The appeal of the Head of the Republic of Crimea Sergey Aksyonov due to the Day of Remembrance and Sorrow, which is the day of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, reports Crimean Information Agency.
“Dear friends! Today is the Day of Remembrance and Sorrow: the Great Patriotic War started 80 years ago. Nazi Germany treacherously attacked our country on 22 June 1941. This is one of the most tragic chapters of the national history.
The first months of the war became the period of defeats and losses. However, our nation showed its steel mettle and immense strength of spirit under these harsh conditions. These moral qualities took the form of heroism and persistence of warriors of the Red Army. Of course, it was reflected in the selfless labor of all people, who forged the Victory on the home front. It was also reflected in valor and unwavering faith in the Victory of members of partisan and clandestine movements, who launched a resistance against the enemies within the occupied territories.
To the moment of the attack on the USSR, almost whole Europe was under the Nazi rule. The European industry worked on the German Army. The part of the “united Europe” of that time entered the war sided with Germany, the other part provided the Reich with thousands of volunteers wishing to join the “master race”.
Enslavement wasn’t the only goal of the aggression, Nazis also wanted to annihilate our people, our sovereignty and our civilization. It was the struggle between forces of good and forces of absolute evil. Its essence was expressed in the lines of the great patriotic anthem called “The Sacred War”: “Like two different poles, we are hostile to each other: we struggle for peace and light, they fight for the dark kingdom”.
Talking about our peninsula, it faced with the war prior to the beginning of the all-out offensive of the German-fascist troops on the Western bodies of the USSR. German combat aircraft made their first strike against Sevastopol on 22 June 1941 at 3:15 a.m. after dropping non-contact bottom mines to Sevastopol Bay. Thanks to these actions, the enemies expected to block warships of the Black Sea Fleet in the inner harbor.
The war left the significant mark on the land of Crimea and in the memory of Crimeans. Hero-cities Kerch and Sevastopol, as well as a city of military glory Feodosiya became symbols of military valor and power of people’s spirit. Many streets of our cities and villages are named after heroes of war.
The memory about the war and Great Victory is the indispensable part of our identity and spiritual foundation of the Crimean Spring. We had defended our land from ideological adherents of Hitler and Bandera. Nevertheless, the roots of the poisonous tree of Nazism sprouted within Ukraine and Baltic states. Along with that, it happened with assistance of the countries, which position themselves as examples of democracy. The neanderthal Russophobia determines the policy of those countries. It looks like that modern Western politicians learned nothing neither from the crimes of Nazism nor from its shameful failure in 1945.
Our sacred duty is to carefully keep the truth about the past and pass it to future generations. This is one of the key conditions required for the existence of our country and our nation. We remember the inspiring and prophetic words spoken on 22 June 1941: “Our cause is just, the enemy will be defeated, victory will be ours’”, — Head of Crimea told.
