Arctic convoys celebrated
70 years since the first Northern convoy arrived in Arkhangelsk. Large-scale jubilee with participants from USA, Great Britain, France, Poland and Canada. See photo reportage.
Solemn arrangements take place in the region every year on the 31st of August, but this time they were especially grandiose, because exactly 70 years ago the first allied convoy PQ-0 under the code name “Dervish” arrived to Arkhangelsk from Great Britain.
The program of celebrations designed for several days includes several happenings. Delegations of diplomats, military men and veterans came to Arkhangelsk from the USA, Great Britain, France, Poland and Canada to participate in the arrangements. There are also around 80 veterans from other parts of Russia – Moscow, Saint-Petersburg, Bryansk, Murmansk and Arkhangelsk Oblast.
The significance of this date and the celebrations for Arkhangelsk is evidenced by the fact that in the middle of the week, in the middle of a regular working day traffic was stopped in the central streets and avenues of the city. Public transport had to change their routes to give the roads for the parade. After the memorial meeting and flower-laying ceremony at the Victory Monument (etrnal flame) Arkhangelsk garrison forces and navy seamen from the Belomorskaya Naval Base marched along the central avenue of the city.
During these days and celebrations the guests of the Pomor capital learned a lot about the history of the exploration of the Russian North, visited monuments and memorials, met present-day seamen and ordinary people. But the most important thing is that the met and had contacts with younger generation: cadets, students, schoolchildren.
The symbol of the celebrations was made in the form of a scarlet carnation framed in a ribbon in the colours of the St. Andrew’s flag.
During the Great Patriotic War Arctic convoys delivered almost one fourth of all the military machines and equipment, weaponry and food supplies received by the Soviet Union from Great Britain and the USA. Half of all the cargo went via Arkhangelsk and Molotovsk (present-day Severodvinsk).
Northerners escorted the convoys together with the naval men and the aviation pilots from the allied forces. Their way through the Arctic seas was the shortest – 2000 miles, but the most challenging. Totally around 1400 vessels bearing strategic cargo arrived to the Soviet Union from August 1941 to May 1945 under the lend-lease agreement.
Text and photos: Anastasia Sazhenova
