Press Release, 9.05.2022

Photo: Preobrazhenskoye Cemetery, Moscow / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

On 9 May, the leaders and members of the Yabloko party honoured the memory of those who died in the Second World War at the Preobrazhenskoye Cemetery in Moscow. The delegation laid flowers and a wreath at the Military Memorial. This is a traditional annual Yabloko anti-war action in memory of the victims of the Second World War.

Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov, Chairman of the Federal Political Committee of the Party Dr. Grigory Yavlinsky, Deputy Chairman of the party Sergei Ivanenko, Moscow City Duma deputy Sergei Mitrokhin, member of the Federal Political Committee Acad. Alexei Arbatov, member of the Federal Bureau of the party Kirill Goncharov and others participated in the action.

Photo: Nikolai Rybakov, Grigory Yavlinsky and Sergei Mitrokhin laying flowers at the War Memorial /Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

“We come to mass graves, memorial cemeteries and understand that new graves, new slabs, new names of people of the same age as we and our contemporaries are emerging. They emerge in similar cemeteries in Russia and Ukraine. Our great responsibility to those people who gave their lives in the Second World War, is that there are no new families where sons, fathers and brothers will not return home. In the meantime, unfortunately, there are more and more such families in our country and in Ukraine. Our task is to stop this,” Nikolai Rybakov said.

It was at the Preobrazhenskoye Cemetery that the largest Military Memorial was erected at the beginning of the 21st century, and the first Eternal Flame in Moscow over the mass grave of soldiers who fell in the war was lit. More than 10,000 soldiers and officers are buried at the military there, most of them died due to mortal wounds received in the war.

Photo: Grigory Yavlinsky / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

“We will never forget those who gave their lives for our freedom. We will always remember their heroism. We will always know that wars of conquest end only in failure. The Memorial Day is the Day of Great Sorrow,” Grigory Yavlinsky said.

On 9 May, members of the Yabloko party also went to the Vvedenskoye cemetery to honour the memory of the dead French pilots. During the Second World War, French piolots were buried at this cemetery – pilots from the Normandie-Niemen, who heroically defended the skies of our country and died in battles on the Soviet-German front. In the 1950s, their remains were transported to France, and the memorial was preserved as a token of memory to the heroes of the war.

Photo: Nikolai Rybakov and Grigory Yavlinsky at the memorial to French pilots at the Vvedenskoye cemetery / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

Earlier, on 6 May, Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov laid flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the Alexander Garden in Moscow.

Photo: Nikolai Rybakov in the Alexander Garden at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

Photo: Delegation of the Yabloko party at the Piskarevsky Memorail Cemetery in St. Petersburg / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

In St.Petersburg on 8 May, Rybakov together with the deputies of the Legislative Assembly of St Petersburg Alexander Shishlov, Boris Vishnevsky and other members of Yabloko, honoured the memory of those who died in the Second World War.