Tiraspol, May 8. /Novosti Pridnestrovya/. Volunteer movement “Volunteers of Victory. Pridnestrovie" will take part in the parade in honor of the 76th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War. The volunteer corps to assist the organizers of the grand procession in Tiraspol has been created for the second year in a row.
At the May 9 parade, volunteers will meet and seat spectators on the stands` tiers in the square. Medical volunteers with specialized education will be engaged in monitoring the physical condition, most particularly of volunteers.
A dedicated group of volunteers will help accompany the veterans during the flower-laying ceremony at the Memorial of Glory. There are also photo volunteers who will take pictures of their colleagues and other participants in the event. All volunteers who will be in the parade have been selected and trained accordingly.
"Volunteers of Victory" in Pridnestrovie appeared in June 2019 as part of the All-Russian public movement project "International team of volunteers for the 75th anniversary of Victory". From January 1, 2021, the Pridnestrovian branch was transformed into the same-name International Representation of the All-Russian Social Movement. On the eve of May 9, coordinator of the movement Evgeny Nazarenko spoke about the activities of the Pridnestrovian Victory Volunteers.
“Our activists are pupils and students aged 16 or older. The main selection criterion for our team is their desire to do good deeds, to be active, to study and preserve the history of the Great Patriotic War, to develop volunteering in Pridnestrovie,” Evgeny Nazarenko said.
“Volunteers of Victory. Pridnestrovie" are working in four directions: Great Victory, Intergenerational Linkages, Our Victories and Media Victory. The first one provides volunteer support for military parades and the Immortal Regiment procession. For the first time, the Pridnestrovian Volunteers of Victory helped at the parade that took place on September 2, 2020 in honor of the 30th anniversary of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic and the 75th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War.
Within the framework of the same direction Great Victory, volunteers throughout the republic are holding St. George's Ribbon action. This year, residents of Tiraspol were the first to get small symbols of Victory. In addition, the volunteers organize the Candle of Memory campaign and are engaged in the improvement of memorial sites. April 17 “Volunteers of Victory. Pridnestrovie” organized a clean-up at the monument to the workers of the Moldavian vegetable-potato irrigation experimental station, who died defending the Motherland in 1941-1945.
The next direction of movement is Intergenerational Linkages. Within that framework, volunteers visit veterans of the Great Patriotic War and provide them with the necessary assistance. The movement also interacts with veteran organizations.
“We often communicate with veterans of the Great Patriotic War. Every day there are fewer of them. According to our calculations, today, there are about 70 combatants and disabled veterans of the 1941-1945 who war live in the republic. And when we manage to do some kind of good deed for these people, this makes us really happy,” Evgeny Nazarenko said.
He also noted that due to the pandemic, for the most part, volunteers had been communicating with veterans by phone since last year. There are very few personal meetings.
“This year, on behalf of our survivors of siege front-line soldiers Lydia Alexandrovna Moldovanova and Vera Fedorovna Fedorova, personal trees were planted in honor of their fighting friends in the Leningrad Region within the framework of the international action Garden of Memory. I would very much like to hold this action here, in Pridnestrovie, just as it is carried out in the regions of Russia, the CIS countries,” Evgeny Nazarenko said.
The direction Our Victories is engaged in the popularization of wartime and modern heroes, as well as the achievements of the fatherland. Volunteers do this, using formats that are interesting for young people: promotions, quests, mind games, flash mobs.
In general, the movement held more than 100 meetings with veterans of the Great Patriotic War, residents of besieged Leningrad, former prisoners of fascism and home front workers during its activity in Pridnestrovie.
Within the framework of My Victory, volunteers create positive historical educational content on the Internet and social networks. In the latter, by the way, "Volunteers of Victory" are active. The movement has accounts in Instagram and VKontakte. Here, the guys reflect all their work and report on upcoming events.
This year “Volunteers of Victory. Pridnestrovie” began to create municipal offices. These have already appeared in Bendery, Dnestrovsk and Rybnitsa. School teams are also being organized. Among the key challenges is the involvement of schoolchildren in volunteer activities to preserve the historical memory of the Great Patriotic War and ensure the exchange of experience among generations.
“It is important to involve young people in volunteering since school years. Studying at school, children are developed into individuals, into future citizens of our country. I believe that volunteering will help them in realizing their creative and intellectual potential, open up new horizons for personal growth," Evgeny Nazarenko said.
