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The ceremony took place as Russia prepares to celebrate the Day of Spring and Labour. Those decorated include workers from various sectors: construction, the metals industry, mining, and the agriculture sector.

With the 66^th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War coming up, the President also presented state decorations to war veterans. Tatyana Romanova received the Order of the Red Banner, and Anatoly Ivanov the Order of the Patriotic War II degree, for their courage and heroism during the Great Patriotic War.

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President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Good afternoon, friends, veterans,

First of all, I want to congratulate you all most sincerely on these state decorations. Present here today are people from various walks of life, here in this hall where, by tradition, we present state decorations as ceremonial music plays. You all come from different professions, you have clearly worked all your lives for your country’s good, and your achievements are the result of your unflagging efforts and constant striving for the utmost professionalism. 

This ceremony is taking place as the country is about to celebrate Labour Day. This holiday has had various names throughout our history, but it has always honoured labour, and we have always celebrated it on May 1. You are all workers and toilers, and this is your holiday. I congratulate you on this occasion and hope you will have a good celebration.

There is always a symbolic dimension in the presentation of any state decorations. They embody the country’s recognition, but they also attest to people’s personal accomplishments and are the tangible proof of their personal achievements in their various professions. These achievements in turn build the success of our entire country.

“Our task today is to ensure that these hands, this labour, get the recognition and recompense they deserve from our country and society. I mean recompense in the broadest sense, everything from actual wages to various moral incentives and the country’s encouragement.”

You represent a wide variety of professions. Here today are builders, metals industry workers, miners, and agriculture sector workers. It is not often that we have such a diverse range of professions represented in one place, and it is good to see today that we have here people from all of our main economic sectors, from industry and from agriculture.

Let me say too that most of our achievements have always been the fruit of our workers’ hands. Any bold new idea goes through a whole chain of transformations, from conception to practical implementation, and at the end of the chain we always find the people whose hands turn these ideas into reality. Our task today is to ensure that these hands, this labour, get the recognition and recompense they deserve from our country and society. I mean recompense in the broadest sense, everything from actual wages to various moral incentives and the country’s encouragement. State decorations are a part of this recognition too.

We still have much to do to properly modernise our industry. The education system will play a big part in this work, and I have been working on precisely this issue over the last few weeks, meeting with people studying in our various vocational colleges, talking with engineers and workers. Our education system’s task today is to prepare people for modern life, because the demands on workers in industry and agriculture have changed completely from what they were even just 10–15 years ago, let alone 30 years ago or more. People need to be ready to be able to learn about and use the latest scientific and technological advances.

Friends, we will soon celebrate the 66^th anniversary of Victory [in the Great Patriotic War]. Everyone here today, and everyone in our country in general, perhaps more than anywhere else in the world, realises just how much we owe our veterans for the very fact that we can live, develop, create new products, produce new achievements, conquer space, and simply live a normal peaceful human life.

Also present here today are veterans of the Great Patriotic War. It gives me special pleasure today to award the Order of the Red Banner to Tatyana Romanova and the Order of the Patriotic War II degree to Anatoly Ivanov. I think that there is something symbolic too in the presentation of these decorations.

The representatives of the various economic sectors here today will receive state decorations including the Order for Services to the Fatherland, the Order of Honour, and the Order of Friendship.

So as not to offend anyone, I will not name any more names, because you all deserve the warmest words and highest praise. I named only our dear veterans. But I want to say to all of you that these high state decorations are the country’s recognition of your achievements and the example you set for young people.

Once again, I congratulate you all and propose that we now begin presenting the decorations.

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