Russian-German museum dedicated to Great Patriotic War to open in Leningrad region

On September 20 a Russian-German museum dedicated to the Great Patriotic War will open in the Church of the Assumption of Our Lady in the village of Lezye-Sologubovka /the Kirovsky district of the Leningrad region/ which was located in the front zone in wartime.

The project of turning the Church of the Assumption of Our Lady into an original monument of Russian-German reconciliation initiated by the Orthodox parish enjoyed wide support in Germany, Senior Priest Vyacheslav Kharinov told RIA Novosti.

"Donations to restore the Assumption Church and create the peace park and the museum were collected in Germany nationwide," he said adding that the project costs several million euros.

The German People's Union for War Burial Places is one of the partners of the parish.

In wartime the Assumption Church also served as a field hospital, prison and post-office.

In accordance with the Russian-German agreement of 1992, a German war cemetery is located in the parish territory since 1996. Some 30,000 Nazi soldiers and officers killed during the Great Patriotic War in the Kirovsky district are buried there. According to the senior priest, remains of German soldiers discovered in the Leningrad region during the so-called "memory watches" will be buried there in the future.