On August 17, in the city of Almaty (Kazakhstan), the Branch of the Military History Museum hosted the 8th session of the International Public Forum "Preserving the Memory of the Second World and the Great Patriotic Wars". It was organized by the Eurasian Peoples' Assembly and the Eurasian Academy of Television and Radio and supported by the Ministry of Defense of Kazakhstan and the International Association of the descendants of Panfilovites and their friends.
The forum was held under the motto "Immortal Memory: Protect the Memory and Truth about the Victory".
Moderators of the Forum: Valery Ruzin, Deputy Secretary General of the Eurasian Peoples' Assembly, President of the Eurasian Academy of Television and Radio, and Amanzhol Urazbayev, President of the Arlan Youth Patriotic Center Public Foundation, Reserve Colonel.
The Secretary General of the Eurasian Peoples' Assembly Andrei Belyaninov welcomed the Forum participants. A greeting from the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Kazakhstan was read out.
The forum was attended by over 40 representatives of international public organizations, search groups, historians, journalists, cultural workers and descendants of Panfilovites from 15 cities and regions of Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Latvia and Israel.
The first section of the forum was devoted to the question of how to preserve the memory of the Great Victory. In their speeches, the participants touched upon the complex issues of betrayal and collaboration. Reports on this topic were made by: historian, Head of the "Digital History Foundation" Yegor Yakovlev, Dean of the Higher School of Television of Moscow State University Vitaly Tretyakov and Major General, Chairman of the Presidium of the "Council of Generals of the Republic of Kazakhstan" Makhmut Telegusov.
During the meeting, a proposal was made to create an association uniting everyone who is interested in studying the military history and search groups of Kazakhstan and prepare proposals to the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the creation of a legal mechanism for the subsequent assignment of honorary titles to cities and regions of Kazakhstan, which were the rear of the Stalingrad Front during the war years for the contribution to the Victory (for example: district / city / region of military / labor glory).
The second section of the forum became the first conference of the International Association of Panfilovites’ Descendants and Friends (IAPD). Its creation was announced on July 6 at the organizational meeting of the International Public Committee “VICTORIOUS TOGETHER” by its initiator and leader, professor of Al-Farabi KazNU, Doctor of Historical Sciences Laila Akhmetova, who devoted many years to studying the first composition and reinforcements of the Panfilov division.
“When we began to collect the data of the descendants of the Heroes of the Panfilov division,” - Laila Akhmetova addressed the forum participants, - “we had the idea of creating an International Association of the descendants and friends of the Panfilov division. By now, we have already accumulated an extensive list of people from different countries. At the moment, our database contains 12 countries where the descendants of the Panfilov division soldiers live. Moreover, this is not only Kazakhstan, Russia and the CIS countries, such as Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, but also non-CIS countries, including Australia, Israel, the United States. Also in our database there are about 20 young Cubans who want to become members of the association."
15 descendants from 6 countries spoke about the Heroes of the Panfilov Division and the possibilities of perpetuating their Immortal Feat, who shared their stories of military merits and searches for the Heroes of the division. The most important task of the Association will be to create a website for the 8th Panfilov Guards Division and post a complete list of the division.
The forum participants stressed the importance of the Eurasian Peoples' Assembly initiatives to preserve historical memory.
The forum was broadcast on Facebook. Link to the first part: https://fb.watch/89jBu64c4e/; for the second part: https://fb.watch/89jNFSDa9L/
Let us recall that the International Public Forum "Preserving the Memory of the Second World and the Great Patriotic Wars" is a part of the Megaproject of the Eurasian Peoples' Assembly "Immortal Memory".