St. Petersburg paid tribute to victims of Leningrad Siege

Mourning ceremony at the Piskarevsky memorial cemetery.

A mourning ceremony took place at the Piskarevsky memorial cemetery at the Memorial Day for the Victims of the Siege of Leningrad.

Passing along the mass graves of 420 thousand citizens who died of starvation and bombing and 70 thousand fearless defenders of Leningrad were buried, the citizens laid wreaths and flowers to the monument of the Mourning Nation.

The ceremony brought together the veterans of the Great Patriotic War, the representatives of the public authorities of the Russian Federation, the Administration of St. Petersburg, the clergy and non-governmental organizations, as well as honorary citizens of St. Petersburg and guests of the city. Speaker of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, Chairperson of the IPA CIS Council Valentina Matvienko headed the column.

The delegation of the IPA CIS Council Secretariat also took place in the mourning ceremony, including Secretary General – Head of the IPA CIS Council Secretariat Dmitriy Kobitskiy, Deputy Secretary General of the IPA CIS Council – Plenipotentiary Representative of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova Ion Lipciu, as well as other IPA CIS Secretariat staff members.

The CSTO Parliamentary Assembly was represented by Plenipotentiary Representative of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan Viktor Rogalev.

Dmitriy Kobitskiy noted that the representatives of all former Soviet republics defended Leningrad side by side. “It is crucial for the IPA CIS to preserve the memory of the siege and of the Great Patriotic War across the Commonwealth because we withstood and won the war through unity. It is of particular importance to pass on the memory about the siege to the youth and children. We should do it together, side by side, keeping and carefully preserving our common history”, said Dmitriy Kobitskiy.