The message reads, in part:
“I am pleased to welcome you to the official ceremony to unveil the monument to Zinaida Yermolyeva, an outstanding scientist and inventor of domestic antibiotics, a woman of an extraordinary fate, impressive talent and immense personal courage.
It is symbolic that the monument has been installed in Rostov-on-Don, the city where Zinaida Yermolyeva achieved her initial academic success. Her selfless efforts and the outcome of a truly unique research resulted in saving millions of lives. And of course, her work to organise production of medications to treat cholera during the Great Patriotic War went down as a separate heroic page in her biography. This was a feat of a true doctor selflessly devoted to the Motherland and her noble calling.
I should note that the opening of the monument to Zinaida Yermolyeva is timed to coincide with her 125th birthday and is taking place in the year when we mark the 100th anniversary of Russia’s State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service, an agency she pioneered. I am confident that a profound awareness and preservation of Zinaida Yermolyeva’s academic and creative legacy will contribute to the further development of Russia’s medical science and healthcare.”