A working visit of the Chairman of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Valentina Matvienko to Smolensk Region

The “Katyn” Memorial Complex was opened In Smolensk region after a large-scale reconstruction. Valentina Matvienko, Chairman of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Medinsky, Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation, Chairman of the Russian Military Historical Society, Governor Alexey Ostrovskiy took part in the celebrations.

The "Katyn" memorial complex, which was opened in 2000, includes a vast territory of Soviet burials, where the remains of more than 8,000 Soviet citizens who were victims of political repression were buried. Here is also the Polish memorial cemetery with the burial of over 4 thousand Polish prisoners of war, shot in 1940.

During her visit, Valentina Matvienko examined the entrance pavilion, which was converted from a technical room into a memorial exhibition with a multimedia presentation telling about the history of the place and the memorial complex itself.

Then, the speaker of the Federation Council visited the next site of the memorial - the "Shooting" monument. Here, there is the Wall with the names of the repressed Soviet citizens, though earlier most of the burials remained anonymous.

Valentina Matvienko expressed her gratitude to everyone who participated in the reconstruction of the memorial, for their tremendous work: "I want to say thanks you to the Ministry of Culture, the Russian Military Historical Society, the sculptor Andrei Kovalchuk who created this memorial. I want to thank the Smolensk region Administration for their assistance, and all those who worked to ensure that we will always remember the innocently killed people and do everything possible and impossible never to let it happen again. Thank you all!"