On August 6th, an annual ceremony to commemorate the atomic bombing of Hiroshima was hosted by the City of Volgograd at the State Historical and Memorial Museum-Reserve “The Battle of Stalingrad.” The event was attended by approximately seventy people, including students of Volgograd schools, officers of Volgograd city administration, and members of the City Council, Elderly People’s Club, International Friendship Club, and “Volgograd-Hiroshima” Friendship Society, in addition to passers-by.
The ceremony, led by the First Deputy-Mayor Mr. Vladlen Kolesnikov, started with the tolling of the Peace Bell, presented to Volgograd by Hiroshima citizens in 1985 and currently exhibited in the memorial museum-reserve. The ringing of the bell was followed by a minute of silence, then by participants laying flowers and paper cranes at the foot of the bell as symbols of peace and hope. After that, the ceremony participants moved to the lecture hall of the museum, where the First Deputy-Mayor Kolesnikov and Honorary Citizen of Volgograd and Hiroshima, Mr. Yury Starovatykh, delivered their addresses.
“Volgograd and Hiroshima share a tragic fate. That is why together with our Hiroshima partners and people from other cities we will continue to do our best to cement peace, prevent wars and spare no effort to ensure that future generations will never experience the tragedies of Stalingrad and Hiroshima,” said Mr. Kolesnikov.
“The tragedy of August 6, 1945, demonstrated to us how very fragile peace can be. Therefore we have gathered here to pay tribute to the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and, together with all Japanese citizens, to remind the world what deadly weapons humanity has invented,” said Mr. Starovatykh. Next, the floor was given to Ms. Ekaterina Ionova from the “Volgograd-Hiroshima” Friendship Society, who gave a power-point presentation about the bombing and its consequences. Finally, First Deputy-Mayor Kolesnikov invited the audience to sign petitions for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
At approximately the same time, another memorial ceremony, initiated by the administration of the Central District of Volgograd, was held at the crossroads of Hiroshima Street and Rokossovskogo Street. The event united members of the Veterans Club, university students and peace activists. They laid flowers at the foot of the memorial sign which announces that the street was so named in honor of their Japanese twin-city.
>Report of the event (the Volgograd City Council website, in Russian)
>Report of the event (the “The Battle of Stalingrad” museum website, in Russian)
(Photo Courtesy of the City of Volgograd)