22.06.2023

Day of Remembrance and Grief - the Great Patriotic War beginning (video)

June 22 -- is the Remembrance and Grief Day. On this day, 82 years ago, the lives of almost 200 million people were split up in "before and after" -- the Great Patriotic War began. Despite the fact that the date was remembered throughout the Soviet period*, it acquired a commemorative status in the post-Soviet period. Until perestroika, the authorities tried not to recall officially this Day, not to grieve the painful memories of their compatriots. However, to the 2023 Day of Remembrance and Grief, the date has approached with its own little history, which began already in the post-Soviet Russia. It is noteworthy that the Day of Remembrance and Grief had been called Defenders of the Motherland Day since 1992 by decree of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation. A few years later, on June 8, 1996, a decree of the President officially declared June 22 "Day of Remembrance and Grief" in the Russian Federation. On this day, memorial ceremonies and various patriotic events are held all over the country, national banners are flied at half-mast and wreaths are laid on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and to the Eternal Flame monument in Moscow and other Russian cities.

The traditional memorial event "Candlelight Memorial" has been held since 2009 on June 22 – the Remembrance and Grief day. On this day, early in the morning, representatives of various NGOs come to places associated with the events of the Great Patriotic War with lighted candles. Year by year, the geography of the campaign expands.

On the Krymskaya Embankment in Moscow, “The Memory Line" is being held with the lighting of 1418 candles (according to the number of days the war lasted).

In the year of the 75th anniversary of the Great Victory, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation launched the All-Russian military-patriotic campaign "A Handful of Memory" on Remembrance and Grief Day, which aims to donate soil from mass graves to the historic and memorial complex of the Main Cathedral of the Armed Forces in Moscow. The campaign will continue in 2023.

Video dedicated to the artifacts from the period of the Great Patriotic War that are presented in the museum Collection exposition - is in the column “Museum Stories”.
Musical selection "Melodies of the War Years" is posted in the museum Sound Library.
Follow the link to see the online exhibition of sculptures from the second half of the 1940s-1960s, dedicated to the events of the Great Patriotic War.

*The song, written in the first week of the war “Twenty-second of June, four o'clock sharp”, 1941. Lyrics by the poet Boris Kovynev, music by Jerzy Petersburski.