Saint Petersburg, 15 May. /Novosti Pridnestrovya/. From 5 to 11 May Russia's Leningrad Region hosted Russian compatriots residing abroad. 80 youth representatives from 24 Eurasian countries — Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Ukraine, France, Germany, Belgium, Croatia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Armenia, Lebanon, Ireland, Algeria, Austria, Norway and Pridnestrovie — became participants of the 6th Alexander Nevsky Leningrad Youth Forum of Compatriots.
The official opening forum took place in the State Museum of the History of Religion in Saint Petersburg. The chair of the youth policy committee of the Leningrad Region, Oleg Ivanov, the deputy chair of the Leningrad regional government on social issues, Nikolay Yemelyanov, and the director of International Youth Centre, Alexey Lyubtsov, welcomed the participants.
According to Alexey Lybtsov, the Alexander Nevsky Leningrad Forum is a forum of people's diplomacy because not everything can ever be settled at an official governmental level, but there are many things active and passionate young people can do.
«Today, in this very difficult time the public authorities and Russia's MFA together with the countries you come from are doing very painstaking work, establishing cultural ties and building interstate relations," said the director of International Youth Centre.
Traditionally, the forum used to take place in early August so that Russian compatriots could participate in the Leningrad Region Day holidays. This year the organisers have decided to unite the young people around the world's significant date — 9 May. On Victory Day forum participants went to the city of Gatchina, Leningrad Region, and joined the Immortal Regiment march, comprising over 25,000 people. With three cheers and shouting the «Thank you, granny and grandpa, for the Great Victory» slogan, the young people proudly paraded through the city in a two-kilometre-long column with the portraits of their relatives — WWII veterans. And even rainy and windy weather turned sunny that day.
Russia's State Duma speaker, Sergey Naryshkin, joined the residents and visitors of the Leningrad Region in the Immortal Regiment parade with the portrait of his father.
In the evening young compatriots was able to admire the architecture of Saint Petersburg and watched a magnificent holiday salute concluding Victory Day.
The central topic of the forum is, of course, the region's history. Forum participants went along the Road of life, which was the only supply line through Lake Ladoga during the Great Patriotic War: people were evacuated and goods were supplied by water in the summer and on the ice in the winter.
The children also laid flowers to the memorial «Broken Circle», which is dedicated the severest page in the history of the Great Patriotic War. In September 1941, when Leningrad was surrounded by the enemy, the only communication line with the city was Lake Ladoga. It was within the range of German artillery and air force; besides, the enemy's flotilla operated on the lake. The traffic capacity of the road did not meet the needs of the big city which had not had a sufficient reserve of food prior to the blockade. Then hunger came to Leningrad. Since the first blockade winter was very severe, there were shortages of food, fuel and transport. The number of victims amounted to hundreds of thousands. In January 1943 the blockade was broken, but it was finally raised only in the winter of 1944.
Forum participants also visited the Ancient Russian Oreshek Fortress, which is situated on Orekhovets Island in the mouth of the Neva River, opposite the city of Shlisselburg, Leningrad Region. The fortress was founded in 1323, outlived many wars and sieges, and part of its structures were destroyed in WWII.
The forum's cultural and historical programme includes visiting Kronshtadt city and St Nicolas Naval Cathedral, one of the biggest naval cathedrals in the Russian Empire, built in 1903−1913.
In the periods between excursions young people took part in interesting round table talks, master classes in the Russian language and traditional handicrafts: they learnt folk songs and dances, sang folk rhymes, played lapta, a Russian team game employing a ball and a bat. Lapta is mentioned in the Ancient Russian scripts.
And then the week among like-minded and almost own compatriots came to a logic conclusion. Songs till the dawn, group photographs, work schedules were over, and kids are going home. But the Russian spirit with its tall pine trees and the Ladoga will always be missed by everyone who has ever been to the Nevsky Forum. And it is a great merit of forum organisers and volunteers. Participants told each other when bidding farewell: «See you next year and welcome to our place!”
The youth policy committee of the Leningrad Region and state-funded Centre of Spare Time, Health and Education Programmes Molodezny have been organising the annual Alexander Nevsky Leningrad Youth Forum for Russian compatriots residing abroad since 2011.
The forum’s tasks are the development of ties between the Leningrad Region’s youth and Russian young people abroad, the strengthening of the role of the Russian language and culture, the development of cooperation in the sphere of education, the preservation of ethnic and cultural identity, support for national and Orthodox traditions, the study of Russian historical heritage, the preservation of respect to the history of the Russian state.
