A monument to Soviet-French Normandie-Niemen squadron will be erected in a park near school No.56 on Lezhnevskaya Street in Ivanovo. The construction of the monument was started in accordance with the instructions of Pavel Konkov, the governor of Ivanovo Region, and the head of the regional center’s administration Alexey Khohlov, press-service of the Ivanovo Region government reports.
According to Pavel Konkov, the design of the monument to Normandie-Niemen squadron developed by people’s artist of Russia Vladimir Surovtsev and architect Vladimir Syagin has been approved. The opening of the memorial is scheduled for August in the network of military patriotic holiday “Open Skies”. «The history of this squadron is another heroic page in the history of citizens of Ivanovo, who participated in the Great Patriotic War. We are endlessly thankful to French and Russian pilots and technicians,» Pavel Konkov said. He also thanked Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Embassy of France in Russia, and Russian Peace Foundation for participating in fundraising and construction of the memorial.
President of Association of Veterans of the 1st fighter regiment Normandie-Niemen Anatoly Fetisov and daughter of veteran of the Great Patriotic War, mechanic of the Normandie-Niemen squadron Evgeny Vasilievich Belyankin - Irina Belyankina took part in the solemn ceremony dedicated to start of the construction.
We remind you that the memorial will include two persons – pilot and aircraft mechanic. The persons will be made of bronze and the pedestal will be made of natural stone. Surnames of all the French pilots and Russian mechanics of the squadron will be engraved on the pedestal. The composition of the monument has something in common with the one installed in Le Bourget (also dedicated to Russian-French brotherhood in arms), which was opened in September 2006.
«The regiment was founded in 1942. In March 1942 French Committee of National Liberation “Fighting France” offered the Soviet authorities to send a group of French pilots and aircraft mechanics to USSR in order to fight Nazi Germany. On November 25th 1942 the agreement between USSR and France was signed and on December 4th 1942 the squadron was formed in Ivanovo. 13 citizens of Ivanovo were members of the Normandie-Niemen. The squadron operated Yak-1 fighters (and later Yak-9 and Yak-3). The squadron’s pilots performed over 5000 sorties and participated in about 900 aerial fights. On November 28th 1944 the regiment was awarded with the title “Nemanski” for courage demonstrated during liberation of Lithuania and cutting across Neman River. The regiment also participated in the Battle of Kursk in 1943, Belarusian operation in 1944, fights against German army in Eastern Prussia in 1945,» the press-service reminded.
