The Uniastrum-sponsored cross-border rally will pass through hero-cities and cities of military glory in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus between April 24 and May 9 as part of an international Remembrance Vigil entitled “No one is forgotten, nothing is forgotten.”
The special commemorative rally is to follow five different routes, converging at the finish line in Moscow. According to Irina Skabina, head of Uniastrum’s Murmansk branch, the rally got underway at Polyarny, one of Russia’s so-called “cities of military glory”, in the Murmansk region on April 24. During the last war the city served as the Northern Fleet’s main base for not just Soviet but also allied combat ships whose joint task was to protect vessels transporting military cargoes and food supplies to aid the Russian war effort.
The rally participants made their first stop-off on April 25 at Murmansk, where they lay flowers at the war memorial to the “Defenders of Soviet Polar Regions 1941-1945”. The occasion was also marked by the lighting of the symbolic Flame of Remembrance, with rally participants receiving a capsule containing earth from the hero-city of Murmansk.
After Murmansk, the northern teams will pass through Karelia, the Arkhangelsk and Leningrad regions, taking in Belomorsk, Petrozavodsk, Saint-Petersburg, Veliky Novgorod, Velikie Luki, Smolensk, Bryansk, and Kaluga, before finishing up in Moscow on Poklonnaya Hill at the Museum of the Great Patriotic War. Altogether, the rally includes over 50 crews from 20 cities in three brother nations that fought together to defeat Nazism.
In late 2009 Uniastrum set up a Community Board tasked with improving the overall quality of the Bank’s social programs. At its first meeting, the Board agreed that in 2010 Uniastrum Bank’s charitable work would focus on helping Soviet veterans of the Great Patriotic War, no matter in what part of the world they live today. To this end, a special international program has been put together featuring a wide array of initiatives and events to be held as part of the celebrations marking 65 years since VE day.
For more information call or write Olga Kurganova:
744 04 04, ext. 1066
kurganova@uniastrum.com