It was a typical May Sunday morning in Moscow: almost no cars on the roads, and as for people - there were only early morning runners and those taking their dogs for a walk. Suddenly a figure quite unexpected for the early morning catches one’s eye; on the side of the road stands a participant of the Great Patriotic War. This is 92-year-old Colonel Vasily Panteleevich Mrug, in a uniform coat, with thick rows of the Orders and medals glittering from his chest, and a suitcase is next to him. Vasily Panteleevich is as regular as clockwork. He smiles and greets our car with a phrase in English: "I'm ready". Ready to go. To London.

     That was how the first day of the trip began. After picking up Vasily Panteleevich, on the way to the airport the car fetched another member of the delegation, Boris Samoilovich Golovchiner, a former front-line paratrooper, who told us that just a day ago he received another award – the Jubilee Medal “100 Years of the Red Army”. It is quite amazing to realise that the entire history of the Red Army is just a few years older than the ages of the two Red Army men, who I was fortunate enough to travel with to Sheremetyevo airport. At the airport, we met the rest of our delegation. People around were taking photos of the veterans, even the airport staff took part in it. And then began a farewell of a typical nature for such occasions – with Maria Semyanskaya performing touching melodies on her electric violin. There were parting words “Good journey!”, the command “Veterans, fall in!” sounded.

     When the active preparations for the trip of the Great Patriotic War veterans to the UK began in early March 2018, it seemed that everything was against us: the relationships between the two countries had been poor for some time and the requirements for visas tightened. Trip funding was insufficient and, finally, our veterans’ health was not improving. Yet, despite these complications, all the veterans had nevertheless voted in favour of the trip – they had seen worse on active service. The trip to London for our group of Russian participants in the Great Patriotic War is not just a tradition of the last few years, but also a page in history of the great generation of victors who cannot be stopped by either long trips, difficulties or the burden of years. This year seven WWII veterans visited Great Britain, of whom the oldest, Nikolay Lukyanovich Dupak, was 97 years old while the youngest, Nikolay Konstantinovich Imchuk, was 88.

     The first day in the UK was spent mainly on the road. But the time passed quickly with such interesting company and was full of pleasant moments: a joint photo with the flight attendants on board of the Aeroflot plane; a transfer on the small electric cars through London airport with the local staff attending to our veterans with care and understanding and also happy to have a photoshoot together at the end; hiking songs on the speed train from London to York (a city 400km to the north of the capital) under the curious gaze of ordinary British civilians who listened with interest to war songs that must have been incomprehensible to them:

“You wait, Elizabeth, a greeting from your friend,

You can’t fall asleep until dawn, longing for me…”

     Upon arrival in York, we spent the rest of the evening getting to know the city. We learned that it is mortally dangerous for an armed Scotsman to be inside the perfectly preserved ancient Roman city walls! The tour was on foot and we should pay tribute to the resilience of the veterans who walked some distance to enjoy the evening sunset on the ancient bridge over the River Ouse from where we could contemplate the splendour of York Minster.

     The next day we had scheduled a morning visit to Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire. Major Miles Blackford, the detachment commander of the Combined Cadet Force, who was awaiting his guests in the full-dress uniform of the Royal Gurkha Rifles, met the veterans’ bus at the college entrance. Father Wulstan, the headmaster of the college - which is situated on the site of a Benedictine monastery - and Major Blackford not only managed to organise a very welcoming meeting for the Russian veterans but also easily connected with them despite not knowing a word of Russian. This meeting in Ampleforth was full of memorable events and will be well remembered by all the participants – both the guests, CCF cadets and the teachers.

     There was a wreath-laying ceremony at the war memorial, a minute’s silence in memory of those who fell on all fronts of WWII, then the solemn handing over of the icon of St. George the Victorious and of course a lively conversation between the young people and the former war soldiers. The war veterans, divided to attend different groups, answered many questions from the school pupils. It was noticeable how sincerely and respectfully the young boys and girls looked at the old soldiers sitting in front of them. Among the speakers was also a local resident, Austin Byrne, who had sailed on the Arctic Convoys. He told a story of a miraculous rescue by Soviet sailors and doctors of a handful of men who survived after a British ship was torpedoed. There was also a performance of the hymn of the Russian Navy, which Ampleforth heard for the first time. It was a pleasure to conclude such a spiritual event with the appropriate lines:

“Then the water is like a ground to us

And the crew is a family for us

And then none of us would mind

To serve in the Navy forever”

           The second half of the day was even busier, at least as far as music is concerned. The veterans met in the city of Leeds where the local Russian community prepared a gala evening dedicated to the Victory Day celebration. Children and adults took turns on stage, reading poems, singing songs, dancing. This evening was remembered with an incredible feeling of homely warmth and closeness. For Valentin Aleksandrovich Soldatov, the 89-year-old former Navy cadet from the Solovetsky Naval School for Young Sailors, one of his main interlocutors was Jane Dowson, the Lord Mayor of Leeds. At the festivities, the Mayor mentioned that she preferred meeting with men over 45 – at which, the former torpedo boat boatswain quipped “What about men who are twice forty-five?” As one of the guests at the table observed, after that a spark of sincere friendship flew between the two. All the group photos from Leeds look like snapshots of one big family made up of different generations and nations but with common values and history.

     VE Day in Great Britain is celebrated on 8 May, and is not a public holiday. As the group arrived at London’s King Cross Station, the veterans were again the centre of attention. Both station staff and passers-by did not miss the opportunity to take joint photos with the veterans in formal military dress coats wearing their insignias and medals. Russian TV journalists from Channel-1 also met our delegation.

     It was also 8 May when we had one of the most memorable events of the trip – a gala reception in honour of the VE Day on HMS Belfast which is permanently moored on the River Thames, opposite the famous Tower Bridge. As was mentioned by Russia-loving Tim Lewin (the son of Admiral of the Fleet Lord Lewin, who took part in the Arctic Convoys and later went on to be the Chief of the Defence Staff, United Kingdom, during 1979-1982), these annual gatherings of the Allies are not just about formal smiles and handshakes on camera but valuable moments of communication for our veterans which lends hope to the continuity of the century-old friendship of our peoples. During the formal reception, Alan West, a former Chief of the Naval Staff during 2002-2006, emphasised the importance of the preservation and development of the Russian-British veteran relationship.

     At one point, our front-line soldier, Anatoly Pavlovich Zhivov, approached a table with the representatives from Jamaica and offered a toast to eternal friendship, and after which he had a talk and a firm handshake with the Jamaican veteran Neil Flanigan. The paths of these two veterans had crossed at HMS Belfast. Both are surprisingly young-looking (although both are far advanced in their 90’s), both understood perfectly each other’s stories about the hardship of wartime which they had experienced first-hand as a Soviet infantryman and a RAF mechanic.

     The 8th of May evening on board of HMS Belfast was marked by another important event – the sunset ceremony and the colours’ presentation to the veterans from Russian as a symbol of long-standing friendship. The White Ensign was solemnly received by the Honoured Artist of Russia and Ukraine, Nikolay Lukyanovich Dupak, as the most senior of the war veterans, confidently saluting a young British Navy man and later reciting from memory several poems. The most memorable lines of which were the following:

“Oh, love and friendship, you alone

Stand undivided in this world

In happy times and in misfortunes

When we are young, when we are old.

And while our hopes and earthly pleasures

Can play their trickery on us,

A lot may vanish into thin air

But our friendship never does”

     In addition to the response message, the Russian delegation made a gift to the HMS Belfast Association, presenting Timothy Lewin with the icon of the Righteous Warrior St. Feodor Ushakov. The icon depicting the canonised Russian admiral was brought by the former Solovetsky Naval School cadets, Valentin Aleksandrovich Soldatov and Aleksandr Vasilyevich Lochagin, who long before the trip thought about an appropriate present and managed to consecrate it in one of the churches in Russia.

     The warmest meetings and most profound emotions awaited the Russian veterans on Victory Day, 9 May. The celebrations traditionally begin with a viewing of the Moscow Parade in the hotel, and then move to the Imperial War Museum, where the group arrived for the wreath-laying ceremony at the Soviet War Memorial commemorating the 27 million citizens who perished during the war. The veterans solemnly marched along the avenue to the song "Varyag", proudly carrying regimental colours. The wreath-laying ceremony was observed by several hundred people, and when it ended a lot of our compatriots lined up to talk to living participants in, and witnesses of, the war. There were performances of battle songs accompanied by guitar playing, laughter and stories about relatives and friends. The veterans were approached by entire families wishing just to say "thank you" to them and take a picture with the young children in their arms. One girl, little more than a year old, was very interested in the Ushakov medal on the chest of Alexander Vasilyevich Lochagin. Those around suddenly noticed that the girl was dressed in the colours of the St. Andrew's flag. The Russian veterans were also approached with congratulations by official delegations such as a group of young people headed by the Defence attaché of the Republic of Kazakhstan who, first of all, wanted to chat with their fellow countryman, Vasily Panteleevich Mrug, a native of Aktobe region, Kazakhstan. Vasily Panteleevich was very glad to reciprocate and to accommodate a young girl from the Kazakh group who just wanted to hold his hand while they communicated. Another symbolic moment was the meeting of the veteran paratrooper, Boris Samoilovich Golovchiner, with a brave paratrooper from the Baltics, Igor Kondrashin, who served in Afghanistan in the 40th Army’ special forces unit. Their blue berets were easily noticeable among all those gathered, and they talked like old friends, despite an age difference of 50 years.

     In the afternoon, those celebrating the Victory Day gathered in Trafalgar Square, from where the participants of the "Immortal Regiment" walked in a compact column towards Parliament. Nikolay Konstantinovich Imchuk who walked confidently carrying regimental colours headed the group of Russian veterans. Nikolay Imchuk amazes everyone by his stamina and amiable smile, and veterans and other participants of this solemn procession were ready to follow him without feeling tired. His life story is no less amazing as during the war Nikolay Konstantinovich had an incredible journey from when he was an 11-year-old boy, who got into a POW camp near Uman (Ukraine), to being the son of the regiment and a participant in the liberation of Ukraine, Romania, Hungary and Austria. The "Immortal Regiment" reached its destination but the celebrations did not end there. After songs and photographs opposite Westminster Abbey, the veterans were invited to a concert held at the representative office of Rossotrudnichestvo (the Russian cultural centre). The very sincere and heart-warming speeches of our compatriots filled the day with joyful emotions and created a festive feeling.

     The final, but nevertheless remarkable and memorable, trip to Portsmouth took place on 10 May. The delegation from Russia, which was fortunate enough to enjoy unusually warm and sunny British weather for the fifth day in a row, visited the D-Day Story museum accompanied by the newly elected Lord Mayor of Portsmouth, Councillor Lee Mason, where they met some British war comrades. Lewis Trinder, a 93-year-old veteran of the Royal Navy, told Vasily Panteleevich Mrug about himself and his activities despite having lost his eyesight almost completely. He showed his old photographs, in one of which he stood next to his father in 1942 and impersonated a famous character from a humorous TV series about those times, "Private Pike". Meanwhile Nikolay Lukyanovich Dupak introduced himself to 99-year old Geoffrey Hayward, who took part in battles in Egypt in 1942, in the invasion of Sicily in 1943 and in the Normandy landings on D-Day. Geoffrey Hayward retained a great sense of humour and joked that being an Englishman in a Scottish division he had more problems from the fellow Scots than, perhaps, from the Germans. Nikolai Lukyanovich, with a smile on his face, instead of telling about his military exploits or how he commanded a cavalry squadron at the age of 21 and was more than once seriously injured, read a Boris Slutsky's poem "The Voice of a Friend":

“Let’s get it straight, my fellows

Don't beat around the bush

It wasn’t just the drinking

Or sitting on your tush

We also were preparing

To fight until we die

And to become immortals,

The voices from the sky”

     At the conclusion of both the day and the entire trip, the group of veterans boarded the famous HMS Victory, the ship from which Admiral Horatio Nelson commanded the fleet at the famous Battle of Trafalgar. The ship struck everyone by its greatness and by the fact that, despite the years, it is still in excellent condition thanks to the firmness of spirit, determination of character and acts of bravery of the people who served on this ship, and who take care of it now.

     The ship was a symbol of the strength and greatness of the veterans who were standing in front of her and all of whom, like this magnificent ship, are also indefeasible and steadfast, capable of surviving deadly battles, able to weather any storm and be a winner, while simultaneously being in need of our care and attention.

     At the end, as a witness and trip organizer, I would like to share a story, which took a place on our return flight from London to Moscow (SU 2579) on 11 May at about 15:50 GMT. Observing the veterans, I had noticed that something was wrong with Col (Retd) Vasily Mrug (92). He had been eating his main course (he was sitting on 6A seat behind my 5C seat) and started gasping for air. I called our group doctor, Igor Telegin. It took us several seconds to remove the almost breathless Vasily Mrug’s body from his chair and lay him on the floor in the aisle.

     I held his feet above his body according to the first aid manual, while Igor was checking whether he had had a heart attack (the symptoms were obvious). Mrs. Kathy Mellor, who was sitting on 4C seat and later turned out to be a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner, MBE from the UK, joined the first aid group quickly, and an Aeroflot flight attendant brought an oxygen mask. Kathy Mellor gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Both doctors turned the veteran on his left side, which helped to remove a piece of carrot stuck in his throat, and immediately Vasily’s natural breathing was restored. The oxygen mask helped make his recovery complete. By the Lord’s mercy, we saved Vasily Mrug’s life. On arrival at the airport, an ambulance team checked his condition and confirmed that he was well.

     I appreciate our combined Russo-British efforts to save Vasily Mrug’s life. It reminds me about the Arctic Convoys (Churchill called them “the worst journey in the world”). History repeated itself on the 73rd anniversary of the VE-Day. Russian and British citizens were on the same craft, and the British woman was destined to rescue a Russian veteran! Hurrah!

     In this year which has been declared in Russia the “Year of the Volunteer”, I would like to sincerely thank our group of reliable assistants: Valdas Adamovichus, Andrei Beklemishev, Dr. Igor Telegin, the Kalinin family, Irina Bormotova, Elena Mulenkova, Maria Semyanskaya, and many other of our dear friends who participated in organising the visit of the Russian veterans to Great Britain. I would like to express special gratitude to our sponsors who supported this project: PJSC Aeroflot, Sovcomflot, British Petroleum Russia and private individuals. We are grateful to them all.

The authors of the article:

· The trip participant – Andrei Sergeevich Beklemishev

· The co-organiser of the Russo-British project “The Last Soldier of the WWII” – Lt. Col. (Retd.) Alexander Ivanovich Goncharov, a veteran of military service.

Mobile: +7 916-060-18-91 WhatsApp, Email: sgonchar@rambler.ru

A link to the photo album about the trip of the Great Patriotic War veterans to Great Britain, May 06-11, 2018.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1olga32CLHAsb54mGW4udDvGl6UC6UPgd

1.Video about the visit of the Russian-Latvian veteran delegation in 2015. (9 min.).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuY2LpS7d2k&feature=youtu.be

2. Video about the visit of the Russian veteran delegation in 2016 (4 min.).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg6QOZnhA7Q&feature=youtu.be