Every year on May 9, starting from 2011, a social and patriotic event «Immortal Regiment» is held in Russia, dedicated to Victory Day.
Although in 2023 there will be no traditional procession through the streets of cities and towns on May 9, the events will be held in a different format in educational and cultural institutions, enterprises, etc.
The emergence of the public civil-patriotic movement «Immortal Regiment», as well as the holding of annual events on Victory Day, was preceded by similar actions held in individual cities of Russia until 2011. Such cities were Prokopyevsk, Novokuznetsk and Tyumen. In a number of cities, demonstrations with photographs of front-line soldiers and war veterans passing through the streets, as well as bringing such photographs to the Eternal Flame memorial, took place back in the USSR.
The main essence of the action is that on Victory Day, citizens walk along the main street of the city with photographs of their fathers, mothers, grandfathers, grandmothers, great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers who participated in the Great Patriotic War. The goal in this case was indicated by a spiritual impulse, as well as memory and pride for the ancestors who survived the weight of the terrible war, managed to survive and win. Their faces look at their descendants from photographs, and their souls rejoice with them at one of the Greatest Holidays of mankind. Those who died at the front or died of hunger in the rear, tortured in a concentration camp or simply did not live to see the next Victory Day, – they are all united by the memory that their descendants keep and honor. Front-line soldiers, partisans, home front workers, concentration camp prisoners, underground fighters, children of war, blockade survivors look from photographs of the Immortal Regiment…
So, in 2011, the «Immortal Regiment» movement was initiated in Tomsk. Its creators were journalists Sergei Lapenkov, Sergei Kolotovkin and Igor Dmitriev. The movement received its own Charter, program, and website. If initially the «Immortal Regiment» was an interregional socio-patriotic movement, today it has acquired international status.
For the first time, an action called «Immortal Regiment» took place in Tomsk on May 9, 2012, after which many Russian cities and even villages began to take part in it. Their number has steadily increased. «The Immortal Regiment» began marching through the streets of foreign countries. Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Israel were the first to join the action. Every year the number of countries participating in the action continued to grow. Today, dozens of countries around the world are taking part in the action on May 9.
The popularization of the idea was facilitated by the media, which covered events at both the federal and regional levels. Structures of movement coordinators have begun to form in Russian cities and abroad.
On the website of the «Immortal Regiment» there is a People's Chronicle, where everyone can write the history of their ancestor, who survived the Great Patriotic War or gave his life for Victory. Behind every such story is the fate of a person.
In 2014, «Immortal Regiment» received its symbol created by artist A. Shelepov. This symbol was the Crane against the background of a five-pointed star. The symbol is as far removed from politics and propaganda as possible. The author used as a plot one of the most soulful songs dedicated to the fallen soldiers of the Great Patriotic War: «Cranes» by the poet R. Gamzatov and composer Ya. Frenkel.
Thanks to the constantly updated database, many people find acquaintances and even relatives, fellow soldiers and friends of their native veterans on the website, and can trace the history of the military unit in which their ancestor served.
In addition to its main goal «Immortal Regiment» seeks to avoid formalizing the movement. Participation in it is exclusively voluntary, and certain restrictions defined by the Charter are aimed at avoiding formalism, as well as turning an action into an advertising medium or means of political propaganda.
Preserving the memory of personal, family and people – is the task of the «Immortal Regiment».