The chairman of the Council Council for films and video visualization of the cultural and historical space of Eurasia of the Eurasian Peoples' Assembly, President of the Eurasian Academy of TV & Radio Valery Ruzin, speaking with the correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza, summed up the results of the 'Preserving the memory of World War II and Great Patriotic War' international public forum, which was held in Baku yesterday.
The forum, organized by the he Eurasian Peoples' Assembly, the Eurasian Academy of Television and Radio and the Association for Studies of Russian Society (AIRO-XXI) with the support of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Culture and the Russian Science and Culture Center in Azerbaijan, was held at the Baku Slavic University.
Valery Ruzin thanked the Azerbaijani colleagues for their high professionalism. "We had a very qualified, very accurate conversation with our Azerbaijani colleagues. We're glad that the topic of preserving the historical memory of the Great Patriotic War is so important for Azerbaijan," he said in the first place.
Valery Ruzin told what prompted the idea of holding the Forum in Baku. “For 15 years we have been conducting the 'Won Together' International festival of documentary films and TV programs in Sevastopol. The idea of holding the 'Preserving the memory of World War II and Great Patriotic War' forum appeared on its basis, expanding the format by including the Eurasian Peoples' Assembly. This topic means a long-term and very important work, in the framework of which it is required to create opportunities in the post-Soviet space for an adequate real assessment of the contribution to the victory of all countries and peoples of the new independent states," the host of the forum said.
"One cannot remove certain parts and events from the Great Victory. Historical science studies the Great Victory more and more deeply now. For example, when we were doing a joint documentary project with China, it turned out that the defeat of Japanese troops near the Chinese city of Changsha in the autumn and winter of 1941 played an important role in the fact that Japan was unable to attack the USSR at the beginning of the war. The Japanese lost more than 50 thousand people in battles near Changsha, and was constrained by the fact that China launched an offensive. Due to this, the Siberian troops defended Moscow instead of the eastern borders, and achieved the first great victory in the Great Patriotic War near Moscow," Valery Ruzin noted.
"And the adviser to Chiang Kai-shek, who planned the defeat of the Japanese troops, was future marshal of the USSR and winner of Stalingrad Chuykov. That is, the then geopolitics and the formation of the Great Victory were very closely connected. Speaking of Azerbaijan, Baku, then the round-the-clock work of the oil fields, of the entire Azerbaijani people was an incredible contribution, which should be appreciated," the President of the Eurasian Academy of TV & Radio emphasized.
“Today, we are certainly able to understand the significance of the home front’s contribution to the Great Victory. Two years ago, four documentaries created by Yekaterinburg colleagues titled 'Equal to the greatest battles' were presented at the festival in Sevastopol. They were dedicated to the home front's work for the Great Victory. And what was being done there, in particular, in Azerbaijan, was equal to the greatest battles," the host of the Baku Forum stressed.
