KURSK, August 12 (Itar-Tass) — Events to commemorate 118 crew members of the sunken nuclear powered submarine Kursk will take place at the WWII memorial in Kursk on Sunday, August 12, on the occasion of the 12th anniversary of the tragedy in the Barents Sea.
City and regional leaders, the relatives of the dead submariners, Russian Navy veterans, representatives of public organizations, clergymen and military cadets will attend the ceremony.
Twelve sailors from the nuclear submarine Kursk are buried at this memorial. Seven of them are natives of the Kursk region. The oldest, warrant officer Viktor Kuznetsov, was 28 when he died; the youngest, Alexei Nekrasov, was only 19. A memorial sign was installed near the graves to commemorate the crew of the sunken nuclear submarine. It is crowned with a white marble figure of a grieving angel, a symbol of “living soul.”
A priest of the Kursk eparchy will hold a prayer in remembrance of the dead. A minute of silence will be observed. Wreaths and flowers will also be laid in the Alley of Glory in the north-western part of Kursk where 118 birch-trees were planted to remind everybody of the tragedy in the Barents Sea. A fragment of the Kursk nuclear submarine recovered from the seabed after the wreck was installed here as a monument to the dead submariners.