MOSCOW, 21 April (RIA Novosti) - The tenth anniversary St George’s Ribbon national event, uniting millions of people in many countries, will start on April 24.
This year the event will be run jointly by the Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency and the Student Community with the support of over 100 media outlets all over the world. To mark Russia’s victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 and to symbolise future victories, St George’s Ribbon will go to space, military film festivals, song and graffiti festivals, photo exhibitions, flash mobs and a bicycle quest.
The first annual St George’s Ribbon took place in 2005. Since then, on the eve of Victory Day, people would pin black-and-orange ribbons to their clothes and cars to commemorate Russia’s victory in the Great Patriotic War as a sign of eternal gratitude to the veterans who saved the world from Nazism.
“St George’s Ribbon has received a new lease of life lately,” Rossiya Segodnya Director General Dmitry Kiselev said. “It has become a sign of people who support the values of the Russian world. It helps many of our brethren in their fight for human dignity and honour in the loftiest sense of these words. Finally, this ribbon is a new symbol of our community.”
Director of the regional youth organisation Student Community Olesya Volchenkova said that 10 major events will take place in Moscow to celebrate the tenth anniversary of St George’s Ribbon.
“The traditional film and graffiti festivals will take place in Moscow. A photo exhibition entitled ‘St George’s Ribbon’ will be held in two central pedestrian streets. Monitors for the photo display ‘We remember! We are proud!’ and video terminals for recording greetings to war veterans will be also installed there,” Ms Volchenkova said.
A news conference marking start of the patriotic event will be held at the Rossiya Segodnya International Multimedia Centre. It will be attended by Mr Kiselev, Head of the Federal Space Agency Oleg Ostapenko, Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky and Ms Volchenkova. The news conference will feature a live video link with the International Space Station where St George’s Ribbon was sent on the eve of the event.
LARGE-SCALE PROGRAMME
The first children’s festival of military-patriotic songs “Katyusha” will be held before the news conference. Accordionists from children’s music schools will perform solo numbers for veterans and other guests. They will play popular songs about the Great Patriotic War and wartime melodies as well as their own pieces.
The film festival “Echelons of Memory – Echelons of Victory” will open at the Saturn cinema on May 6 with the feature film “Stalingrad.”
A special screening of wartime films will take place from April 24 to May 6 at Rossiya Segodnya. The photo exhibition “Victory Day in Memorable Photos” will be held there as well.
The photo exhibition “St George’s Ribbon” will be held from April 27 to May 9 on Kuznetsky Most in central Moscow. It will display pictures tracing the history of the event since 2005 and historic photos of the Great Patriotic War. People will be able to record video greetings for war veterans on terminals installed at the exhibition. On May 8 and 9 they will be shown on special screens in the city’s military hospitals.
Archival military photos will also be shown on street screens – Europe’s largest media façade on the Hydroproekt Institute building and media facades on Mozhaiskoye Motorway and the crossing of Leningradskoye Motorway with the Moscow Ring Road. Wartime photos will be also displayed in the streets of Moscow and St Petersburg and on public transport in Chelyabinsk, Perm, Yekaterinburg, Kaluga, Kamyshlov, Zavodoukovsk, Kostomuksha and Ust-Ilimsk.
The graffiti festival “Thanks for the Victory, Grandpa!” will take place in Sokolniki Park. Moscow’s best writers will compete in the writing contest “Great Battles – Great Victories.”
A patriotic bicycle quest will be held on May 4 in the courtyard of the Museum of Armed Forces in Moscow. Participants in the event will have to complete challenges linked with venues and major events of the Great Patriotic War.
