Volgograd: "Immortal Regiment" gathered 16,000 participants

About 16,000 people went out with portraits of war participants to the "Immortal Regiment" in Volgograd, as estimated by the police, while the organizers of the action assert that much more people joined the march in the process.

The interregional historical and patriotic movement "Immortal Regiment" was born in the city of Tomsk in 2012. The main declared mission is the preservation of personal memory about the war generation in every family. With the transition of the action to the federal level, it has attracted huge interest in Southern Russia, the coordinators of the action assert.

"We see a living example of how the action initiated by a state organization, has grown into a nationwide civil movement. There are two reasons of its popularity: firstly, veterans are perishing; there are quite few of them alive. People feel that what once was a commonplace now turns into a heroic story. Almost all Volgograd residents have relatives who had gone through the horrors of the war. The second reason for the outbreak of patriotism is in the Western sanctions. Many Russians perceive them painfully, as a fact of aggression against our country. The Victory jubilee was the reason for many of them to express their position on this issue," Andrei Bachman, a political analyst, gave his comment on the mass participation of Volgograd residents in the action" Immortal Regiment".

Update as of 09.05.15, 6:33 p.m.: the police data about 16,000 participants was reaffirmed to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by the Volgograd coordinator of the "Immortal Regiment" Natalia Burtseva.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.