Photo: Mikhail Sylka, Head of the Volokolamsk Urban District
On November 17-18, 2021, in Volokolamsk and Moscow, the 9th Session of the International Public Forum "Immortal Memory: Recall All by Name!" The Forum was held within the events dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the feat of the 316th rifle division under the command of Major General I.V. Panfilov, who heroically stopped a column of German tanks near Volokolamsk during the defensive battles of 1941.
The organizers of the 9th Session of the International Public Forum are the Eurasian Peoples' Assembly, the Eurasian Academy of Television and Radio, as well as the Administration of the Volokolamsk urban district.
The Head of the Volokolamsk urban district Mikhail Sylka in his welcome speech emphasized that the work carried out by the Eurasian Peoples' Assembly to unite search groups, local historians and historians from different countries of the world is aimed at perpetuating the feat of the Panfilov division and friendship between peoples.
“Representatives of more than 30 nationalities and ethnic groups stood shoulder to shoulder to the death on the outskirts of Moscow,” - noted Mikhail Sylka. - This should constantly remind us of such concepts as friendship, solidarity, mutual assistance and mutual understanding; they survived because they were one people.
Volokolamsk land is the place where the heroic unit began its long combat path. Therefore, it is very correct that in the year of the 80th anniversary of the feat of the Panfilovites at the Volokolamsk border, it was decided to hold such a forum. I thank all the conference participants for their indifference to the memory of the Great Patriotic War, for their perseverance and diligence in searching for information about the heroes. Your work is a guarantee that the historical truth and indisputable facts about the heroism of Soviet soldiers will live forever."
Andrei Belyaninov, Secretary General of the Eurasian Peoples' Assembly, addressed the Forum participants with a greeting. He noted the need not only to perpetuate the exploits of the Great Patriotic War soldiers, but also to expand search work and unite the descendants of the winners on the example of the International Association of Descendants and Friends of the Panfilov Division. In his speech, Andrei Belyaninov expressed special gratitude to the chairman of the association Laila Akhmetova. Her fundamental work, the book "Panfilov's people are our pride, our glory", became the basis for the idea of creating a checkpoint.
Secretary General of the Eurasian Peoples' Assembly Andrei Belyaninov
“The people who died on the Volokolamsk land, who began their combat path here and found themselves later on other fronts of the Great Patriotic War, showed us the right vector to the future,” Andrei Belyaninov addressed the audience. - I am very grateful to the descendants of Panfilovites for their participation in our Forum. We are faced with an important task that determines how we will further develop our movement associated with the memory of the Great Patriotic War. Therefore, the foundation laid by Laila Akhmetova for the restoration of most of the first composition of the Panfilov division is so important."
Nurzhan Kadzhiakbarov, Minister-Counselor of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the Russian Federation, made a welcoming address to the forum participants, noting that Kazakhstanis are especially proud of the fighters of the Panfilov division, which was formed in Almaty from among the residents of Kazakhstan.
Minister-Counselor of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the Russian Federation Nurzhan Kadzhiakbarov
The granddaughter of General Ivan Vasilyevich Panfilov, Aigul Baikadamova, on behalf of the General Panfilov Foundation, presented the Head of the Volokolamsk District Mikhail Sylka with a commemorative sign and expressed gratitude for the long joint work to perpetuate the memory of the heroic Feat of the Panfilov Division.
Granddaughter of General Ivan Panfilov Aigul Baikadamova
The moderators of the first day of the Forum in Volokolamsk were the Deputy Secretary General of the Eurasian Peoples' Assembly, President of the Eurasian Academy of Television and Radio, Ph.D. in Philosophy Valery Ruzin and professor of V.I. Al-Farabi KazNU, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Chairman of the International Association of Descendants of Panfilovites (IAPP) Laila Akhmetova.
Forum moderators Valery Ruzin and Laila Akhmetova
Working group coordinators Natalya Prokhorova (Stavropol Territory, Russia) and Natalya Semyanova (Novosibirsk Region, Russia) spoke about the new information that they discovered while working with archival documents. At the moment, on the sites that publish information about the participants in the Great Patriotic War, there are many mistakes and inconsistencies that volunteers try to correct.
The chairman of the International Association of Descendants of the Panfilov Division Laila Akhmetova presented the report “The Soviet soldier ensured the Victory. Participation in the October-December battles of warriors of 34 nationalities of the 316th rifle division in the Volokolamsk direction”.
Professor of Al-Farabi Kazakhstan National University, Chairman of the International Road Transport Border Agency Laila Akhmetova
“We have forgotten and practically do not say - “soviet soldier”, as it was in 1941 ... We must say that the Soviet soldier ensured the Victory, and that this Victory began with a counteroffensive near Moscow.
On August 17, exactly two months ago, in the Military History Museum of Almaty we held the first meeting of descendants supported by of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Kazakhstan. And today, in Volokolamsk, we will have the second such meeting under the same motto - "Recall All by Name!"
Svetlana Lapteva, coordinator of the search group "9th company" of the city of Bishkek (Kazakhstan), suggested in her message to include the monuments of the Eurasian region, dedicated to the Great Patriotic War, in the list of specially protected objects of historical heritage.
The issue of military-patriotic education of young people was an important part of the Forum. The reports on the practices related to the transfer of the memory of the heroic feat of the Panfilov guardsmen and the events of the Great Patriotic War to new generations were made by:
- Shalkarbay Tazhenov, Director of the Higher College of the Innovative Eurasian University of Pavlodar,
- Andrey Belokur, teacher of the cadet class at school No. 2005 in Moscow,
- Yulia Yurtova, General Director of the Educational Public Initiative "Come with Us"
- Dinara Erdaninova, teacher of the I.V. Panfilov Kazakh-Russian specialized school-lyceum No. 54,
- Askhat Sachanov, director of secondary school No. 14 of the city of Pavlodar,
- Olga Gorbunova, teacher of the I.V. Panfilov school-gymnasium № 6 named.
The culmination of the first section of the Forum was its second part - "A Word to the Descendants", at which the second meeting of the International Association of the Descendants of Panfilovites and Their Friends took place.
At the moment, the association unites over 150 descendants from more than 12 countries of the world. Today, the descendants of the Panfilov division live not only in Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and other neighboring countries, but also in the USA, Germany, Israel, Bulgaria and Cuba.
17 descendants from 7 cities of Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Latvia took part in the conference on the valiant combat path of the soldiers of the Panfilov division.
The meeting of the descendants of the 316th rifle division began with a touching speech by the daughter of the Hero of the Soviet Union Senior Sergeant Gavriil Mitin, one of the 28 Panfilov heroes Lyubov Satimbekova, who came to Volokolamsk from Almaty with her daughter Gulnara Abeuova.
Daughter of the Hero of the Soviet Union, senior sergeant Gavriil Mitin Lyubov Satymbekova
A resident of the Moscow region, Evgeny Fedulov, spoke about his grandfather Alexander Fedulov, the commander of the communications department of the 857th artillery regiment, which was part of the 316th rifle division, who died exactly 80 years ago, on November 16, 1941, during enemy shelling at Matrenino station, near the village of Anino.
Evgeny Fedulov, grandson of Alexander Fedulov, commander of the communications department of the 857th artillery regiment
Nurzhan Tulepov, Head of the Zhangir Khan Historical and Ethnographic Museum specially arrived on this occasion from the city of Uralsk, West Kazakhstan region. He spoke about the front-line poet, Hero-Panfilov Abdulla Dzhumagaliev.
Nurzhan Tulepov, Head of the Zhangir Khan Historical and Ethnographic Museum
Khodzhikova Saule a niece of Sultan Khodzhikov - the Hero of Panfilov, film director, honored art worker of Kazakhstan told about his combat path.
Galina Kolokolnikova from Almaty spoke about her relative Yevgeny Kolokolnikov, deputy commander of the reconnaissance division, later deputy chief of the operational headquarters of the Panfilov division.
From Bishkek, Fyodor Stukoshin, the grandson of the Panfilov veteran, Honored Artist of Kyrgyzstan Fyodor Stukoshin, joined the meeting of the descendants of the Panfilovites.
The stories about their ancestors, the Panfilov heroes, were presented by:
- Yuri Vlasov, descendant of Mikhail Vlasov, 1075th Rifle Regiment of the 316th Rifle Division (Novosibirsk, Russia);
- Anastasia Chernomorskaya, great-granddaughter of Nikolai Sorokin, 316th Infantry Division (Moscow, Russia);
- Lyazzat Amirgozhina, a descendant of the Hero of the Soviet Union Malik Gabdullin (Almaty, Kazakhstan).
A descendant of Alexei Shevelkov, a private 1073rd Rifle Regiment of the 316th Division, who died on December 7, 1941 near the village of Kryukovo, Anatoly Shevelkov acted as a representative of the public commission on patriotic work of the Russian Union of Veterans with a proposal to perpetuate the memory of the Heroes of the Great Patriotic War.
Zoom conference of the 9th Session of the International Public Forum
The second day of the 9th Session of the International Public Forum "Immortal Memory: Recall All by Name!" continued the theme of the defeat of the Nazi troops in the Battle of Moscow.
The moderators of the second section were Amanzhol Urazbayev, Candidate of Legal Sciences, Reserve Colonel, Head of the Military-Patriotic Center “Arlan” Public Foundation, and Valery Ruzin, Deputy Secretary General of the Eurasian Peoples' Assembly, President of the Eurasian Academy of Television and Radio, Candidate of Philosophical Sciences.
The forum began with a speech by Amanzhol Urazbayev on the topic "Memory and oblivion (about the feat of Kazakhstani divisions in the defense of Moscow)". In the speech the public figure touched upon little-known facts and evidence of the defense of Moscow and spoke about other divisions and military formations formed in Kazakhstan.
Head of the public fund "Military-Patriotic Center "Arlan" Amanzhol Urazbayev
Art history candidate Pyotr Cheryomushkin touched upon the topic of the Battle of Moscow and how this event was reflected in the military and post-war fine arts, and also shared personal memories of Moscow from the point of view of its native resident and how the echo of the events of 1941 could influence its further becoming.
Candidate of Art Criticism Pyotr Cheremushkin
The topic of multinational participation in the Moscow Battle became a link for the entire second part of the forum.
- Head of the Department of the Academy of Public Administration under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Doctor of Law Namik Aliyev made a report on the participation of Azerbaijanis in the defense of Moscow.
- Pavel Dyatlenko, Associate Professor of the Department of History and Culturology of the Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University, Candidate of Historical Sciences, spoke on preserving the memory of I.V. Panfilov and the Panfilov Division in Kyrgyzstan.
- Alisher Sabirov, Head of the Department for the Study of Historical and Cultural Heritage and Humanitarian Studies of the International Institute of Central Asia, spoke about the role of the Muslim clergy of Central Asia in the Great Patriotic War.
- Husey Parsa, a representative of the Dungan diaspora of the descendants of the Panfilovites, spoke about the Dungans, the defenders of Moscow.
- Film director, Honored Art Worker of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nikolay Raisov made a report "The Forgotten Feat of the 312th Rifle Division". His new documentary "Burning October 1941" is dedicated to the theme of the feat of the Panfilov division.
- Igor Shpynov, the coordinator of the strategic vision group "Russia - Islamic world", vice-president of the Eurasian Academy of Television and Radio, spoke to the audience about the problem of preserving monuments and the world memorial heritage to the fighters against Nazism and the level of awareness of this goal.
Deputy Secretary General of the Eurasian Peoples' Assembly Stanislav Korolyov focused on the Inter-parliamentary instruments for preserving the memory of the Second World War and the Great Patriotic War. He proposed to come up with an initiative from the Eurasian Peoples' Assembly to the CIS countries to develop a model law "On a single memorial in memory of the fallen in World War II."
Deputy Secretary General of the Eurasian Peoples' Assembly Stanislav Korolev
Documentary filmmaker, organizer of the Gemma and Vladislav Mikosha Moscow Documentary Film Club Emilia Kosmachevskaya spoke about the opportunities that newsreels and editing sheets open up for historians and researchers in the field of preserving the historical memory of the Great Patriotic War.
Emilia Kosmachevskaya, organizer of the Gemma and Vladislav Mikosha Moscow Documentary Film Club
Program of the 9th session of the IPF (PDF)
Information on the EATR website
About the International Public Forum
The forum was first held on May 15, 2019 in Sevastopol. In October of the same year, the forum took place in Baku. In February 2020, the 3rd session of the forum was held at the Livadia Palace in Yalta under the slogan "VICTORIOUS TOGETHER - in the name of peace and creation."
The 4th session took place on June 17, 2020 under the motto "Be worthy of the memory of the fallen." Due to the pandemic, the event was held online with the participation of 114 people from 15 countries, all the former republics of the USSR.
In September 2020, the Vorontsov Palace of the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol hosted the 5th session of the forum held under the slogan "Defend the Truth about Victory!" The forum was supported by the Head of the Republic of Crimea Sergey Aksenov.
The 6th session of the forum, held on December 6-7, 2020 in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, was devoted to the topic of the crimes of Nazi Germany during the war against the USSR.
On July 6, 2021, the first organizational meeting of the International Public Committee "VICTORIOUS TOGETHER" took place.
"To protect the memory of Victory" was this motto of the 7th session of the forum that took place on July 7 and 15.
On August 17, in the city of Almaty, the 8th session of the forum was held under the slogan "Immortal memory: protect the memory and truth about Victory".
In just three years of the International Public Forum's activity, over 610 people from more than 35 countries of the world took part in it.
Traditionally, the forum participants are scientists, military men, public figures, representatives of international intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, government bodies, youth organizations and the media.
Official page of the International Public Forum on the website of the Eurasian Peoples' Assembly
The International Public Forum is part of the mega-project of the Eurasian Peoples' Assembly "Immortal Memory".