Memorial March

On April 28th 2007, Polish and Russian schoolchildren marched together from the Gniezdovo railway station to the Katyń Forest in the First Memorial March. The organizer of the First Memorial March on the Polish side was the Society for Polish-Eastern Cooperation MEMORAMUS, from Poznań, and on the Russian side: the Polish House from Smoleńsk and the “Katyń” National Memorial Complex. This was the first such Polish-Russian initiative in the seven year history of the “Katyń” National Memorial Complex. A group of 150 Polish schoolchildren and their teachers along with a similarly sized group of Russian youth took part in the First Memorial March. The five hour march was part of an educational project conducted by students from seven Poznań schools, titled “The Lasting Memory of Generations”. The project was planned for a six month time span (February to November 2007). It is conducted on various levels and in different forms: at the school and inter-school level, and the project includes lighting candles in in Kuropaty near Minsk in Belarus, student exchanges, a visit to Poznań by the Russian students for the 2nd European Youth Meeting in September 2007.


Polish sponsors of the “Lasting Memory of Generations” project include: Krzysztof Dudek — director of the National Center for Culture in Warsaw, as part of the “Remember. Katyń 1940” educational campaign, Wielkopolskie Voivodship Marshall Marek Woźniak, and Ryszard Grobelny, Mayor of Poznań. A group of students from Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan will come to Poznań for the 2nd European Youth Meeting for the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Rome Treaties. Over the course of these few days, young people from many European countries, along with Polish students, will take part in discussions, plays, sports events, happenings, ecumenical services, concerts, cultural and recreational events, as well as contests. The guests from the East will be under the care of teachers and Polish students from the MEMORAMUS Society.


“Lasting Memory of Generations” is made possible in part by the National Center for Culture.