The meeting took place as part of the 10th Forum of Russian and Belarusian Regions.
Speaker of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Valentina Matvienko and Speaker of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus Natalya Kochanova met with the participants of the Memory Train cultural and education project. The meeting took place in Ufa as part of the 10th Forum of Russian and Belarusian Regions.
It was also attended by Federation Council Deputy Speakers Konstantin Kosachev and Yury Vorobyov, Deputy Speaker of the Council of the Republic Valery Belsky, Head of Bashkortostan Radiy Khabirov and State Secretary of the Union State of Russia and Belarus Dmitry Mezentsev.
“You are very lucky indeed. You have joined the Memory Train project,” Valentina Matvienko told school children. She said all of them could be considered winners. “The competition was enormous which means you are winners, you are the best,” she explained.
The Federation Council Speaker emphasised that the Memory Train event was being held for the second time and had been granted the status of a Union State project this year. “Young people from Russia, Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan are taking part in the project. We have agreed to continue expanding it,” she said.
Valentina Matvienko told schoolchildren about the history of the project. She discussed its creation with Natalya Kochanova. “After the events of World War II, when Nazism showed its savage face, everyone thought this would never happen again. But it turned out that it did,” she said. This is why she thinks it is so important to appeal to the younger generation now and inoculate young people against attempts to rewrite history.
Valentina Matvienko thanked all those who had helped implement this project. In particular, she highlighted the contribution by Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council Konstantin Kosachev.
“This project will remain in your memory forever. You will be telling your friends and classmates about it. It is important to have a generation that will not let anyone rewrite history,” the Federation Council Speaker said.
“Now our opponents are trying to deprive us of the memory of the heroic feats of our fathers, grandfathers and great grandfathers,” Valentina Matvienko said. She cited as an example attempts to destroy monuments devoted to Soviet liberator-soldiers in some countries. “They are trying to destroy memory by demolishing monuments but this is being done by short-sighted politicians. People in Europe remember who freed the world from Nazism,” she said.
“This is sacred to us,” she emphasised, recalling the success of such truly grassroots undertakings as the Immortal Regiment.
In turn, Natalya Kochanova said: “The project has been carried out. It is a success.” She recalled how she shared memories with Valentina Matvienko about the previous meeting with the participants in the Memory Train project. They both agreed that these children had been acquainted for a long time.
Natalya Kochanova noted that this event was taking place as part of the 10th Forum of Russian and Belarusian Regions in Ufa. “Of course, this is symbolic and we understand we can do everything when we are together, when we are united,” she said.
Radiy Khabirov welcomed the schoolchildren in Ufa. He expressed the hope that they would get many good impressions and would want to come back to Bashkortostan.
A participant in the Memory Train, representing Bashkortostan, welcomed the participants in the Bashkir language. The young man shared his impressions with the audience after seeing a large-scale reenactment of the tragic events in the Brest Fortress and visiting the Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery in St Petersburg.
While visiting cities, the schoolchildren meet veterans and government officials and attend cultural events. This time, they saw the traditional annual Scarlet Sails holiday.
Valentina Matvienko represents St Petersburg in the Federation Council. She asked schoolchildren whether they liked this holiday and the city as a whole. They replied with a unanimous “yes.”
During the meeting, they asked her questions on most diverse issues. All of them wanted to know how to counter attempts to rewrite history and protect the younger generations from fakes.
The Federation Council Speaker emphasised the importance of objective teaching of history, recalling the times “when others wrote textbooks for us.” She cited an example from her life when she was appointed to the position of the Deputy Prime Minister supervising education issues. Prominent international financial and political figure George Soros came to see her and offered a grant for another history manual. “History must be written by our scholars, our historians and our teachers. We don’t need your services,” she replied.
Valentina Matvienko urged the younger generation to study national history more attentively. “When you know it, you are ‘armed’ and can counter fakes,” she said. She called the current drive against Russian culture and Russophobia in the West medieval.
Schoolchildren shared their ideas on how to attract more attention to the history of the regions. They suggested holding meetings of the Memory Train graduates and they also raised international issues on inter-parliamentary cooperation in the CIS. Participants in the event gave detailed answers to all questions. Some of them generated new initiatives. Thus, Dmitry Mezentsev suggested publishing a Memory Train Diary that will be written by schoolchildren themselves.
Valentina Matvienko, Natalya Kochanova and participants in the Memory Train laid flowers at the monument to General Minigali Shaimuratov and at a memorial to the soldiers that were killed in action fighting for the Motherland.
The Memory Train cultural and education event was initiated by the heads of the upper chambers of the Russian and Belarusian parliaments. It is devoted to the Great Patriotic War and is being held for the second time. This year, the project united over 200 participants aged between 15 and 17 years from Russia, Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. Its participants visit places in Russia and Belarus, which are inseparably linked with the history of the Great Patriotic War.