MOSCOW, April 24. /TASS/. Some 1 million people are expected to take part in this year’s ‘Immortal Regiment’ march due to be held in Moscow on May 9, the Volunteers of Victory movement said on Tuesday.

"The march is aimed at eternalizing the memory of those who were killed when defending the Motherland, and keeping the memory in the Russian families about the participants of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) and homefront workers," said the press service of the movement, which organizes the event.

"In 2018, up to 1 million people are expected to take part in Moscow," it said.

Last year, some 2,500 volunteers participated in organizing the march in the Russian capital. "This year, the figure is the same, although the number of those willing to take part is higher," said the movement’s head, Olga Amelchenkova.

The ‘Immortal Regiment’ march is an annual event dedicated to the victory in the Great Patriotic War that claimed lives of over 27 million Soviet people. During the march, people carry portraits of their relatives who fought or died during the war. The first march took place in 2007 in the Siberian city of Tyumen under the name ‘Victors’ Parade’. In 2012, another Russian Siberian city of Tomsk picked up the torch renaming the rally as ‘Immortal Regiment.’ The next year, about 120 cities joined it. A year later, people carried portraits of their relatives who fought during the WWII in 500 cities in seven countries. Since 2015, the ‘Immortal Regiment’ march has become a nationwide event.