BEIJING (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th May, 2022) The traditional Immortal Regiment march commemorating the 77th anniversary of the end of World War 2 took place in Beijing on Sunday, gathering about 350 participants, a Sputnik correspondent reported.
The participants, including Chinese nationals, marched to Soviet war-time songs carrying photographs of their relatives fallen in World War 2, followed by a minute of silence in tribute of them.
For the first time this year the event was held on the premises of the Russian embassy due to COVID-19 restrictions.
"Our presence here today is testament to the preservation of historical memory, which is important in the 21st century and is growing even more so every year. The memory that we, living men and women, received from the hands of our fathers, grandfathers, great grandfathers, we must carefully pass down to new generations and entrust them with passing this memory on," Russian Ambassador to China Andrey Denisov told the marchers.
One of the participants, Chinese national Chai Eli born in 1938, told Sputnik that during the war she lived in the International Boarding school in the Russian city of Ivanovo and has attended every Immortal Regiment procession in Beijing.
"My grandfather took part in the war, he fought in the Far East as part of the 88th Separate Rifle Brigade, he was a battalion commander," she said.
Chai said that Victory Day is the most important celebration for her family, and that she plans to watch the broadcast of the Victory Day parade on Red Square in Moscow on May 9.
The tradition to hold annual Immortal Regiment processions was inaugurated in the Russian city of Tomsk in 2012. The next year, the event was celebrated nationwide, spilling over to China in 2016.
