Volgograd resident plants tree in place of felled "Widows’ Park"

In protest against tree felling, Andrei Popkov, a former deputy of the Regional Duma, has planted today a mulberry tree sapling in the place of the cut-down "Widows’ Park", after the city Mayoralty had announced its plans to build a car parking next to the memorial complex instead of the above park.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on July 27, it became known that the felling of the so-called "Widows’ Park" at the foot of the Mamaev Mound, which Volgograd residents began creating in 1965, was over. The Mayoralty had announced its plans to build a car parking next to the memorial mound. The regional branch of the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments called for the preservation of the "Widows' Park" and not to build a car parking there; however, the director of the Stalingrad Battle Museum-Reserve said that the “Widows’ Park” had never existed and supported the construction of a car parking.

According to Andrei Popkov, he planted a mulberry tree and placed his grandfather’s portrait next to it. His grandfather is Fyodor Spiridonovich Popkov, a Hero of the Soviet Union.

"A mulberry tree is a big strong tree, most suitable for our climatic zone. We need to somehow correct the situation if the authorities wouldn’t like to do it," Andrei Popkov told the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent, adding that "planting the tree is not a PR action, but a purely personal act." "I’m very concerned about this situation. It may be of no sense to visitors and officials who say that there was no park. But Volgograd people perceive it differently," said Andrei Popkov.

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