Belarusians and Russians departed from the railway station in Vitebsk on the "Train of Memory. Dedicated to the Great Victory" in Brest

570 participants and 15 wagons: Belarusians and Russians departed from the railway station in Vitebsk on the "Train of Memory. Dedicated to the Great Victory" in Brest.

The project has been implemented since 2015 on the initiative of the travel company "Ilva" with the support of the Memorial Complex "Brest Fortress - Hero" and the Vitebsk branch of the Belarusian Railway, which annually allocates a special train.

"Both adults and children from Vitebsk, Orsha, Polotsk, Smolensk, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Samara, Togliatti participate in the patriotic action. "Many go with families," said the director of the travel company Larisa Petrovskaya. "This year, the International Association of Twin Cities joined us. Two large delegations from the Leningrad and Moscow regions are also involved in the project.

Before departure, a thematic program with poems, music and songs of the war years was held on the platform of the railway station in Vitebsk. On the train itself, participants will compete in reading poems, singing, drawing wall newspapers and talking about their heroic ancestors.

Denis Borisov, the director of the April School No 1 of the Naro-Fominsk District of the Moscow Region, decided to participate in the project to feel the spirit of the fraternal people.

"We came to celebrate Victory Day with the Belarusian people, to communicate, to invite them to visit us and to show what initiatives are being implemented in our country. We are participating in the project for the first time and have already managed to visit the memorable places of Vitebsk, lay flowers on Victory Square. We are overwhelmed with a sense of pride for our heroic grandfathers and great-grandfathers," said Denis Borisov.

Alexey Gerik from Yakhromskaya Secondary School No 1 also came for impressions and emotions. "Thanks to the project," the tenth-grader notes, "you can plunge into the history of our countries.

"For several years in a row, we have been conducting the project in April, for the last five years we have been leaving Vitebsk on May 8 to participate in festive events on Victory Day in Brest. And every year the popularity of the campaign is growing. Already in March, all vouchers for the "Train of Memory. Dedicated to the Great Victory" were sold out," Larysa Petrovskaya added.

The train will arrive back in Vitebsk on May 10. Some Russian participants will stay in Brest and continue their city tours, some will go to the Hero City of Smolensk.