On October 3, 2012 a ceremonial reburial of 269 Soviet soldiers, died in 1941-1943 in the Smolensk region, took place on the Barrow of Glory of Desnogorsk – a satellite city of Smolensk NPP. Their remains were found by the search elements “Vysota” (Altitude), “Obelisk” and “Za Rodinu” (Pro Patria) during Memory Watches of 2010-2012.

Hundreds of Desnogorsk citizens came to bid the final farewell to the Red Army soldiers: veterans of the Great Patriotic War, search elements, school students, and employees of Smolensk NPP and enterprises of the city. Taken part in the ceremonial reburial were Director of Smolensk NPP, Andrey Petrov, Head of the Municipal Entity of Desnogorsk, Vladimir Blokhin, Head of the Military Registration and Enlistment Office, Sergey Sibilev, Beneficiary of the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow”, Archpriest Vitaly Sladkov.

“67 years ago the Great Patriotic War finished, but today, once again there comes back the echo of this terrible for our native land war, which took away millions of the best sons and daughters from our country,” said in his speech Director of Smolensk NPP, Andrey Petrov. “Hundreds of thousands of the Soviet soldiers and officers still remain unburied on the battlefields. Search operations are held across the country and our search elements from Desnogorsk, Roslavl and Smolensk work hard to return the soldiers died on Smolensk land from oblivion.”

Thanks to the found medallions and personal things, the search elements identified names of five Red Army soldiers: Sapenkov Andriyan Ivanovich (born in 1899 in Kalchugi, the Ivanovo region), Ustinov Stepan Nikolayevich (originally from Pochinok Andreyevsky village of Reshetnikov Rural Council, Sukhinichesky district, the Kirov region), Kharchilava David Kotseyevich (place of birth is not established, died in 1943 near the village Soboli of Kuybishev district, the Smolensk region), Bey Vasily Vasilyevich and Magomachi Yusup.

Searchers managed to find relatives of two soldiers: relatives of Vasily Bey – in Khmelnitskyi (Ukraine), and Yusup Magomachi – in Dagestan, and invited them for the burial ceremony. The relatives were given capsules with the ground from the place of death of the soldiers. The remains of Yusup Magomachi were taken by his family to bury at home.  

Desnogorsk searchers continue searching relatives of the other three men and ask to respond all those who have any information about the dead soldiers’ families. Please, contact the Public Information Centre of Smolensk NPP by phone: +7 (48153) 7-33-78.

Smolensk NPP is a branch of Rosenergoatom Concern OJSC. Annually SNPP provides the country power system at an average of about 20 billion kWh of electrical power, which makes about 13% of energy produced by Rosenergoatom Concern and more than 80% produced by the power enterprises of the Smolensk Region.

Public Information Centre of Smolensk NPP has a round clock telephone-answering system where you can get information on the nuclear power plant. Telephone: +7(48153) 3-21-24.

On line detailed data on the radiation environment near nuclear power plants in Russia and other nuclear facilities are provided on website www.russianatom.ru