IDGC Holding Strengthens Patriotic Ties Among CIS and European Peoples

The International Memorial and Appreciative Relay Race “The Homeland of Feat for the Homeland of Hero” was launched in the Tula Region on April 4, 2011. This large-scale patriotic campaign was initiated by the Coordination Council of Veterans and the Joint Youth Board of the Electricity Distribution Grid Sector under the auspices of IDGC Holding and the All-Russian organization VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATION FOR ASSISTANCE TO ARMY, AVIATION AND FLEET (DOSAAF). The historical and memorial campaign “The Homeland of Feat for the Homeland of Hero” is aimed at establishing cooperation among the population centers in the Commonwealth of Independent States countries and non-CIS countries, in the course of whose defense and liberation from the Nazi aggression heroic feats were performed, and the population centers where World War II Heroes were born and educated.

The first ceremonial events took place in Krapivna Village, Tula Region, and in the Hero City of Tula, a place of birth of the following renowned aircraft pilots and Heroes of the Soviet Union: Major Dmitry Aleksandrovich Zaytsev (a former electrician of Tulenergo, a subsidiary of IDGC of Center and Volga Region) and Lieutenant Ivan Nikolayevich Alimkin (both officers were educatees of Krapivnenskoye Secondary School, Tula Region).

Fighter pilot Second Lieutenant Dmitry Zaytsev (1918–1941.) performed his heroic feat, an air-to-air ramming of a Nazi aircraft near Gostomel Village, the Kiev Region, Ukraine, on June 28, 1941. He died in an air fight on October 1, 1944.

Battleplane pilot Major Ivan Alimkin (1923–1945) died during the liberation campaign for Yugoslavia and buried in the village of Bački Brestovac, Serbia.

Part of the ceremonial events was the entering into the agreements for twin-city relations and cooperation between Krapivna Village, Tula Region, Russia, and Gostomel Village, Kiev Region, Ukraine, as well as between Krapivna Village, Tula Region, Russia, and the village of Bački Brestovac, Serbia. The documents were signed by Head of Krapivnenskoye Municipal Unit Aleksey Koshelev, Head of the Gostomel Township Council Anatoly Kirichenko, Chairman of the Bački Brestovac Village Council Nikola Orlic, and Director of the Institute of Social Memory Aleksandr Uzhanov.

The Cooperation Programs under the Agreements provide for the creation before late 2011 of the expositions “Hero of the Soviet Union D. A. Zaytsev” and “Krapivna—Gostomel: Twin Cities”, “Hero of the Soviet Union I. N. Alimkin” and “Krapivna— Bački Brestovac: Twin Cities” in the Krapivnenskoye Local History Museum Affiliate of the YASNAYA POLYANA MUSEUM ESTATE OF LEO TOLSTOY State Memorial and Nature Reserve. It is planned to hold annual memorial sports competitions (track and field events, volleyball, futsal, etc.) for the prizes of Heroes of the Soviet Union I. N. Akimkin and D. A. Zaytsev for students of the educational institutions in Krapivnenskoye Municipal Unit, the Shchekinski District; Gostomel, the Kiev Region, Ukraine; and for school children in the village of Bački Brestovac, Serbia.

Full rehabilitation of the monument on the grave of Hero of the Soviet Union D. A. Zaytsev (at the Vsekhsvyatskoye cemetery, Tula) and of the memorial to Hero of the Soviet Union I. N. Alimkin (in Alimkin Village, Shchekinski District, Tula Region) will be completed before late 2011.

As a token of solidarity, friendship and long-term cooperation, the heads of the Administration planted out three Friendship Trees (thujas) on the premises of Krapivnenskoye Secondary School.