Verkhnedvinsk Region to welcome veterans from Belarus, Russia, Latvia 4 July

VITEBSK, 2 July (BelTA) – The 51st meeting of veterans of the Great Patriotic War near the Mound of Friendship which is located on the border of Belarus, Russia and Latvia, will take place on 4 July. This year the host party will be Belarus and its Verkhnedvinsk Region, BelTA learnt from local authorities. According to a tradition, the day will begin with a procession of veterans towards the Mound of Friendship. At a commemoration ceremony the veterans will remember their war comrades and observe a minute of silence in tribute to their memory. Then the veterans will lay flowers at the monuments to the fallen Komsomol members in the village of Proshki in Belarus, Hero of the Soviet Union Maria Pynto in Russia. Latvian veterans will lay flowers to the monument of the Hero of the Soviet Union Imant Sudmalis in Latvia. Afterward the veterans will be treated to a concert by the Talaka folk company from the Vitebsk oblast philharmonic and the Veteran choir from the Verkhnedvinsk community center. Around 1,000 people are expected to take part in the traditional meeting of war veterans. The Mound of Friendship was made in 1959 on the border of the three republics – Belarus, Russia and Latvia – in honor of the comradeship of partisans and underground movement members. The soil for the mound was taken from the burials places of partisans and Red Army soldiers who died defending the freedom of the Fatherland. On top of the mound grows an oak as a symbol of the strong friendship between the three nations. Three granites slabs have an inscription in three languages which read that the Mound of Friendship has been built on the border of the three brotherly republics in tribute to the combat friendship cemented with blood of Russian, Belarusian and Latvian partisans during the Great Patriotic War. The monument was opened on 3 July 1959.

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