Twice a year: in spring on Victory Day and in autumn on the anniversary of the Petsamo-Kirkenes operation, a Russian-Norwegian patriotic march takes place along the monuments and graves of fallen soldiers located in the Murmansk region and Northern Norway. This year, due to the COVID-19 restrictions, the Russian-Norwegian "march of memory" will not take place, but similar ceremonies are being held in both countries.
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The starting point of the memory march on October 22 was the village of Mezhdurechye, located in the Murmansk region, where groups of Norwegian partisans and Soviet intelligence officers were trained during the war.
Gennady Gurylev: “We have already gathered here many times, and there are always schoolchildren, young people, veterans, representatives of the Northern Fleet and the Murmansk Regional Duma among us. Today I would like to emphasize one very important detail: this year marks the 80th anniversary of the establishment of the intelligence service training group here. The group started working on July 9. Some of the Norwegian scouts were later awarded. Unfortunately, some of the others were killed during the War. There were some books containing memoirs of these people. They appreciated the opportunity to work and fight here. And the most important thing is that they were able to fight the fascists, defend Norway and liberate it”.
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Then the participants of the event headed to the memorials in the Valley of Glory.
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Sergey Goncharov: “I would like to note that we are at a landmark memorial. This is the largest burial of military personnel in the Arctic. No one else, except our people, tried to fight in such extreme conditions, and what's more important, our soldiers succeeded in that”.
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The final stop of the march was the Titovsky Frontier Memorial Complex.
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As a part of the event, the participants laid wreaths and flowers at the memorials honoring the memory of the soldiers who died fighting fascism during the Second World War.
The event was attended by the head of the non-profit fund "Shield" Gennady Gurylev, member of the Supervisory Board of the non-profit fund "Shield" Anatoly Popov, Deputy Chairman of the Regional Duma Vladimir Mishchenko, member of the MRB RGS Council, adviser to the Governor of the Murmansk region Sergey Goncharov, project manager of the MRB RGS Anastasia Yagodina, FSB RF officer for the Murmansk region Andrey Bozhenko, deputy of the Regional Duma Yuri Shadrin, headmaster and students of the Mezhdurechenskaya school, the authorities of Mezhdurechye.
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