04.03.2024
A Volgograd Square and a memorial dedicated to the Stalingrad Victory will appear in the center of the British Coventry
Such was the announcement made at the end of the meeting between the Mayor of Volgograd Andrey Kosolapov and the Lord Mayor of Coventry Anthony Skipper. The representatives of Coventry especially noted the high standard to which celebrations of the 75th anniversary of Stalingrad Victory had been held in Volgograd, and the importance of the festivities, which united 28 foreign delegations from 15 countries, for the growing rapport between different nations.
As it was noted at the meeting, the idea of creating a monument to the Stalingrad Victory in the center of Coventry belongs to the British party. According to the Lord Mayor of Coventry, it was the result of the longstanding partnership between the British and the Russian cities that are the founders of the international twin-city movement.
“The twinning relations between Stalingrad and Coventry were founded in 1944, when the Second World War was still going, and they have survived the trial of fire and time alike,” noted Mr. Anthony Skipper.
Let us be reminded that the friendship between the people of the two cities managed to withstand even the long years of the Cold War. For example, in November of 1954, Stalingrad and Coventry addressed the United Nations Organization with a joint appeal. In its text, both cities that had been nearly completely destroyed and suffered tremendous casualties during the Second World War, called for the abandonment of nuclear and hydrogen weapons.
At present, in the year of the 75th anniversary of Stalingrad Victory, the memorial to one of the most colossal battles in the world history will appear in the center of Coventry. It is anticipated to be opened in the fall of 2018, with a memorial stone with a descriptive note and the emblem of the Russian hero-city as the central piece. Coventry residents suggested to name the territory “Volgograd Square.”
Within the frame of the meeting, both parties discussed the future memorial and commended its tremendous educational value at the present day.
“This is a new step towards common-sense, preservation of historical memory at the level of public diplomacy. People around the world need to understand what war and fascism are. And they need to know who liberated Europe from fascism,” commented Andrey Kosolapov on the British initiative.
On the same day, the Mayor of Volgograd held a meeting with the head of the delegation from Tiraspol – a twin-city of Volgograd in the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic. Andrey Kosolapov and Irina Olkhovik noted that although Volgograd and Tiraspol had been twinned since 2006, their relations had not been developing as actively as everyone would have desired. The new meeting in Volgograd within a framework of the celebration of the 75th anniversary of Stalingrad Victory gave the friendship between their twin-cities a new boost. The parties discussed and signed the joint agenda between Volgograd and Tiraspol for the development of bilateral cooperation in the next few years. The Tiraspol delegation also donated to Volgograd the painting “Memory” by their local artist Mikhail Balan, that will enlarge the collection within the “United Russia” (ruling party in Russia) project “War on the Canvas - as the Memory of Generations.”
‹‹ Back