For the Fallen

by New Worker correspondent

Andy Brooks and Peter Hendy

The sacrifice of some 27 million Soviet citizens during the Second World War, along with the millions of others who perished in the world wars of the last century, was honoured at the annual remembrance ceremony in the London borough of Southwark last weekend. There, comrades and friends joined diplomats and local dignitaries in honouring the fallen at Sunday’s Remembrance Day ceremony at the Soviet War Memorial in the park that surrounds the Imperial War Museum.

The ceremony was conducted by Philip Matthews, the veteran chair of the Soviet War Memorial Trust, and opened by Sandra Rhule, the Mayor of Southwark. Wreaths were laid by the ruling Southwark Labour group on the council and their Liberal Democrat opposition, as well as diplomats from the Russian and Belarus embassies. NCP leader Andy Brooks, along with Peter Hendy and Robert Laurie from the Central Committee, took part in the ceremony along with police and services associations, representatives from the Russian community in London, other community groups and the Red Army re-enactors.

The Act of Remembrance ended, as usual, with the Last Post, followed by the traditional exhortation, the two minutes silence and the reveille.