May 10, 2023 Solemn meeting dedicated to the 78th anniversary of the Victory of the Soviet Union in the Great Patriotic War

On May 10, a celebration dedicated to the 78th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War took place in the conference hall of the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The main Day that united all of us, the whole country into one People. And this was felt in the atmosphere of the hall by each of those who came, from junior employees to an academician. A solemn and at the same time genuinely sincere tone was also tuned in by the Banner of Victory located in full view of everyone.

The meeting began with a hymn. Following this, Honorary President of the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Academician Alexey Vasiliev. At an early age, he survived the war. After that, there were other wars and military conflicts, which were witnessed by a journalist and scientist. But childhood impressions are very persistent. Aleksey Mikhailovich shared them with his colleagues.

His story was continued by the Director of the Institute for African Studies, a Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Irina Abramova. The first post-war generations found many veterans of the Second World War still relatively young, but more often they remained only in the memory of loved ones and in photographs, as in the family of Irina Olegovna.

Following this, the participants of the evening saw small films - a military chronicle, accompanied by songs by Vladimir Vysotsky and Bulat Okudzhava. The films were prepared with great warmth and respect for the history of our country and its defenders; their author is the family of our employee, Elena Kharitonova, daughter of a veteran of the home front and a veteran of the African Institute, Aida Moseiko. The tapes showed not the front side of the war, but the hardest, often deadly soldier's work of the defenders of our Fatherland, whose memory must be bowed to today.

A moment of silence. This is also about those who, in our time, "having bowed, took a bullet on a sigh."

An eyewitness, guest of the Institute Evgeniy Nadolinsky spoke about the situation regarding the Special Military Operation. Another guest, Ilya Antipov spoke about his participation in the UN peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara, one of the troubled regions of Africa.

It is very important that the employees learned about what is happening at our borders and in the regions under study, not only from the media and the Internet but also first-hand.

Happy Victory Day!

Chairman of the Council of Veterans of the African Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences,
Senior Research Fellow, Reserve Colonel Andrey Tokarev