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Today Russians all over the country are
beginning to distribute St. George Ribbons,
The practice, already a tradition, is
beginning two weeks before the country's
main holiday – Victory Day.
But it is not only Russians who pin
the black-and-orange ribbons onto their chests
or tie them onto cars, but foreigners abroad as well.
Millions of people consider it their duty
to commemorate those who shed blood
for the peaceful sky that prevails over humanity.
Olga Pautova has more on how
the holiday wil take place this year.
"Oh, the ribbons have arrived!"
For them it’s already settled tradition
involving giving cloves to veterans on May 9.
This year students from Kaliningrad pinned
a note explaining the meaning
of the St. George ribbon to every piece.
They even came up with the cards bearing
the bright letters “give a lift” for drivers,
so that veterans aren't left waiting at the
bus stop before Victory Day.
Anastasia Zolotaryeva, volunteer:
“I want every person who receives a ribbon
from me to remember maybe their family history:
great-grandfathers, great-grandmothers,
grandfathers, grandmothers.”
They have been distributing the ribbons
since early morning in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
People immediately pin them to their clothes
or tie them to their bags.
The volunteers have already handed around
their two-day supply of ribbons
in only their first few hours.
Christina: "I think we need this effort
and I support it. Such things make people
reflect on the things our grandfathers and
great-grandfathers did for us, their feat."
They unfolded a 180-meter St. George ribbon
along the main street in Makhachkala for people
to remember and commemorate more often
the Great Victory and heroes who fought for it.
Kavuki Murtuzaliyev: "We need such actions
to keep these traditions and commemorate
our grandparents who defended us, and
not to let such a war happen again."
"Today we are going to paint the symbol
of Victory Day: St. George ribbon."
Children from many schools and kindergartens
decided to make St. George ribbons by themselves.
It doesn’t matter that almost none among them
have ever seen their great-grandparents alive,
and have only heard stories about their feats
from their parents, these children
are trying hard to paint every stripe and
can’t decide to whom they will give their ribbons.
Maksim Petrov: “I had two great-grandfathers.
One of them was a tanker and
the other was a sailor. But I don’t know.
They died. I will give it to my father.”
This effort went beyond our country long ago.
Bicolor ribbons are spreading around the globe.
Even those people who live tens of thousands
of miles from Russia know that black
and orange are the symbol of both the powder
and flame of the battlefield, and that
during the Great Patriotic War, St. George
ribbons decorated the highest military
award – the Order of Glory.
"I have a lot of photographs that
I collected and kept in this album."
Vladimir Stepanovich Semidyanov
fought with the Pacific Fleet.
He was a little boy when he went to war.
He will never forget the moment when
he received his sailor cap covered
with the St. George ribbon.
It’s also a symbolic reminder for him.
But not of a feat from the textbook but of
his comrades who never returned home.
Vladimir Semidyanov, veteran
of the Great Patriotic War:
“When you look at this ribbon,
as I’m looking at it now, the mass heroism
appears before my eyes. With this ribbon
we retain our memory of all that
our Soviet people survived,”
They will go on distributing St. George
ribbons right up to May 9.
The organizers of the effort
are sure there are enough ribbons for all,
but they advise to pin up one’s own long
before Victory Day to extend the significance
of the commemoration for as long as possible.
Olga Pautova, Lilya Zorina and
Roman Kudrin, Channel One.