Ildar Khalikov takes part in Meeting dedicated to Day of Memory and Mourning

On June 22, in Kazan’s Victory Park, Tatarstan Prime Minister Ildar Khalikov took part in a meeting dedicated the 74-th anniversary of the start of the Great Patriotic War (World War II).

Aide to Tatarstan President Leyla Fazleeva, Head of Executive Committee of Kazan Denis Kalinkin, Tatarstan Military Commissar Sergey Pogodin, veterans and home front workers, representatives of youth patriotic organizations and others attended the event.

Opening the meeting, Khalikov noted that June 22 is a sad day in the Russian history. "This day a terrible and bloody war started. Our victory in this war was achieved at the cost of huge losses of tens of millions of lives, destroyed cities and villages, destroyed and removed from the country historical and cultural monuments, deadly hunger siege of Leningrad, horrors of the concentration camps. These wounds will never heal," he said.

He continued that 700 thousand of Tatarstan citizens went to the front and half of them did not return from the battlefields. "The Great Victory is a merit of the whole country. We treat those who worked in the rear with great appreciation. More than 300 of Tatarstan residents were awarded the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union and became full gentlemen of the Order of Glory. More than 200,000 people were awarded military orders and medals. Each award is a personal feat and unique destiny," Khalikov added.

“Dear friends! On this day of mourning and sadness, I wish all of you a peaceful sky over your head, happiness and health to you and your loved ones," Khalikov said.

Hero of the Soviet Union, veteran of the WWII Boris Kuznetsov, former prisoners of concentration camps and representatives of youth military-patriotic organizations also made their speeches at the meeting. Then, participants of the meeting paid tribute to those killed in the war a minute of silence.

Then, Khalikov laid wreaths and flowers at the Eternal Flame.