“We are grateful to the Soviet soldiers for the freedom they brought to Europe!” said a text message sent to the Voice of Russia by our listener Giancarlo Venturi in Rome, Italy. Giancarlo joined the hundreds of co-authors of the Voice of Russia’s Living Memory Book worldwide project devoted to the 63rd anniversary of the great victory over Nazi Germany during World War II.
This unique project pays tribute to the millions who died in that terrible war in a sign of our undying memory of all those who perished in the bloodiest war ever fought… The SMS messages we are getting from all over the world express their authors’ grief for the dead and their pride in the soldiers who scarified their lives to liberate mankind from the Nazi scourge. However, in his message to us, Neboija Radoslavlevic from Serbia worried about what he said is a thinly-veiled Nazi ideology making a global comeback, becoming even more inhuman and working from behind the scenes. “We should always keep in mind the fact that it was Soviet soldiers who killed the Nazi hydra when they entered Berlin”, Neboija wrote, adding that this is something some people now try to forget. His concern is fully shared by the author of a text message that we just received from Germany that said that the EU cannot become a single whole because some of its new members do not see Nazism as a crime, a clear reference to some former Soviet Baltic republics that recently joined the European Union.
Valentina Zlobina, the head of the Internet and multimedia service of the Voice of Russia said that even though some historians say that the events of the past war are closer to people of the older generation, the Living Memory Book project proves that young people in Russia and the rest of the world also take this matter very close to heart. In their messages they bow in respect to the war veterans and tell about their own relatives who fought in the war. We have already received hundreds of such messages and none of them has gone unanswered, Ms Zlobina said. The text messages in Russian and English keep coming in around the clock and are posted on the project’s website, which is http://www.ruvr.ru/09/index_eng.html.
The Living Memory Book action will run until 10 May and many messages are already being read out on our wavelength in 37 languages. Each one is getting a recording with the voice of the legendary Soviet announcer Yuri Levitan announcing the Great Victory that they can install on their cell phones. As part of the Hurray to Victory competition being held as part of the Living Memory Book project, we invite our listeners to send us video and photo materials about 9 May celebrations in your city or town. The results of the competition will be announced on 21 May and shall be posted on that very same website, http://www.ruvr.ru/09/index_eng.html and will also be announced on our programmes. The winners will receive the Voice of Russia’s Great Patriotic War multimedia album.
6 May 2008
Lada Korotun
http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=26664&cid=59&p=06.05.2008 (in English)
Voice of Russia World Service
