Plaques in honor of George Yumatov and Alexei Smirnov will appear in Moscow and St. Petersburg

The Russian military-historical society continues a large-scale program for installing memorial plaques for the Heroes of the Great Patriotic War on the school buildings where they studied. In 2016, commemorative signs will be opened in honor of the great frontline actors. The name of George Yumatov will be immortalized in Moscow, and Alexei Smirnov in St. Petersburg.

Alexey Smirnov

George Yumatov

In 2016, more than 500 plaques will appear on the facades of educational institutions in 17 regions of Russia.

“The history of the Great Patriotic War, through a person who studied at your school and accomplished the feat and became a hero, will be perceived much deeper and more emotionally than based only on paragraphs of textbooks, books and feature films, ” said the Chairman of the RVIO, Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Vladimir Medinsky.

On the Day of Knowledge, the grand opening took place simultaneously in several areas.

In the Omsk region, commemorative signs will appear on the facades of 24 schools at once, where the Heroes of the Soviet Union studied. The first ceremonial opening ceremonies of the memorial plaques were held on the Day of Knowledge with the participation of veterans, home front workers, as well as relatives of the Heroes, in whose honor the boards were opened.

According to the Hero of Russia Dmitry Perminov, the perpetuation of the memory of the heroes of the countrymen should be a significant event for the school.

- We must not forget our history, and history is, first of all, people, our countrymen who defended their homeland during the Great Patriotic War. They are an example of selfless service to the Fatherland, the younger generation must remember their feat.

In 2016, it is also planned to install memorial plaques in the Astrakhan, Belgorod, Ivanovo, Tula, Tambov, Tver, Chelyabinsk regions, as well as the Altai Republic, Kalmykia, Khakassia, the Chechen Republic, Kabardino-Balkaria and Dagestan. In 2015, at the initiative of RVIO, 1,200 memorial plaques were opened at schools in the country.