Pridnestrovians lit candles of memory on the 84th anniversary of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War

Small but infinitely significant lights were lit at the foot of Pridnestrovian monuments and obelisks on the night of June 21-22. Not just candles. The light of grateful memory and sorrow. Thousands of Pridnestrovians united in the "Candle of Memory" event – a symbol of undying respect for those Pridnestrovians gave their lives for peace and freedom.

Nazi Germany and its allies treacherously attacked the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. Thus began the Great Patriotic War, which lasted 1418 days and claimed the lives of tens of millions of people.

The PMR President Vadim Krasnoselsky addressed the Pridnestrovians on the day the war began.

The traditional requiem rally was held84 years later at the capital's Glory Memorial on June 22 at 3:58 am. Heads of state authorities, military personnel, public figures and young descendants of the victors – students of universities and colleges, Suvorov military college pupils, cadets and young army members – came to honor the memory of those who died in the terrible war.

The assembled people held lamps with candles in their hands. Each candle is someone's story. The story of a soldier who did not return from the front. The story of a mother who did not wait for her son. Pridnestrovie bowed its head in memory of the great feat of the great people in the pre-dawn silence of June.

The First President of the PMR, the head of the Advisory Assembly of the first Pridnestrovian deputies Igor Smirnov honored the memory of the fallen heroes. The "Candle of Memory" event in memory of the victims of the Great Patriotic War was first held in Tyumen in 2004. It has become international two decades later. Candles in memory of the heroes whose lives were taken by the war are lit all over the world – from Washington to Sydney. After all, memory is alive as long as the Candle of Memory burns.