Victory Day: We remember them

at the Errol airfield monument

By New Worker correspondent

The Russian ex-pat community has long marked Victory Day for solemn ceremonies in London and other parts of the UK. Though this year’s commemorations were sadly muted due to the ongoing coronavirus restrictions the sacrifice of the millions who gave their lives in the struggle against the Nazis in the Second World War was not forgotten at events in London and northern Scotland.
    In Scotland a ceremony was held on the site of a secret air-base where Soviet pilots and crews were trained to fly British military transports destined for the eastern front.
    Russian diplomats and Scottish officials laid wreaths at the Soviet monument erected in 2020 on the site of the old Errol airfield located near the cities of Perth and Dundee. A huge red stone was shipped from Russia as a gift to mark the co-operation between the Soviet airmen and the RAF during the Second World War.
    The block of rare crimson quartzite was mined in Karelia in the north west of Russia. It is the same type of stone with which the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by the wall of the Moscow Kremlin is lined.
    Back in London the Russian ambassador along with diplomats from other former Soviet republics took part in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Soviet War Memorial in south London on 9th May.
    The commemorative event in the gardens of the Imperial War Museum was attended by Southwark mayor Sasek Hargrove and Russian Ambassador Andrey Kelin along with diplomats from the embassies of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The ceremony was organised by the Soviet Military Memorial Foundation with the support of the Russian House in London (Rossotrudnichestvo).
    Later that day members of London’s Russian community took part in a modest lockdown compliant “Immortal Regiment” and St George’s Ribbon commemoration held in Trafalgar Sqaure.