Residents of besieged Leningrad meet in Makhachkala

Makhachkala, January 29, 2015. Residents of the besieged Leningrad living in Makhachkala met at Dagestan ministry of national policy. The meeting was attended by Lyudmila Alerzaeva, Valentine Belyakov, Marina Bessalova, Evdokia Matveeva and Galina Sukhomlinova who had been awarded the "Citizen of besieged Leningrad."

Opening the event, Dagestan deputy minister of national policy Arsen Makhmudov reminded that on January 27 Russia paid tribute to the memory of the great heroic event – the Day of the complete liberation of the besieged Leningrad. "This is an unparalleled historic example. This is all about courage, heroism and loss. The whole country, all the regions including Dagestan were helping the heroes survive in this disaster. Many people fr om the besieged city got families in Dagestan. I wish you, first of all, good health," Makhmudov said.

Then, in an informal atmosphere guests shared their memories of the life in the besieged city. Almost all of them were under 11 those days; they were very young when they had to face all the horrors of war.

Lyudmila Alerzaeva noted that the residents of Leningrad showed all the courage and heroism of our multinational state. There were people fr om all over the country including many Dagestanis. And no one asked who you were, or what nationality you were, or wh ere you came from. We only tried to help each other somehow. You have to be faithful to the land wh ere you were born to, love and defend it. This is the most important thing.

During the discussion, the survivors also shared their current problems like social protection of veterans. Following the meeting, participants were given presents from the ministry.