A meeting of the Organising Committee of the cultural and educational project was held.
Deputy Federation Council Speaker and Chair of the Memory Train Cultural And Educational Project’s Organising Committee Konstantin Kosachev chaired a meeting of the Organising Committee. The event was attended by Deputy Federation Council Speaker Inna Svyatenko, Deputy Chair of the Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs Yelena Afanaseva, Deputy Chair of the Federation Council Committee on Science, Education and Culture Elena Pisareva, and representatives of federal and regional authorities.
The Deputy Federation Council Speaker noted that the project is being implemented at the initiative of the Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko and Chair of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus Natalia Kochanova. “We first launched the project in 2022, and this year will be the fifth, an anniversary year.”
The Deputy Federation Council Speaker added that 2026 marked the 85th anniversary of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, one of the most important dates in the history of our country and all former Soviet republics.
He emphasised that the project initially involved high school students from Russia and Belarus. “In 2023, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan joined us bringing the number of participating countries to four. In 2024, students from all CIS countries took part in the journey, and last year we managed to bring aboard the descendants of the victors from all fifteen republics of the former Soviet Union. We look forward to expanding the geography of the project’s participants this year.”
Konstantin Kosachev said the journey in 2026 will start anywhere in late June-early July, which is about the same time as in previous years. The Deputy Federation Council Speaker specified that the route and the programme of events will be updated. “Of course, Brest, Moscow, St Petersburg, and Minsk will remain on the route.”
Greetings on the occasion of the beginning of the work of the Organising Committee of the 5th Memory Train Cultural And Educational Project were delivered by State Secretary and Deputy Minister of Education Andrei Korneyev and Deputy General Director of Russian Railways Ivan Kolesnikov.
During the meeting, Konstantin Kosachev presented letters of appreciation from the Federation Council Speaker to a number of the project organisers.