On June 17, 2020, the Eurasian Peoples’, the Eurasian Television and Radio Academy and the Association of Researchers of the Russian Society (AIRO-XXI) held an online International Public forum on preserving the memory of the Second World war and the Great Patriotic war as part of the Megaproject “VICTORIOUS TOGETHER – for Peace and Creation”.
The theme of the forum is “Be Worthy of the Memory of the Fallen”. The forum was attended by representatives of all 15 former Soviet Union republics. The International Public forum was held for the fourth time. First forum was held as part of the XV Sevastopol International Film Festival “VICTORIOUS TOGETHER” in May 2019. The next one was a part of the Days of the Eurasian Peoples’ Assembly in Baku in October 2019, and then in February 2020 –in Yalta, in the format of the International Scientific Conference “Yalta-1945: Lessons of History”. The initiative born in Sevastopol united the forum participants in a continuous dialogue and became an effective tool and a real platform for cooperation between representatives of the international community.
The purpose of the forum is to attract the public attention to the issues of preserving historical memory and countering attempts to rehabilitate Nazism.
The forum “Be Worthy of the Memory of the Fallen" lasted about two hours and was divided into three blocks. In the first block, the participants discussed how to resist attempts to destroy the common contribution of the Soviet people to the victory in the Great Patriotic war, and what needs to be done so that memory has been not subject to the time influence. The second block was dedicated to the upcoming, June 22, the Day of the beginning of the Great Patriotic war. Forum participants told about how this day will be celebrated in different countries and regions. “Is it possible to preserve the real memory of the anti-Hitler coalition by lying, asserting the superiority of one country over other States, is it possible to preserve the unity of people, Europe, and the world in this way?» - This question became the leitmotif of the third block of the forum.
Participants of the Forum who got in touch from the Headquarters of the Eurasian Peoples’ Assembly in Moscow:
- Svetlana Smirnova, First Deputy Secretary General - Head of the General Secretariat of the Eurasian Peoples’ Assembly, Chairman of the Council of the Assembly of peoples of Russia, member of the Presidential Council on Interethnic Relations, Doctor of Political Science (Russia);
- Valery Ruzin, Chairman of the Council for Film and Video Visualization of the Cultural and Historical Space of Eurasia of the Eurasian Peoples’ Assembly, President of the Eurasian Academy of Television and Radio, PhD (Russia);
- Gennady Bordyugov, Head of the International Council of the Association of Researchers of the Russian Society (AIRO-XXI) (Russia).
Forum participants:
- Ekaterina Altabayeva, member of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, Chairman of the Sevastopol branch of the Russian Historical Society (Russia);
- Ilgar Velizade. Head of the Sputnik news Agency Press Center (Azerbaijan);
- Marianna Grigorovich, journalist, producer, Chairman of the organizing Committee of the project “Protect the Feat of Heroes!” (Russia);
- Hamlet Gushchyan, rector of the Yerevan Academy of Television, Honorary Professor of the Ostankino Moscow Institute of Television and Radio communications, member of the Presidium of the Eurasian Academy of Television and Radio (Armenia);
- Otar Dzhanelidze, Senior Researcher at the National Museum of Georgia, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor (Georgia);
- Pavel Dyatlenko, Associate Professor at the Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University (Kyrgyzstan);
- Anetta Yerznkyan, Dean of the Yerevan State Institute of Theater and Cinema (Armenia);
- Alexander Kornilov, editor Baltija.eu, partner of the International Alliance of Russian Communities (Estonia);
- Stanislav Korolev, Deputy Secretary General of the Eurasian Peoples’ Assembly (Russia);
- Andrey Kuznetsov, Professor, Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod (Russia);
- Alexey Lastovsky, Associate Professor at Polotsk State University (Belarus);
- Dmitry Lyukshin, Associate Professor of Kazan Federal University (Russia);
- Alisher Sabirov, Deputy Chairman of the Uzbekistan Society of Historians, Associate Professor of the Tashkent State )Pedagogical University. Nizami, Candidate of Historical Sciences (Uzbekistan);
- Ziyad Samedzadeh, Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan, Doctor of Economics, Professor, member of the Parliament of Azerbaijan (Azerbaijan);
- Safarbek Soliev, Film Director (Tajikistan);
- Yuri Tavrovsky, Head of the Expert Council of the Russian-Chinese friendship, peace and development Committee (Russia);
- Gulnabat Tekayeva, Head of the Moscow society of Turkmen culture (Turkmenistan);
- Yurius Trakshialis, President of the Military Heritage Institute (Lithuania);
- Amanzhol Urazbayev, veteran of national security agencies, Reserve Colonel, PhD in law, Head of the Counter-Terrorism Committee (Kazakhstan);
- Irina Tsvik, Associate Professor of the State Pedagogical University in the name of Ion Craynge, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences (Moldova);
- Peter Cheremushkin, Associate Professor at Moscow State Linguistic University (Russia);
- Ekaterina Shcherbakova, Associate Professor, Deputy Head of the Department of Social and Humanitarian disciplines, Moscow School of Economics, Lomonosov Moscow State University (Russia);
- Natalia Yukhnevich, Documentary Filmmaker (Lithuania).
The International Public Forum continues its activities in the conditions of forced restrictions and draws attention to the issues of preserving the historical memory of peoples, supports the movement against the erosion of values and semantic aspects of history, falsification of the Second World War results. In 2020, the Eurasian Peoples’ Assembly will hold more than ten International public forums on preserving the memory of the Great Patriotic war and World War II, including online forums.