us especially warmly. These eyes, which have seen a lot of grief and horror, seem to ask us over time: don’t let this happen again! And they silently thank those to whom they gave life. For the fact that they remember, appreciate and understand how important it is for them, who have gone down in history forever, to be together here and now. Walk in this quiet formation. Rather, even float above our heads in the same place as the peaceful sky.

For more than three hours this endless stream of smiles and glances did not subside. This series of thoughtful and cheerful faces. The songs of those years, bitter and joyful stories did not stop. And the May evening was filled with a clear feeling that everyone did not carry a portrait of a hero, but led him, his dear one, through the whole of Moscow, tightly holding his hand.