Astrakhan hosted a teleconference "From Brest to the Volga – from the Volga to Berlin. A Long Way to Victory" within the international project "Astrakhan – Minsk – Vitebsk: Historical and Cultural Dialogue". The event brought together participants to discuss the shared heroic past associated with the Great Patriotic War.
Larisa Veremchuk, Deputy Director of the Brest Regional Library named after M. Gorky, spoke about the tragic history of the cultural institution, established a year and a half before the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War.
Irina Zhelengovskaya, Head of the Local History Sector of the Brest Regional Library named after M. Gorky, reported on the many years of painstaking work on the series "Book of Remembrance of the Brest Region", noting that this publication also contains information about natives of the Astrakhan Region who died during the Great Patriotic War in the Brest Region. Natalia Pugacheva, Head of the Department for Public Relations and Popularization of documents of the Archival Fund of the Astrakhan Region State Archive, continued this topic in her speech. She told about the fate of Astrakhan residents who took their last battle within the walls of the Brest fortress: Fedor Kaidalov, Vasily Blinov, Leonti Aristov, Ivan Melnikov, Anatoly Kuzmin, Vyacheslav Meyer and many others.
Anastasia Vasilyeva, a first-year college student at the Astrakhan branch of the Saratov State Law Academy, made a report on the combat path of the third formation of the 28th Army.
The participants of the online meeting shared their experiences in perpetuating the memory of Great Patriotic War heroes and organizing patriotic events.
On the eve of the 80th anniversary of Victory, the Brest Regional Library named after M. Gorky opened the book exhibition "Victory Uniting Generations". Ilya Sherstyuk, a historian and employee of the general reading room, said that the exhibition included documentary materials, scientific and popular science literature, periodicals, and photographic documents that shed light on events related to the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War and occupation of Belarus by Nazi invaders. The documents on the history of the Brest Region during that tragic period occupied a significant place in the exhibition.
Victoria Mikhailova, Head of the Marketing and Socio-Cultural Activities Department of the Brest Library, shared her experience of implementing the "Memory Does Not Die" project with Astrakhan colleagues and spoke about the library's resource "Digital Memory of Brestchina". She noted that library staff had conducted 10 lessons on memory of heroes not only within the cultural institution but also in schools and other institutions in Brest and its region. Over 3,000 people attended these events.
The participants of the teleconference listened with interest to the story by Elena Rumako, Head of the Centre for Legal Information at the Astrakhan Regional Scientific Library named after
N.K. Krupskaya. She told them about the life and career of Sergey Smirnov, the author of the novel "Brest Fortress", who came to Astrakhan in 1957 and met with fellow ` who had participated in its heroic defense, which lasted until August 1941.
Marina Li, Head of the Radio Broadcasting Service at the Astrakhan State Television And Radio Broadcasting Company "Lotos", reported that they had found a recording of a program celebrating the 30th anniversary of Victory in the archives of Astrakhan Radio. During the teleconference, the participants heard the voices of the Astrakhan heroes who defended the Brest Fortress.
Librarians from Astrakhan and Belarus noted that new participants join every year the international project "Astrakhan – Minsk – Vitebsk: Historical and Cultural Dialogue". Among them are writers, archive workers, historians, and journalists. The meeting participants agreed to continue working together to preserve historical memory.
Photos: Astrakhan Regional Scientific Library named after N.K. Krupskaya