MOSCOW, April 30 (Itar-Tass) -- The Eternal Flame was lit up in commemoration of the heroes of the Great Patriotic War on the Poklonnaya Hill in the Russian capital on Friday. War veteran Ivan Slukhai, Hero of Russia Col. Alexander Borisevich and an activist from the children’s patriotic naval club “Severomorets” Alexander Aniskin lit up a torch from the Eternal Flame at the Kremlin Wall in the Alexandrovsky Garden for the Flame of Memory and Glory on the Poklonnaya Hill. Then they brought the torch to an armoured personnel carrier, which delivered the Eternal Flame to the Poklonnaya Hill under the escort of motorcyclists. On the Poklonnaya Hill the torch has already been passed to a warrior in the Battle for Moscow Vladimir Dolgikh, Hero of Russia Col. Vyacheslav Sivko and a member of the Moscow children’s public organization “Commonwealth” Nikolai Zimagorov. They were honoured to light up the Flame of Memory and Glory at the same place on the Poklonnaya Hill, where the Eternal Fire from the Alexandrovsky Garden had been removed for the period of the overhaul of the Memorial at the Unknown Soldier Tomb.
War veterans, many of whom could not resist tears, were attending a solemn ceremony. The Guard of Honour was placed at the Flame of Memory and Glory at the end of the ceremony. The best cadets of Moscow military academies were put on duty at the post of the Flame of Memory and Glory.
The Flame of Memory and Glory on the Poklonnaya Hill will be one more Moscow symbol in commemoration of the heroes of the Great Patriotic War in addition to the Eternal Flame on the Unknown Soldier Tomb in the Alexandrovsky Garden. On holidays and memorial dates “children’s post number one will be put on duty at the Flame of Memory and Glory from members of the children’s patriotic organizations, cadets and students.” One more Eternal Flame was planned to light up at the Preobrazhenskoye cemetery. Over 10,000 Red Army warriors and commanders, who died at the Moscow hospitals during the Great Patriotic War and in the post-war period, were buried at the cemetery. The Eternal Flame on the Preobrazhenskoye cemetery, which was lit up from the Eternal Flame on the Field of Mars in Leningrad in 1956, was the first Eternal Flame torched in Moscow. “The ceremony was postponed and will be held within the next three days,” a source in the Moscow Mayor’s Office told Itar-Tass on Friday. The source did not say about the reasons for the ceremony postponement.
The Eternal Flame in the Alexandrovsky Garden was lit up on May 8, 1967. From December 27, 2009, through February 23, 2010, the Eternal Flame was temporarily removed to the Poklonnaya Hill. The removal was caused by the overhaul at the Unknown Soldier Tomb memorial. The oldest Eternal Flame is considered the flame at the Memorial to the Unknown Soldier in the Arch of Triumph in Paris. This Eternal Flame was lit up in 1921 in commemoration of fallen servicemen in the First World War.
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