International Conference 'The victory over fascism in 1945: its significance to the peoples of the CIS and the world'

Location: Moscow, the Russian State Library 
Date: April 8, 2010 

International Conference 'The victory over fascism in 1945: its significance for the peoples of the CIS and the world' was held under the motto 'We won together!'. This conference has become one of the most impressive actions related to the Great Victory which has been held in the CIS in recent years. Among the participants are presidents and vice presidents of the national science academies of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, heads of ministries and departments of the Commonwealth, the youth leaders of the search brigades Union of the CIS countries.

The forum was attended by reputable international experts from the Baltic States, Britain, Germany, Poland, USA and China.

Members of the conference received greetings from the President of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Medvedev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, Prime Minister of Tajikistan Akil Akilov and the Secretary General of the United Nations, Pan Ki-moon.

The opening speeches of the conference were made by: Sergey Naryshkin — Head of the Presidential Administration of Russian Federation, Chairman of the Commission headed by the President of the Russian Federation to counter attempts to falsify history to the detriment of Russia; Sergey Lebedev — Chairman of the Executive Committee, CIS Executive Secretary; academician Boris Paton — President of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the International Association of Academies of Sciences of the CIS ; Professor Mark Parillo — Director of the Institute of Military History of the University of Kansas, the president of the American Association of Historians of the Second World War; Alvydas Nikzhentaytis — Director of Institute of Lithuanian History; Professor Luan Tszinhe — Director of the Institute of Modern and Contemporary Chinese History, the head of the China Society for Russian studies; publicist Celia Sandys — granddaughter of Winston Churchill; representatives of international organizations — UN, Council of Europe and many others.

At the plenary session which opened in Pashkov House at 10 am there were discussions of important topics: lessons of the war and modern threats to peace; the contribution by the peoples of the Soviet Union to the victory over fascism; the memory of the war and objective representation of its history; experience and the value of alliances; post-war peace and commitment to the ideals of the UN; the Victory heritage and the continuity of generations.

Members and guests got acquainted with showpieces from the exhibition of documents from the Archives of the President of the Russian Federation, Russian State Library and the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War, assembled with the participation of the staff of the Division of military literature. It presented unique, archival materials, including declassified documents of the war period.

09.04.2010