Yugra media expedition in vintage cars finished in Volgograd

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The patriotic media expedition "Victory in Our Hearts" finished today in the hero city of Volgograd. The National Centre RUSSIA in Yugra was a partner of the motor rally. The participants started in Yekaterinburg and covered the route in vintage GAZ M-20 cars through Chelyabinsk, Magnitogorsk, Orenburg, Samara, Saratov and Kamyshin.

"It is a great honour for us to be partners of the media expedition. We believe that the memory of Victory should live not in textbooks, but in hearts. The participants of the expedition proved this with their route. They visited very different parts of the country where fierce battles took place and did the most important thing — they reminded people that the heroism of our ancestors lives as long as we remember it," said Anton Pilipas, Head of the National Centre RUSSIA in Yugra.

Each city became a new page in the chronicle of the project, a reminder of the heroism and courage of the people. The participants of the media expedition laid flowers at Eternal Flames, paying tribute to the heroes of the Great Patriotic War. Residents and combat veterans gave the expedition a warm welcome.

Near the village of Samofalovka in the Volgograd Region, at Hill 154.2, fierce battles had been under way since late August 1942. More than 4,500 servicemen found their final resting place in the village’s mass grave. Nurse Yelena Arteyeva and signalman Matvey Putilov from the Berezovsky District of Yugra are buried there. The media expedition team honoured their memory and scattered a handful of soil from their native land.

"We want Victory to remain in everyone’s heart. Because as long as we remember, the heroism of our ancestors lives on. And even decades after the war, symbolic gestures such as scattering soil from one’s native land show that the true connection between the past and the present will never be erased by time," said project leader Igor Ilyk.

Before entering Volgograd, the team stopped at the Rossoshki memorial. This is a burial site where Soviet and German soldiers rest in adjacent areas separated only by a road. Near the Mourning Woman monument, the team took part in a solemn rally and laid flowers.

The media expedition finished in Volgograd at the parade marking the 81st anniversary of Victory, after which the vintage cars will take their place at an exposition of retro vehicles. According to the participants themselves, after the route is completed, the project’s mission will not end, but will continue to live on in people’s hearts.

The media expedition team included combat veterans, volunteers, journalists, representatives of the Defenders of the Fatherland Foundation, and activists from youth and military-patriotic organisations. This year, the legendary Pobeda cars set out for the first time with the symbols of the National Centre RUSSIA in Yugra and a white dove on board — a sign of peace and memory. The expedition has been held since 2012 on the initiative of young people from Yugra to preserve the memory of the heroism of frontline soldiers and home-front workers.

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