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Memorial event to mark start of Great Patriotic War held in Washington

At 21:00 local time on Friday (04:00 Moscow time on Saturday), participants lit up candles and laid a wreath to the to the Spirit of Elbe memorial

WASHINGTON, June 22. /TASS/. A memorial event, headlined the Candle of Memory, took place near a WWII memorial in Washington on the Day of Memory and Sorrow, observed in Russia annually on June 22 to commemorate the start of the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War against the Nazi Germany and its allies.

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Russia marks Day of Memory and Sorrow commemorating start of 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War

At 21:00 local time on Friday (04:00 Moscow time on Saturday), participants lit up candles and laid a wreath to the to the Spirit of Elbe memorial. The monument commemorates the day when Soviet forces, advancing from the east, and American troops, advancing from the West, cut through the Wehrmacht divisions and met some 85 miles from Berlin, on the Elbe River.

The Candle of Memory is held annually in Russia since 2009. On June 21, a memorial candle is lit at Moscow’s Yelokhovo Cathedral and is taken to the Hall of Memory and Grief of the Great Patriotic War museum on the Bow Hill. This candle is used to light many others, which are brought to WWII burial sites and monuments all over the country. In 2015, other former Soviet States, including Kazakhstan, Armenia and Belarus joined the campaign.

This year’s gathering was the third Candle of Memory event in the United States.

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