Employees of Red October Pay Tribute to Stalingrad Defenders

On February 2, solemn events were held at the Volgograd metallurgical plant dedicated to the 83rd anniversary of the defeat of the German-fascist troops by Soviet forces in the Battle of Stalingrad. More than 150 people — workers, veterans of the enterprise, representatives of the trade union organization and the Youth Committee — laid flowers at memorials and honored the memory of heroes with a minute of silence.

Traditionally, the main event was a rally at the ruins of the Central Plant Laboratory (CPL) — one of three buildings in Volgograd preserved for posterity in the state in which the war left them.

«Gathered at this significant place for each of us, we express immense gratitude to all who fearlessly defended the plant and the city, who with selfless labor brought closer the long-awaited Victory,» addressed those present Valery Burukh, Director of Economics and Finance. «We preserve the memory of their feats in our hearts, passing on to the young generation of plant workers reverence for the sacred land where the fate of our entire country was decided.»

Special words of gratitude were addressed to the veterans of the enterprise, among whom are members of the association «Children of Wartime Stalingrad» and home front workers.

A participant in the Battle of Stalingrad — Alexandra Semyonovna Mashkova, who last year celebrated her 100th birthday — was congratulated at home. Alexandra Semyonovna went to the front as a nurse at the age of 17, then served as a nurse, and as part of a field mobile hospital reached Berlin. In the postwar years, she worked for more than twenty years at «Red October».

The rally concluded with a minute of silence and a solemn ceremony of laying a wreath and flowers at the ruins of the CPL.

Traditionally, events were also held at other memorials significant to plant workers: at the stele sign to the soldiers of the 39th Guards Division, the monument «Death Hollow» — the site of fierce battles by soldiers of the 95th Rifle Division, the monument-grave of Olga Kovaleva, the mass grave on Metallurgov Avenue, as well as on the territory of the memorial complex «To the Heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad» on Mamayev Kurgan.