Valentina Matvienko: It is Important to Pass on to Our Descendants Historical Truth About War, Courage and Brotherhood of All Peoples of Soviet Union
22 June 2021
Address to the parliaments and peoples of the CIS Member Nations in connection with the 80th anniversary of the start of the Great Patriotic War.
2021 marks the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War - one of the most tragic events in the history of Russia and other CIS Member Nations.
22 June is a special date for all of us. On this day, we remember those who fell in battles, were tortured in concentration camps and fascist dungeons and died in the rear from hunger and hardships.
We cherish the memory of the feat of our ancestors, who defended the freedom and independence of subsequent generations at the cost of their lives. The challenges that have brought the peoples of our countries together during this difficult period of our common history help us now to better understand each other and build interstate relations within the framework of the Commonwealth on the basis of good-neighborliness and constructive cooperation.
In recent years, we have faced attempts to rewrite history and revise the outcomes of the war. The idea of comparing the USSR and Hitler’s Germany is especially cynical. Therefore, today it is very important to pass on to our descendants the historical truth about this war, its tragic beginning and victorious end, the truth that the courage and brotherhood of all the peoples of the Soviet Union won.
On behalf of the IPA CIS Council, I call on parliamentarians and all people of the Commonwealth to resolutely resist the attempts to rehabilitate Nazi ideology, the manifestations of aggressive nationalism and support the initiative to recognize the Victory over Nazism in World War II as a World Heritage of Humanity, and monuments to the fighters against Nazism in all countries as a world memorial of humanity.
VALENTINA MATVIENKO
Chairperson of the IPA CIS Council,
Speaker of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation
