The clerics of the Russian Orthodox Church and the ruling fascist circles of bourgeois Russia are trying to perpetrate on outrageous act upon the monument and graves of the Soviet warriors who gave their valuable lives to defend the peoples of the USSR, Europe and many other countries form fascist enslavement in the years of the Second World War!

The clerical and fascist bourgeoisies of Russia are preparing to defile the graves of the defenders of Stalingrad at the Mamayev Mound!

On the initiative of the Russian Orthodox Church the fascist bourgeois circles of Russia are officially examining the question of constructing an ‘All Saints Church’ at the Mamayev Mound practically on the graves of the warriors who perished fighting for the freedom of Stalingrad from the foul fascist beasts in the years of the Great Patriotic War.

There are no priests buried in these graves – our fathers lie there. It was not the Orthodox religion nor the Orthodox Church which defended our heroic fathers from the invasion of the Fascist Occupiers: it was our Socialist Fatherland. The majority of those who defended Stalingrad were atheists while those in the Red Army who were believers were representatives of different religions. All of them were the true sons of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as they guarded Stalingrad!

The Memorial Complex at the Mamayev Mound in memory of the historic victory Stalingrad was constructed by the will and the means of the entire population of the USSR. The patriots of the workers’ movement Labouring Stalingrad’ have convincingly established at the proper moment and have notified the Russian rulers that the construction of the ‘All Saints Church’ at the Mamayev Mound creates the real danger that – on account of the soil movements at that site – the Memorial Complex will be destroyed. These facts are well known to the Russian Orthodox Church and the Volgograd regional administration. Despite this the question of the construction of this church has already gone form the discussion stage to its practical implementation.

We consider that the construction of a church at the Mamayev Mound defiles the graves of our fathers and is a sacrilege of the monument to all the anti-fascist fighters in our country and abroad who gave their lives to end the fascist yoke in the years of the Second World War. Besides this the construction of a Russian Orthodox Church at the Mamayev Mound is an open outrage on the religious feelings of those heroes buried there who professed other religions.

We turn to the proletariat of Russia and the people of the whole world and appeal for help to stop this outrage to the monument to the heroes who perished in the fierce struggle against the fascist beast in the years of the Second World War!

Help to save from defilement the holy graves of the defenders of Stalingrad who with their valuable lives halted the fascist bands!

Vladimir Nikiforov – Editor in Chief of ‘Proletarskaya Gazeta’.

Anatolii Pyzhov – Secretary for International Relations of the Executive Committee of the Inter-regional United Trade Unions of Russia ‘Defence of Labour’.

Leningrad, Russia.

103132, Russia, Moscow,
Staraya ploshad, dom 4,
President of the Russian Federation,
Putin.

103074, Russia, Moscow,
Kitaigorodskii prospekt, dom 7,
Ministry of Culture of Russia,
The Minister

400060, Russia, Volgograd,
ulitsa Volodarskogo, dom 5,
The Administration
Volgogradskoi Region.

400112, Russia, Volgograd - 112
(Stalingrad), a/ya 2048,
Yevtushenko, Vladimir Nikolaevich
(Newspaper ‘Stalingradskoe Preodoloenie’)

195030, Russia, Leningrad,
Aleksandrovich,
prospekt Nastavniko,
dom 25, korpus 3, k 101,
Nikiforov, Vladimir
(Newspaper ‘Proletarskaya Gazeta’)

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