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White flowers and a loaf of brown bread...
On October 16, 2025, a ceremony was held at the Shirokorechensk War Memorial to launch the Victory Lights public charity project. Our students, members of the Honor and Memory student search team, participated in the ceremony.
A part of the flame of memory and Victory was put in an icon lamp and brought to the veterans of the Great Patriotic War: front-line soldiers, prisoners of fascist concentration camps, residents of besieged Leningrad, those living in the Chkalovsky district of Yekaterinburg.
Participants in the ceremony at the Shirokorechensk Memorial Complex laid flowers at the Eternal Flame. Then they lit an icon lamp and delivered a fragment of the flame to the homes of ten veterans of the Great Patriotic War. Tears of joy and emotion filled the veterans' eyes, and their words of gratitude were heartfelt. For our students, this was an opportunity to connect with history, personally interact with war heroes, and feel a link of times.
“The Victory Lights event preserves the memory of this great feat and instills in young people a sense of patriotism, respect for the older generation, and a willingness to defend their homeland,” said Nikita Kosarev, director of the USUE museum and longtime leader of the Honor and Memory search team. “It is a tribute of respect to those who brought us peaceful skies above our heads, and a reminder that we must never forget the lessons of history. The light of the Eternal Flame, passed on to veterans, will burn forever in our hearts, reminding us of the heroism of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War.”
The event's symbols were white flowers and a loaf of brown bread, reminiscent of the victors' return in May 1945 and the hardships of the war years. The white flowers, a symbol of purity and peace, spoke of the long-awaited end of the war and hope for a brighter future. And the loaf of brown bread, soaked with the bitter taste of deprivation and hunger, recalled the price paid for victory, the hard labor on the home front, and the resilience of the Soviet people. Together, these symbols—white flowers and brown bread—conveyed the full range of emotions that overwhelmed people on that long-awaited May day: joy, sorrow, hope, and gratitude. They became a visible embodiment of the memory of those who did not live to see our victory, of those who forged it on the home front, and those who returned home victorious! These symbols carry profound historical meaning and remind us of the importance of safeguarding peace and unity, of the need to revere the memory of our ancestors and pass it on to future generations.
Activists from the Honor and Memory search team helped greet the memorial flame at the homes of two veterans. During the meeting with the veterans, the team members recorded veterans’ memories of the war, their heroism, the difficulties they faced, and the joy of Victory.
These invaluable pieces of evidence will become part of the historical archive so that future generations can learn the truth about the war firsthand, experience the pain and suffering of those years, and understand the greatness of the Soviet people's heroism.
