The message reads, in part:
“Over the past 30 years, the Russian Search Movement has brought together tens of thousands of people who care about their country, who respect its glorious military history and who are concerned about preserving the memory of the men and officers who fell fighting in the Great Patriotic War.
The search expeditions you have conducted and your painstaking work in the archives helped to identify many fallen heroes and bury them with military honours, as well as to fill in some blank pages of family histories. This noble work is very important for moral reasons and deserves our deep respect.
It is very gratifying that many of your active members are young people who embrace our patriotic and civic values at a tender age, and who learn to care for the heroic pages of our history.
I thank all of you – members of search parties, students of local lore and historians – for your honest and selfless service to a cause you have chosen with your hearts.”