Opinions & Interviews

Matviyenko: Impossible to hide emotions at Brest Fortress memorial

BREST, 6 March (BelTA) – It is impossible to cope with emotions on the sacred land of the Brest Fortress, Chairwoman of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of Russia Valentina Matviyenko said as she visited the legendary citadel, BelTA has learned.

The Russian parliamentary delegation led by Valentina Matviyenko arrived at the Brest Hero Fortress Memorial Complex in the afternoon of 6 March. The Russian MPs were accompanied by their Belarusian counterparts led by Chair of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly Natalya Kochanova. The MPs laid a wreath at the Eternal Flame of the memorial complex.

After the ceremony Valentina Matviyenko and Natalya Kochanova toured new expositions of the complex – the Brest Fortress Chronicle and the Museum of War – Territory of Peace. The museum employees held an excursion for them. After that Valentina Matviyenko left a message in the Museum Visitor Guestbook.

“It is impossible to control emotions standing on the sacred land of the Brest Fortress, the land soaked with blood, the land that took the brunt of the war and resisted till the end. We bow to the courage and resilience of those who won this victory on the battlefields during those time of terrible ordeals, trials and irreplaceable losses. We will remember the feats of the war-time generation who saved the world from fascism and will pass this memory on to our descendants,” Valentina Matviyenko said.

She expressed sincere gratitude to employees of the memorial complex who “carefully keep the sacred memory of the immortal feat of the fortress defendants embodied in numerous museum exhibits”.

In one of the exposition halls, the speakers met with veterans of the Great Patriotic War, including children of the defendants of the Brest Fortress – Nadezhda Naganova and Vladimir Semochkin.

The Russian parliamentary delegation led by Valentina Matviyenko is on an official visit to Belarus on 5-6 March. Earlier Valentina Matviyenko met with the Belarusian president and senior members of the Belarusian parliament, and took part in the session of the organizing committee of the Forum of Regions of Belarus and Russia. In Minsk the Russian delegation passed a capsule with the soil from the battlefield near Rzhev to the All Saints Memorial-Church as part of the international commemorative campaign “To the glory of the common victory!”.

print version

make home page

add to bookmarks