“Leningrad Monument” Opens in Tashkent to Mark 80th Anniversary of Victory

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) — In honor of the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory, the “Leningrad Monument” was unveiled in Tashkent within the Victory Park memorial complex. The monument commemorates the heroism and generosity of the Uzbek people, who were among the first to assist evacuated citizens of Leningrad during World War II.

The opening ceremony was attended by representatives of the Government of Uzbekistan, Tashkent’s Hokim Shavkat Umurzakov, and siege survivors residing in the capital.

Governor of Saint Petersburg Alexander Beglov emphasized that the careful attention of the presidents of Russia and Uzbekistan to the memory of the Great Patriotic War laid the foundation for this event, which he said would go down in the history of both cities and serve as a tribute to their shared past and the heroism of the older generation.

During the war, families in Tashkent and across Uzbekistan took in over 4,500 evacuated children, including orphans. Among those evacuated to Uzbekistan were prominent Leningrad writers and poets such as Anna Akhmatova, Alexei Tolstoy, Korney Chukovsky, and Ilya Ehrenburg. Leningrad institutions continued their work in Tashkent, including the Soviet Star Spinning and Weaving Factory, the Leningrad branch of the Institute of History, the Kalinin Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, LETI, the Pulkovo Observatory, the Vulkan Factory, the Institute of Cinema Engineers, and the Leningrad Conservatory faculty and musicians, who performed Dmitry Shostakovich’s famed 7th Symphony in the Grand Hall of the Tashkent Opera on June 23, 1942—a piece recently played in blockaded Leningrad.

The “Leningrad Monument” was designed by Saint Petersburg architects Anatoly and Lada Chernov and sculptor Vladislav Manachinsky, with project funding provided by the Vozrozhdenie company from Saint Petersburg. Tashkent city authorities organized landscaping around the monument.

Governor Beglov noted that siege survivors living in Tashkent were invited to the monument’s unveiling and expressed gratitude to them on behalf of the people of Saint Petersburg.

He stressed that the city’s doors are always open to veterans and underscored the importance of preserving the memory of heroism and the unity of the two nations during the war.