The message reads, in part:
“The opening of this complex commemorating the peaceful civilians killed by the Nazis in the Novgorod Region is an event of huge significance for our society and the country as a whole. We will never forget how much suffering and pain the war brought or the irredeemable price the Soviet people paid for the freedom and independence of the Fatherland. We will never forget that it was our people’s courage, unprecedented strong will, endurance and tenacity that ensured peace on the planet. This memory is sacred both to the generation of victors and to those who were born after the war.
The village of Zhestyanaya Gorka is one of numerous Nazi extermination sites in the Novgorod Region. Thousands of Russians, Roma and Jews were brutally murdered there for no reason other than their existence. The Nazi butchers did not spare children, old people or pregnant women. These crimes have no statute of limitations and will never be forgotten by our people.
It is our common duty to stand up against any attempts to justify the killers, to present the aggressors, members of death squads and collaborators as innocent hostages to the situation, and to replace facts with hypocritical lies. We must continue to act consistently to restore historical justice.
This is the reason why we treasure the years-long selfless work of the Russian search groups, historians, representatives of the Defence Ministry and the Investigative Committee, as well as all those who contributed to the creation of this memorial complex, who participated in the preparation of an open trial of Nazi war criminals in the town of Batetsky, who are contributing to the Without the Statute of Limitations project, and who help establish the names of soldiers, officers and peaceful civilians killed by extermination squads in the Nazi-occupied territory.
We will always defend the Great Victory and its heroes, those who made it possible, and we will never stop fighting for historical truth on behalf of those who routed Nazism.”