Dear friends!

The time is coming to celebrate the 70th anniversary of our Great Victory.

On the eve of this Great Day we would like to congratulate those who went through the whole war and bore the victory on their shoulders, as well as those who worked in the enemy's rear, and tirelessly worked to win it. Thus, we would like to congratulate each and everyone, without exception! We all share this victory, as well as we all share this one and fragile world, which is like our mutual home.

Once, 70 years ago, this day was not like this. It was filled with sobering with grief and joy people, shouting in frenzy; the air was electrified with the overwhelming feeling all people shared: the feeling that the war was over! On this day the WHOLE COUNTRY become as one single organism united by the Great Victory!

This holiday is that little thing which remained unshakable in the hearts of so many generations. This is the Holy Day!

This is the day when peace reigned on earth, when the most terrible war in human history was over. On this day guns got shut down, the engines of war-planes grew silent and women no longer cried because of the “killed in action” notices.

Unfortunately, nowadays we can see fascism trying to raise its head again; there is a substitution of historical facts happening. We can witness how the Soviet soldiers-liberators are being judged as occupiers in the Baltic republics. On the day when the whole world mourned the victims of Auschwitz, parades of the Waffen-SS legionnaires were boldly and cynically held in Latvia and Estonia. Besides, the former head of Latvia Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga presented a pro-fascist pamphlet which had no word about the crimes of the Nazis in it and called the concentration camp where 100,000 people were tortured the camp of reeducation. There is now an exhibition unveiled in Estonia which insults the memory of the Holocaust victims. According to the organizers of this exhibition the idea was to offer a “humoristic and ironic” look on the genocide of the Jewish people during the Second World War. This exhibition can barely be called an art as it insults feelings and memories of those people whose relatives and friends died in the concentration camps. In some countries the monuments to Soviet troops and to the victims of Holocaust get desecrated.

Our memory should never fall silent! We should always remember all those people who sacrificed their lives for each of us to be able to live on this earth!

We will always remember this Holy Day, when the humanity was rescued! We will always remember everyone who gave their lives for the sake of peace on earth!

Multinational team of Sokolniki Exhibition and Convention Centre