Press Release, 1.08.2024

Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

110 years ago, on 1 August, 1914, Germany declared war on Russia and our country entered World War I. More than 10 million servicemen from all sides fell victim to it, over 22 million were wounded. Russia’s losses in the war amounted to over three million people, including two million who died at the front and over one million civilians.

In Moscow, Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov, members of the Yabloko Federal Political Committee Ivan Bolshakov and Alexander Gnezdilov, and member of the party’s Federal Bureau Andrei Morev honoured the memory of the victims of the war and laid flowers at the monument “Fallen in the First World War 1914-1918” in the Memorial and Park Complex of the Heroes of the First World War.

Nikolai Rybakov, Chairman of the Yabloko Party:

The course of historical development clearly shows that nothing can be considered a “success” as a result of war, that wars should not be started, and if they were started by someone’s evil will, then we must look for all ways to end them quickly and with the least losses, without breaking the connection with previous history and not allowing the dehumanisation of society.

Ivan Bolshakov, member of the Federal Political Committee of Yabloko:

In our country, we like to celebrate victories, but it is more important to honour tragedies. Such dates and places are a reminder to politicians of the terrible price of hostility, the price of dreams of domination and conquest. The history of Russia in the 20th century is imprinted in this place: the world war, the revolution, the cadets fighting back the Bolsheviks, political terror, the oblivion of memory and its recreation.

Alexander Gnezdilov, member of the Federal Political Committee of Yabloko:

In 2014, I said at the same flower-laying ceremony for the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the World War I, that “the memory of the First World War is necessary for society so that new wars do not start today and tomorrow”. Ten years have passed now. What should I say in this same place now, in 2024? That the memory of the tragedy of the First World War is necessary today at least so that to end wars, establish peace and learn to coexist with each other within internationally recognised borders.

Andrei Morev, member of the Federal Bureau of Yabloko:

The First World War resulted in over 3 million deaths, the collapse of the Russian Empire, the Civil War, the largest emigration in the history of the country, and bloody terror. We honour the memory of the dead and believe that the lessons of history must be learned and understood that a peaceful path of development gives better results for society than a military one.

It should be noted that on 15 February, 1915, the Bratskoye City Cemetery was opened on the site of the current Memorial and Park Complex of the Heroes of the First World War, where five fallen soldiers were buried. Since then, by 1919, 18,000 people were buried on the territory of the necropolis.

With the end of World War I and the advent of Soviet power, the Bratskoye Cemetery began to be used as a place of mass executions. For example, the Ministers of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire Nikolai Maklakov and Alexei Khvostov and the Chairman of the State Council Ivan Shcheglovitov were killed there.

In the early 1930s, the memory of the soldiers of World War I was virtually destroyed. The cemetery was liquidated, and the tombstones were demolished, although most of the graves remained untouched. A park and even the cinema theatre Leningrad, built in 1959 and closed in 2011, appeared on the site of the former cemetery. Some of the graves turned out to be under residential buildings.

Only towards the end of Soviet power did they start talking about recreating the memorial again. In 2004, a memorial complex was opened on the part of the former Bratskoye Cemetery that had survived the construction, which included, in particular, an obelisk in memory of the victims of World War I.