The Central Military Band Will Take Part in the Memory Watch in Voronezh

Tuesday, June 19, the permanent participant and landmark of the International Military Music Festival “Spasskaya Tower” the Central Military Band of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation is going to perform in Voronezh which has become an honored participant of this year’s Military Patriotic Campaign “Memory Watch 2018”.

The first licks played by the famous orchestra will thunder at 7 p.m. at one of the most popular, unique and modern venues of the city, the so called Green Theatre, which is called the “heart of Voronezh” by the residents of the city.

“Performing at concert venues during the Military Patriotic Campaign „Memory Watch“ is not only very honorable but also requires doubled responsibility. It’s not a secret that music has always been an inseparable part of humans’ life and that it is with us not only in moments of happiness but also in moments of grief and sorrow. During today’s performance we once again will honor the memory of our compatriots and fellow people as well as our dear and close ones who have given their lives for the sake of establishing peace on Earth”, noted the head of the Central Military Band of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation Colonel Sergey Durygin.

He told that the concert program would include such music pieces as “Holy War” by Alexandrov, “Heraldic March”, “V Zemlyanke” (“In a Dugout”) by Surkov, “Za Togo Parnya” (“For that Fellow”), “Thunderclouds in Blue”, “Valenki” and a number of other famous compositions.

Among the honored guests of the event will be veterans of the Great Patriotic War and Russian Armed Forces as well as students of professional educational institutions, children of affiliated foster houses, leading cultural and artistic figures of the region, residents of Voronezh and representatives of searching groups of the Voronezh region.

According to the organizers, more than 1500 people will attend the event.

During the concert residents and guests of Voronezh will hear a trumpet solo performed by the Honored Artist of Russia, member of the International Trumpet Guild and winner of “Priznanie” (“Recognition”) Award Semen Milshtein. Other famed solo singers and musicians of the region will perform onstage along the Central Military Band.

The International Military Patriotic Campaign “Memory Watch 2018” is going to finish June 22.

The central event of the campaign is the ceremony of reburial of remains of the Soviet soldiers and officers fallen during the Great Patriotic War in the Battle of Voronezh. The remains will be reburied on the territory of the Military Memorial Complex in the village Chistay Polyana of Ramon district, Voronezh region. The mourning ceremony is going to be held June 21 on the eve of the Day of Memory and Sorrow and is going to be adjourned by the wreath-laying ceremony and a moment of silence.

It’s worth noticing that the campaign is going to be held throughout the territory of Russia and beyond its borders. The official ceremony of laying wreaths on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is going to be held at the Alexander Garden in Moscow at night on June 22. Wreaths are going to be laid at four o’clock in the morning when the voice of Uriy Levitan will announce that the war has begun. The campaign is going to finish at 5.30 a.m.

For information:

Memory Watch is a campaign held throughout the territory of Russia which aims to honor memory of those fallen in the Great Patriotic War.

For the first time ever the “Memory Watch” Campaign was held in 1988. The Ministry of Defense of the USSR and Central Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League took a joint decision to substitute “ All-Union footings to the places of battle, revolution and labor glory” for “Memory Watches” dedicated to searching and reburying of the fallen defenders of the Fatherland.

In May 1989 near the village Myasnoi Bor of the Novgorod region the first All-Union Memory Watch was held on site of death of the 2nd Shock Army. Then it was decided to keep the All-Union Book of Memory where names of the fallen soldiers were put down.

At the end of 1989 it was decided to found the Coordination Center of the Ministry of Defense of the Soviet Union to eternize the memory of the defenders of the Fatherland. Its function was providing coordination between military structures, government and party organizations and foreign social associations regarding searching, finding out and keeping record of military burials.

In 1990 the Watch was held in the Smolensk region after which similar events started to be held in various regions on the government level.

In 1993 the Government of the Russian Federation adopted the law on “Eternizing the Memory of Those Fallen in the Course of Defending the Fatherland”. Searching operations acquired official status and support of the government authorities. The following years saw amending the existing legislation in order to provide adequate financing of searching operations.