The international project “Memory without Borders” has completed preparations for the ceremony, which will be held in the village of Nikolaevka, Krasninsky district. The event is dedicated to the 81st anniversary of the hoisting of the Victory Banner over the Reichstag. It was from here, from Krasninsky land, that the combat path of the First Polish Infantry Division named after Tadeusz Kosciuszko began in the autumn of 1943.
Preparatory work
The day before, the project’s volunteers held a clean-up day at the site of the future memorial. The territory near the monument to the Hero of the Soviet Union, Polish nurse Aniela Kzywon, as well as the site for the installation of a memorial sign, has been put in order. Cleaning, painting, and cutting of the undergrowth have been completed.
Memory Alley
After the ceremonial opening of the memorial sign, the organizers will begin planting the birch “Alley of Memory of Polish Soldiers.” Each tree will become a living symbol of the memory of Polish and Soviet soldiers who gave their lives during the Second World War. The place was not chosen by chance: a few dozen kilometers from Nikolaevka, in the Belarusian agro-town of Lenino, there are mass graves where more than 1,700 Soviet and more than 500 Polish soldiers are buried.
Invitations
The organizers of the Memory Without Borders project have sent letters of invitation to Polish diasporas in Russia, CIS countries and far abroad, to the Congress of Poles of Russia, as well as to official representatives of the republic and the diplomatic corps, including the Ambassador of the Republic of Poland to the Russian Federation Krzysztof Krajewski. Invitations were also received by public and historical organizations, descendants of soldiers of the Kosciuszko division.
The purpose of the project
The main task is to harmonize relations between nations based on the common memory of the heroic past and the joint struggle against Nazism.
Mass media about us
— “What Smolensk is talking about”
— Smolenskaya Narodnaya Gazeta
The Memory Without Borders project invites everyone who cares about the common history to join the ceremony on April 30 in the village of Nikolaevka.