The message reads, in part:
“As the war years’ events increasingly become part of history, we become ever more aware of just how great a feat was accomplished by Leningrad’s defenders and residents. They did not submit in the face of severe trials and the loss of loved ones, but showed an example of true patriotism, strength of spirit and belief in Victory.
Throughout the entire siege, Leningrad lived, fought and worked. Our national memory will preserve forever the feats of those who fought at the city’s approaches, brought bread into the city across the Road of Life and continued working in the factories, producing tanks and ammunition and repairing warships. The people of Leningrad preserved for their descendants priceless historical and architectural monuments. The city’s scientific and cultural institutions did not close their doors. It was here that Dmitry Shostakovich wrote his famous Symphony No. 7, which was performed for the first time in this city under siege.
Today, the blockade’s survivors live in many different cities and countries, but are all united by the great sense of brotherhood. The International Association of Public Organisations of Survivors of the Siege is doing its best to make sure that the sacred memory of the blockade is handed down from one generation to the next, and it is at the Association’s initiative that the first congress of descendants of blockade survivors took place this year.
Thank you very much for your steadfastness, civic spirit, involvement and patriotism. I congratulate you from all my heart on this anniversary of the Great Victory and I wish you good health and peaceful skies above.”
The Nazi siege of Leningrad lasted 872 days, from September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944.