In early September of this year, Sergei Valentinovich Baburin (Father Sergiy) at my invitation, as Chairman of the Council of Veterans of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. and the blockade of Leningrad, visited me, a participant in this war, at the apartment, where for 1.5 hours I introduced him to the work of our public organization.
It sets as its tasks to show the broad capabilities of the “Council of Veterans of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. and the blockade of Leningrad “(hereinafter referred to as the” Council of Veterans and Blockade “) to provide moral and ethical assistance and facilitate the solution of material (social) issues with exclusive reliance on German and Russian legislation, bringing us into contact with the state authorities of Russia, Germany and foreign peace, not the last word was patriotic education, showing the leading role of Russia in the Victory in the Patriotic War and the decisive role in solving international problems.
We organize our work, guided by religious tolerance for all confessions and nationalities.
What was planned and implemented in this direction:
A specific list of all veterans and blockade soldiers was compiled, indicating their personal data and a mark on the implementation of the required services and assistance. Informative and colorful tablets (30×45 and 50×70 cm) were made at the personal request of everyone, where the biography of each is shown in photographs, documents and textually (I.L. Kaganovich, E.I. Binevich, Kh. A. Shpungin, I. B . and M.D. Zisels, I.M. Vengerovsky, L.V. Vygon, Yu.S. and S.D. Roshar, M.N. Weiss, etc.) They were presented at ceremonial events or personally at the apartment to each the person who ordered their tablet. A total of 118 plates were produced, including copies.
Portraits were made (of relatives of people living in Hamburg) with brief biographical data of the soldiers who died in World War II, using them in organizing the Immortal Regiment procession and broadcasting on television and radio.
The relatives of those killed at the front or during the Holocaust were issued with forms filled in with the indication of specific facts of their death. They are all immortalized as victims of the Holocaust and the war in the Yad Vashem memorial complex in Jerusalem: Zisels – 7 people, Zilberberg – 12 people, Weiner – 8 people, Gitin – 1 person, Terentyev – 1 person. and others. A total of 39 people.
The planes “Heroes of the War and the Siege” were made with the placement of 65 named photographs of the inhabitants of Hamburg and their relatives on them.
The tablets were shown at 11 exhibitions (in 2019, at a meeting of veterans and blockade soldiers, a meeting for the 75th anniversary of the lifting of the Nazi blockade of Leningrad, an annual reporting meeting of compatriots, etc.; in 2020 at a general meeting of the Jewish community on the day of Commemoration of the Holocaust, on the same occasion in the German “Bürger helfen Bürgern eV”, when awarded with the medal “75 years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945”, etc.
All veterans and blockade members receive congratulations on their birthday on behalf of their “Council of Veterans and Blockade soldiers”. All participants in the war, on our initiative and an appeal to the Central Council of Jews in Germany, first received his congratulations on Victory Day (Kaganovich, Vygon, Vengerovsky, Tsibulin, Roshar, etc.). Visits “at home” or at designated meeting points with the issuance of letters of moral or material assistance (Shpungin, Vengerovsky, Chernego, Binevich, Tofel, Stepanova, Baevsky, Dreitser, Model, Bass, Terentyev, Zisels, Gonikman, Mayorova, Baykova, Trunin and others. A total of 38 meetings.
Published in newspapers: “MK-Compatriot”, “Jewish Panorama”, German-language “Märkisches Oberzeitung”, “Bild” and others with their demonstration on the sites “Russian Field”, “Moskovsky Komsomolets”, Consulates General in Hamburg, Bonn, Leipzig , Munich, Frankfurt am Main, the House of Science and Culture in Berlin, the Russian Embassy in Germany, the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow, etc.
We also organize the solution of material issues in accordance with the laws of Germany and Russia, in particular, the receipt of 1,000 euros per year per person for transport services, food, the preservation of supplements to pensions for persons over 80 years old, etc.
It should be noted that all types of assistance are provided free of charge on a gratuitous basis and on a voluntary basis.
The specific assistance of the Coordination Council of Russian Compatriots in Hamburg, the Consulate General of the Russian Federation in Hamburg and the social department of the Jewish community of Hamburg should be noted.
The Consulate General and the Social Department took an active part in the above activities, purchased 25 pieces of frames for tablets and partially ink for their printing and copying.
The Hamburg Coordination Council organizes the Immortal Regiment march, performances and a religious ceremony at the end. I personally speak at the end of each procession.
The Hamburg Constitutional Court participates in the organization of invitations for paid trips to Russia, authorship and publication of articles in print and on websites. The social department periodically holds meetings of veterans and blockade soldiers to discuss their needs and desires.
We know that in Ukraine recently, in addition to the civil war, a religious war is being organized, which can be even more bloody. Metropolitan Filaret relies on the right sector and the seizure of churches of the Moscow Patriarchate. I would like to show another religious leader – Father Sergius, although of a different rank, but with diametrically opposite qualities.
The versatile and effective work of Fr. Sergiy Baburin is the head of the Russian religious center, and the “House of Tchaikovsky” under his jurisdiction, which promotes and organizes the cultural, educational, educational and propaganda activities of Russian compatriots in Hamburg.
This participation, including in sermons, contributes to the strengthening of mutual understanding between Russian and German public and non-governmental organizations, forming an objective positive image of Russia among the German people. His activities make a significant personal contribution to the establishment of the life of the large Russian diaspora in Hamburg and the consolidation of compatriots.
The Tchaikovsky House hosts various exhibitions, gatherings and meetings of compatriots, intensifying work to support Russian culture and the Russian language, contributing to the development of Russian-German ties in the field of education, culture and youth policy. He personally organizes and conducts excursion trips to Russia. He constantly accompanies Victory Day, the Immortal Regiment procession and other important dates in Russian history with his thoughtful sermons. These events enjoy special reverence and mass character. He creates among the German citizens of Hamburg a positive image of Russia as the leading power in the world.
This versatile work is being organized jointly with the Consulate General of the Russian Federation in Hamburg; the Coordination Council of Russian Compatriots in Hamburg and the Council of Veterans and Blockaders of Hamburg are actively involved in it.
Archpriest Father Sergius, having familiarized himself with all the materials, approved their performance and our work, and invited me at the beginning of October this year, as a participant in the war, to meet with the Orthodox youth of Hamburg, deeply and sincerely believing Orthodox Christians, to the Church of St. John of Kranstadt, where he is the abbot. He conducted a conversation with them on religious topics. Then he introduced me and gave me his word, while he left. The meeting was attended by Alexander Angelchev, Alexey Kuznetsov, Anastasia Leonova, Marina, Daniil and others.
My meeting lasted for about 2 hours, during which I, an atheist, talked about my voluntary public work, the content of which I described at the beginning of this article. This work is fully consistent with religious canons.
Despite the fact that my entire official life, from school to all kinds of official activities, was held in an anti-religious atmosphere, respect for religion, I carried through all of its confessions throughout my life, since I was instilled in my parents’ house, although to this day I remain a non-religious person.
Throughout my life, I have visited many temples in the country and abroad for educational purposes. In the 50s, I was a young officer serving in the 1128 corps artillery regiment in the city of Kaluga and attended the Orthodox Church located on the street. Clara Zetkin. I talked systematically with the priest. He gave me the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate, which I read willingly, which was forbidden to the young communist, and I was brought to party responsibility. Believers were considered politically unreliable, they were often persecuted and even repressed, fired from their jobs. They were not accepted into the party, and their children were not accepted into the pioneers and the Komsomol.
I began my story with a story about how active anti-religious propaganda and agitation was conducted in the Soviet Union in my childhood and school years. On major religious holidays, especially Easter and Christmas, various activities were organized to distract students from the religious festivities. I remember well how we were taught, and we sang in primary school:
Our Easter is not for the gods,
Our Trinity is being built in three ranks,
Our Christmas is snowed in … and so on.
The Russian people, among whom we lived all our lives, were faithful to Christianity. In my childhood, I often visited the houses of my peers and in almost every house I saw icons, lamps and other religious utensils. In later years, I knew my colleagues in the army and civil service who had party cards, but secretly observed certain Christian customs: baptism, wedding, celebrated Easter, Christmas, etc. However, official Soviet propaganda continued to deceive its people, convincing successfully frees itself from “religious intoxication”.
But one should not take from this that at that time everything was only bad. There were also wonderful things, like free medicine, free education in schools and higher education in all institutes, and much more. In modern Russia, all religious confessions have taken a well-deserved and worthy place, as in the overwhelming number of countries around the world.
The first question that interested those present was, of course, participation in the Great Patriotic War. Fate decreed that these were hostilities, in which I took part, in the Kingiseppsky region in Karelia, where the traitors of their homeland, Bandera and Vlasovites, fled to the countries of the Scandinavian Peninsula, dreaming to escape from the inevitable retribution. Our young soldiers aged 17-18 died in these battles.
“Were you scared?”
Of course it was, but the soldier’s education and the oath excluded the failure to comply with even a life-threatening order! Therefore, it is completely incomprehensible to me how in modern Ukraine these traitors were equated with the participants in the war, and their leaders, the SS man Shukhevych and the executioner Bandera, were recognized as the heroes of the country. Every year on January 1, torchlight processions are held in Kiev (similar to the Nazi ones in Germany in the 30s) in honor of the anniversary of Bandera’s birth. We must fight against this distortion of historical memory.
“You worked a lot, hard and productively in your homeland, this is evidenced by the highest awards of the country, academic degrees and titles, high production positions and the built metallurgical plants. How did you manage to live to be 94? ”
This is, first of all, hard mental and physical labor, from school to the present day. Between the ages of 60 and 80, he ran from 3 to 10 kilometers every day in his free time. And to this day in the morning I do strenuous gymnastics and walk 5-7 km.
At the request of those present, he showed the most effective elements of gymnastics. I follow all preventive measures against various diseases, and especially against the coronovirus.
The atmosphere during the entire meeting was mutually respectful and benevolent, and even one young man accompanied me to my house in the evening, showing me a shorter way to the temple.
Chairman of the Council of Veterans of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.
and the Siege of Leningrad, Professor S. Zilberberg.
October 2020
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