Republic

MINSK, 29 June (BelTA) – The 52nd meeting of veterans of the Great Patriotic War near the Mound of Friendship which is located on the border of Belarus, Russia and Latvia, will take place on 3 July, BelTA learned from the Ideology Department of the Vitebsk Oblast Executive Committee. The delegation of Vitebsk Oblast led by Deputy Chairman of the Vitebsk Oblast Executive Committee Anatoly Diulin will consist of about 100 veterans, leaders of the underground and partisan movements. According to a tradition, the day will begin with a procession of veterans towards the Mound of Friendship. At a commemoration ceremony the veterans will remember their war comrades and observe a minute of silence in tribute to their memory. Then veterans will lay wreaths at the monuments to the fallen Komsomol members in the village of Proshki in Belarus, Hero of the Soviet Union Maria Pynto in Russia. Latvian veterans will lay flowers to the monument of the Hero of the Soviet Union Imant Sudmalis in Latvia. Afterward the veterans will be treated to a concert by artistic companies from Pskov Oblast. The Mound of Friendship was made in 1959 on the border of the three republics – Belarus, Russia and Latvia – in honor of the comradeship of partisans and underground movement members. The soil for the mound was taken from the burial places of partisans and Red Army soldiers who died defending the freedom of the Fatherland. On top of the mound grows an oak as a symbol of the strong friendship between the three nations. Three granites slabs have an inscription in three languages which read that the Mound of Friendship has been built on the border of the three brotherly republics in tribute to the combat friendship cemented with blood of Russian, Belarusian and Latvian partisans during the Great Patriotic War. The monument was opened on 3 July 1959.

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