LONDON, May 8 /TASS/. Actions to commemorate Soviet and British servicemen, who died in battles against fascism during WWII, will take place in Britain, Sergei Savelyev, the coordinator of the Immortal Regiment movement in London, told TASS.
The Immortal Regiment march, a public action, which has become so widespread in Russia, will take place in London for the first time on Victory Day on May 9. Thousands of people, predominantly Russian compatriots, will march through London’s central streets carrying the photos of their relatives who fought in the Great Patriotic War.
"The commemoration will start with the laying of wreaths to the Soviet War Memorial near the Imperial War Museum in London. After that, participants in the Immortal Regiment march will gather on Trafalgar Square from where they will move along Whitehall Street in the direction of the Westminster Abbey," Savelyev said.
Another Immortal Regiment march will take place in Derby (Derbyshire County) a day earlier on May 8. Members of the Royal British Legion organization of war veterans; representatives of the local authorities and employees of the Russian embassy in the United Kingdom will join the Immortal Regiment march. "In Derby, the British will pay tribute to the memory of fallen fighters against fascism along with the Russian speakers residing in Britain. It’s slightly different in London where mainly Russian compatriots will participate in the march," Savelyev added.
Other commemorative events scheduled for Sunday include a motor race from London to Coventry, a British city, which German planes bombarded massively from the late 1940 to 1942.
The Russian Federal Agency for CIS Affairs, Compatriots residing Abroad and International Humanitarian Cooperation (Rossotrudnichestvo) will organize a display of wartime drawings of painters who are veterans of the Great Patriotic War; it will also arrange a meeting with war veterans and give a concert for them.
The Immortal Regiment is a public march during which people carry the photos of their relatives who took part in the Great Patriotic War. The history of the Immortal Regiment action dates back to 2007 when a parade of victors took place in the Siberian city of Tyumen.
The Immortal Regiment name appeared five years later in Tomsk, a city in Western Siberia, in 2012. In 2013, the action spread to 120 cities. A year later, the residents of 500 cities in seven countries carried the portraits and photos of their relatives who fought at the front through the streets of their cities on May 9. The Immortal Regiment march officially became an all-Russian public action in 2015.