Memory and mourning day in Russia

A rally dedicated to the tragic events of June 22, 1941 (the beginning of the Great Patriotic War) was held in the Victory Park in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Veterans, commanders and servicemen of the Russian north-eastern troops, and the north-eastern regional border department of the Federal Security Service, schoolchildren and representatives of public organizations and local authorities laid wreaths and flowers to the monument to their townsmen, killed in the Great Patriotic War.

Defenders of our motherland were also commemorated on Sakhalin and Kuril Islands.

Governor Ivan Malakhov will lay flowers to the Glory Memorial in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, the press service of the local administration said.

Sixty-two years ago Sakhalin learned the war news late at night. Mobilization began on June 23.

Some people remained to serve on Sakhalin to defend the island from Japan's militarist forces.

Vladivostok, a port on the Pacific Ocean, also marked the Memory and Mourning Day, said the press center of the Maritime territory's administration.

Wreaths and flowers were laid to the Pacific Fleet's Military Glory Memorial on Vladivostok's Korabelnaya embankment.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, President's authorized representative in the Far-Eastern federal district Konstantin Pulikovsky, veterans and local residents took part in the ceremony.

Veterans and young people of the Irkutsk region (East Siberia) gathered by the Eternal Fire Memorial to mark the 63rd anniversary of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War.

Veterans were presented with Russian tricolors, symbols of statehood, and participants in Zarnitsa war game got flags of the Irkutsk region.

After that, wreaths were laid to the eternal fire and monument to General Afanasy Beloborodov, commander of the Siberian troops, which defended Moscow.

Teenagers went to Zarnitsa final competitions involving ten best teams of the Irkutsk region.

Angarsk is getting ready to mark the 60th anniversary of the Victory Day in 2005. The construction of the memorial (an eternal fire and a sculpture featuring a flock of birds) has been launched in this town.