MOSCOW, May 8. /TASS/. The first Immortal Regiment march in Antarctica will take place ahead of Victory Day at the Novolazarevskaya station of the 63rd Russian Antarctic Expedition, one of the march organizers, station surgeon Mikhail Vorontsov, told TASS.

"We’ve been taking part in the Immortal Regiment in St. Petersburg each year since the launch of this movement. This time, as Victory Day falls on the wintering, we thought why not the sixth continent, as long as the Immortal Regiment is marching across the whole planet? Such events have never been held here before, and ours will be the first one. The station head, Yury Nezderov, approved our proposal," Vorontsov said.

The winterers prepared placards with photos of their relatives who fought in the Great Patriotic War beforehand. Thirty-two people are working at the Novolazarevskaya station, and all of them will take part in a short-distance march from the station’s entrance gates to its unofficial symbol - a large round shield with the station’s name and a map of the sixth continent on it.

A group of scientists from India’s Maitri station located nearby will also come to Novolazarevskaya. Indian and Russian polar scientists will attend a festive dinner and watch fireworks in the evening.

The Russian Antarctic Expedition is an ongoing expedition of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute. Five permanent Russian stations are operating on the sixth continent: Progress, Novolazarevskaya, Vostok, Mirny and Bellingshausen. Winterers spend about a year in Antarctica, while seasonal groups work there in summer.

The Immortal Regiment

The Immortal Regiment movement was first launched in Tyumen in 2007 and was initially called "Victors’ Parade." It acquired its current name in 2012 in Tomsk, and in 2013 it involved 120 cities. In 2014, residents from about 500 cities in seven countries crowded streets carrying portraits of their relatives who fought in World War II (the Great Patriotic War). The movement officially became nationwide in 2015. According to the Russian Public Opinion Research Center, 96% of Russian citizens - a lot of young people among them - like the idea of the Immortal Regiment. The Immortal Regiment is taking place in many countries now.