Russian veterans salute war dead in London
Published 11 November, 2007, 06:37
Russian World War 2 veterans stood shoulder to shoulder with their British counterparts in Sunday's Remembrance Day Parade in London. The veterans from the northern city of Arkhangelsk travelled to the UK to remember the Arctic convoys, which delivered arms and food to Russia during WW2.
Every year on the Sunday closest to November 11, a stream of veterans file past the Cenotaph in London's Whitehall. It's a way of remembering the millions who died in the two world wars.
For many of the veterans, it also serves as a reminder of a time when Russia and Britain stood together to face a common enemy – Nazi Germany.
Between 1941 and 1944, Arctic convoys travelled from the UK and the U.S. to Russia’s northern cities of Arkhangelsk and Murmansk to deliver vital supplies to the Soviet Union.
The memory of the convoys stirs up strong emotions in those who took part in them. Some, like former British seamen Ronald Ainsworth and Russian veteran Dmitry Efimenko, are offended by claims that relations between Russia and the UK are at a post-Cold War low. Ainsworth describes such descriptions as “complete rubbish.”
“The trouble is those people never experienced the Second World War,” he said.
“I have always been very fond of Russia because I saw so many Russian people during the war and how much they suffered. Their courage in defeating the Nazis is something I admire,” Ainsworth said.
“I’m already 80 and far from politics but I imagine that the peoples of Russia and Britain are friends. In my wildest dream I couldn’t imagine our countries going back to the Cold War years,” Dmitry Efimenko said.
Second life for Cenotaph
London's famous memorial to the war dead has now found a second life in cyber space. it's part of an attempt to encourage young people to remember the sacrifices made by earlier generations.
The “Second Life” computer game offers plenty of opportunities.
There you’ll find a cyber version of the Cenotaph – familiar to millions who've passed the stone original in Whitehall.
Veterans welcome the computer version. They say anything that attracts the online generation’s attention to the destruction of war is a good thing.
discuss it
