Address of Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov on the occasion of 69th anniversary of Victory in Great Patriotic War

Dear Tatarstan citizens! Dear veterans and homefront workers! From the bottom of my heart I congratulate you on the 69th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War!

On a memorable spring day of May 9, 1945, the liberator-soldier finished the most horrible and bloody war in the world history in defeated Reichstag.

We paid a very high price for the Victory. This price has no material value. It is impossible to measure the sorrow of wives and mothers, who lost their husbands and sons, the horrors of genocide, occupation, hunger and blockade, loss of great cultural values. Tens of millions of the dead, thousands of destroyed towns and villages, razed to the ground factories and plants are the disastrous final of the severe war.

Today, we once again pay tribute of the deep respect and sincere gratitude to all the brave soldiers, homefront workers, who were forging the victory working at factories, collective farms, and design bureaus and in frontline hospitals days and nights.

In the Year of Culture, I would like to express special words of gratitude to the artists, writers and journalists, who raised the fighting spirit of our soldiers, sacrificing their talents and lives to the altar of Victory.

Almost half of more than seven hundred thousand Tatarstan people did not come back home. The names of Musa Dzhalil, Mikhail Devyataev, Maguba Syrtlanova, Peter Gavrilov, Gani Safiullin, Nikolai Stolyarov, Gazi Zagitov, Mikhail Simonov and many others are written with gold letters in the imperishable chronicle of the Great Victory. The heroic deeds of all of them live in our hearts, raising a sense of patriotism and belonging to the heroic history of the invincible power.

Unfortunately, there are forces that cast doubt on the outcome of the Great Patriotic War. Being a real threat to the revival of Nazi-Bandera ideology, Ukrainian events are a matter of serious concern to all of us. This ideology must not exist in the modern world. I am convinced that it is necessary to put a big state and public barrier to any attempts of the dissemination of anti-human views, whatever masks their supporters and followers wear.

This is our sacred duty to the fallen soldiers and veterans, who are still alive, and despite their age continue to hold an active social position, showing an invaluable example of patriotism to young people.

May the memory of heroes live forever and many thanks to the veterans for all they did for us! I am sure that your descendants will be worthy successors of the glorious traditions.

I am glad that we will celebrate this Victory Day together with our Crimean compatriots, who proved the stability of our common spiritual values.

Let our land never be on the severe fire of the war again and the Banner of Victory always wave over Russia! Dear Tatarstan citizens, I wish you peace, happiness, health and prosperity!

Congratulations on the Victory Day!

Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov