Funeral May

In Khimki, the remains of the heroes were moved “away from the roadway”

The authorities of Khimki near Moscow have “rehabilitated themselves” after the scandal that erupted at the end of April due to the clearly poorly chosen timing by officials of transferring the remains of pilots buried at the memorial to the heroes of the Great Patriotic War on Leningradskoye Shosse. Yesterday, the ashes of the heroes were reburied with military honors in the Alley of Heroes of the Novoluzhinsky Cemetery, where a new memorial wall appeared. The funeral ceremony, carried out according to all canons, which was attended by the relatives of the fallen defenders of Moscow, was apparently intended to demonstrate how the Russian approach to such a sensitive problem as the transfer of remains differs from the Estonian one.

There was no direct analogy between the events in Tallinn and Khimki, but against the backdrop of the Estonian scandal, officials of a city near Moscow, who dared to disturb the ashes of the heroes of the Great Patriotic War in April, unwittingly found themselves in the role of making excuses. Both representatives of the Khimki mayor's office and personally the governor of the Moscow region Boris Gromov had to explain that the decision to move the monument, located on the 19th kilometer of the Leningradskoe highway near the NPO named after S.A. Lavochkin, the reburial of the remains of the pilots was decided two years ago. It was especially emphasized that this was being done with the consent of the relatives of the victims (or at least those who were found), despite the fact that the city administration has no legislative obligation to notify descendants. Arguments for the transfer included the need to reconstruct the Leningradskoe Highway, and requests from members of the Khimki Veterans Council, who had long complained about the unfortunate location of the monument - between a busy highway and industrial buildings. Deputy head of the Khimki administration Evgeny Zaporozhets explained yesterday at the reburial ceremony that in the years following the Great Patriotic War, the mass grave ended up in an industrial zone, where “the constant movement of traffic and the replacement of communications create a risk of compromising the safety of the burial.”

Both veterans, deputies of the Moscow Regional Duma, and officials of the Khimki administration believe that the right place was chosen to transfer the remains - “not on the roadway, but in the cemetery.” But over time, it seems, an error occurred. The solemn reburial ceremony was planned for Victory Day. But when it came to opening the graves in the second half of April, the Khimki administration also had many critics - against the backdrop of the events in the Estonian capital, such actions were considered at least inappropriate, if not blasphemous. In order to avoid such accusations and not provoke the development of a scandal, officials had to not only leave the memorial on Leningradka intact, but also speed up the burial of the remains at the Novoluzhinsky cemetery.

Relatives of three of the six fallen heroes were gathered literally all over Russia, and they all supported the idea of ​​​​transferring the ashes away from the highway. “I am pleased and calm that they have found their peace on this beautiful alley,” Klavdiya Tatarenko, the widow of Hero of the Soviet Union Mikhail Rodionov, expressed her agreement with the actual transfer of the monument. And the niece of Lieutenant Boris Wartkin, buried in a mass grave, Margarita Kostina, recalled that her uncle, in fact, returned to the Novoluzhinskoye cemetery, where he was initially buried, but then his remains were transferred to the pilots’ memorial on Leningradskoe Highway. “I am convinced that my uncle’s ashes will take a rightful place in the cemetery and in the hearts of the residents of this city,” she said.

The monument itself at the 19th kilometer of Leningradka, according to the mayor of Khimki Vladimir Strelchenko, “will not be moved anywhere.” “We didn’t put it up, and it’s not up to us to move it,” said the head of the municipality, promising that the monument would be renewed by May 9. In addition, the Khimki administration promises to open two more memorials by Victory Day - a model of the La-5 fighter, which was produced in the city, and a monument to the Liberator Warrior.

Yulia KHOMCHENKO