OREANDA-NEWS. In the city of Kirsanov of the Tambov region in the Military cemetery a monument was opened to pilots of the 1st Ryazan Officers’ Higher School of night crews of long-range air force killed in the region in 1944. Representatives of the trade union of IDGC of Centre - Tambovenergo division organized raising funds among employees of the executive branch, which it was built on. The main initiator of this idea was Deputy Chief of Kirsanovsky Distribution Zone for sale of services Sergey Kolychev, who for many years has been engaged in the search operation associated with the restoration of names of pilots, who died during the Great Patriotic War.

The delegation of the Tambov branch of IDGC of Centre headed by Director Vladimir Syschikov took part in the opening ceremony of the monument. The power engineers laid a wreath at the monument and paid tribute to the dead pilots with a minute of silence. Vladimir Syschikov in his address to the participants of the event noted that the staff of Tambovenergo for many years had been involved in the work to perpetuate the memory of the heroes of the Great Patriotic War. "This is our contribution to the education of future generations," stressed the head of the branch.

Among the invited guests at the opening of the monument there was a delegation of the 43rd Centre of deployment and training of flight crews of long-range air force of the city of Ryazan (successor to the 1st Ryazan Officers’ Higher School of night crews of long-range air force), headed by Deputy Head of the Centre Mickail Klein. "For me it is a great honour and responsibility to be present at the opening of the obelisk to the fallen pilots. It is important, even after several decades, to immortalize the names of war veterans, who gave their lives defending their homeland. Many thanks to the management and staff of Tambovenergo for showing respect for the memory of the young pilots," he stressed in his speech.

Employees of the Tambov branch of IDGC of Centre each year do hard work to perpetuate and preserve the memory of the heroes of the war. Deputy Chief of Kirsanovsky Distribution Zone Sergey Kolychev helped find out the names of more than 20 pilots, navigators, gunners, radio operators, who died in the Tambov region, including those two crews buried in Kirsanov. In 2013 he used his personal funds to erect a monument to the crew of the Li-2 aircraft of the Air Division Task, who died in February 1944 in the crash near the village of Kobyaki in Kirsanovsky district.

With the active participation of the power engineers in the village of Kovylka in Kirsanovsky district a memorial was built and opened in 2011 to soldiers, who died during the war. There are busts of soldiers - natives of these places: the only among residents of the village of Kovylka Full Holder of the Order of Glory Mikhail Abramov and Hero of the Soviet Union Alexander Surov. Employees of the Tambov branch of IDGC of Centre patronage over the memorial. On the eve of the 70th anniversary of the victory they cleaned up the surrounding premises, planted spruce and apple trees, as well as renewed bronze coating on the busts of the heroes. And on May 9 the power engineers participated in the celebrations held there and organized for the villagers work of a field kitchen with soldiers’ porridge.