Vyacheslav Volodin: It Is Our Duty to Do Everything to Protect the Historical Truth

Today is the second day of the International Patriotic Forum "Great Heritage – Common Future", taking place in Volgograd. Parliamentary delegations of all the CSTO Member States and a number of friendly countries have come to the Hero City of Volgograd to attend the event.

Vyacheslav Volodin, Chairman of the CSTO PA and Chairman of the State Duma, giving a welcoming speech at the plenary session, stated the importance of protecting history from falsification.

"Our duty is to do everything to protect history, to prevent its distortion. We are obliged to remember those who died fighting for every town and village, for every street and beloved home. For us, the Second World War is the Patriotic War. The Victory was hard-won. Hard-won by the multinational Soviet people, whose descendants are sitting now in this hall. Thank you for finding the opportunity to come here on this day, come to this wonderful city, the Hero City of Volgograd," Vyacheslav Volodin said.

He emphasized that the turning point that determined the outcome of the Great Patriotic War and the entire Second World War took place in the city of Volgograd.

"The Battle of Stalingrad lasted 200 days and nights. The multinational Soviet people did everything to save the world from fascism. We are bound by the memory of those events and, of course, it's very good that today, on the eve of the 80th Anniversary of the Victory, the representatives of the peoples who were once one state, one family, found an opportunity to come and join us," the Chairman of the State Duma of the Russian Federation pointed out.

The final plenary session will start at 14:00. Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, and Aleksandr Lukashenko, President of Belarus, will both attend the session. The heads of state will also visit the monument ensemble "To the Heroes of Stalingrad Battle" on Mamayev Kurgan, and have a separate talk.