Photo: turbina.ru
The Russian community in Tunisia has renovated the burial site of the sailors of the Russian squadron to commemorate Anastasia Shirinskaya-Manstein, who headed the compatriots in Tunisia for many years. They also painted the stele and planted flowers in the Shirinskaya-Manstein square in Bizerte, where the Black Sea squadron arrived in 1920 after leaving the Crimea for forced emigration, the World Coordinating Council of Russian Compatriots Living Abroad reports.
Anastasia Shirinskaya-Manstein, born in the Russian town of Lisichansk, ended up in Tunisia in 1920 at the age of eight. She arrived on the Zharkiy destroyer commanded by her father. She later studied in Germany but returned to Bizerte and led the work of preserving the memory of the Russian squadron: collected documents, looked after the graves of sailors, supported compatriots in Tunisia and the church built by Russian migrants. In 1997, Anastasia Shirinskaya-Manstein received Russian citizenship, and several years earlier for the first time in 70 years she returned to her native Lisichansk. The woman who was called the angel of the Russian squadron died in 2009.
On the memorial day of Anastasia Shirinskaya-Manshtein, schoolchildren from the MiR club made a trip to places connected with the Russian squadron and the head of the Russian community. They visited the sites at the cemetery of the town of Menzel-Bourguiba, where Russians and Serbs were buried. They also visited the stele installed in honor of Anastasia Shirinskaya-Manstein, and her memorial house. The Russian Cultural Center in Tunisia helped to organize the trip.
Russkiy Mir
