Moscow schoolchildren from Veshnyakov Linguistic Gymnasium № 1389 with profound studying of the German language, attended Dresden visiting their peers from Gymnasium Walldorf.
Employees of German-Russian Culture Institute arranged a project day for the guests from Russia dedicated to the Soviet War Memorials of Dresden. Teachers and students attended the Soviet post cemetery in Dresden where they laid flowers to graves of the Red Army officers.
The problem of preserving the historical look of the Soviet War Memorial has been the center of attention of the Institute for a long time. Absence of distinct agreements between the governments of Germany and Russia regarding the fate of so-called post-war graves opens way to unsanctioned approach to maintaining the graves of the Red Army officers and members of their families buried in Germany. The target group for maintaining the historical look of the Soviet post cemetery which includes members of several social organizations believes that optimization proposed by the German department of the state property would lead to elimination of personal traits and termination of emotional contact between the living and the dead generations.
Professor Wolfgang Schelike believes that a joint German-Russian youth research project directed at preservation of the historical memory and counteraction of attempts to rewrite WWII history could be a possible resolution to the problem.
Vitaly Kolesnik, Dresden
