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Vladimir Putin held a videoconference meeting of the Pobeda (Victory) Organising Committee.

The meeting addressed new applications for the City of Labour Valour honorary title. The agenda also included ways to improve tourist guiding services and the museum sector as well as the objectives of the executive and judicial branches in preserving historical memory.

In his opening remarks, the President wished Army General Anatoly Kulikov, president of the Russian Military Leaders’ Club, a happy 80^th birthday.

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Colleagues, good afternoon.

Before we get down to work, I would like to first of all wish all the best to our colleague on the Pobeda Organising Committee, General of the Army Anatoly Kulikov, President of the Russian Military Leaders’ Club, on his 80^th birthday. Mr Kulikov, I sincerely wish you good spirits, good health, success, and all the very best. Please, go ahead.

Anatoly Kulikov: Thank you, Comrade Supreme Commander-in-Chief.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you for your service.

And now let us move on to the agenda. During today’s meeting we will consider new applications for the honorary title of City of Labour Valour, as well as issues related to the improvement of excursion and museum activities and the missions of the executive and judicial branches in preserving historical memory. These are different topics but they are closely interrelated. What we are dealing with here is a crucial area of state policy: the preservation of historical truth and historical memory.

This is the work we engage in all the time, and it is built on the feats and achievements of previous generations, which are essential for uniting the country and society and educating new generations. These are the values, moral guidelines, and the character of the victors that our children and grandchildren must inherit and preserve. Historical examples play an immensely powerful role here – including the labour heroism of 14- and 15-year-old boys and girls who forged victory on the home front, and numerous young heroes who fought on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War.

One of our key tasks is the preservation of the sites of commemoration, which includes not only war memorials but also buildings that bore witness to landmark events, urban districts, and landscape ensembles. It is here that one enters into an emotional communion with the past, truly understanding the enduring significance of the unbreakable bond between generations and one’s own sense of belonging to the history of one’s homeland. It is precisely in this way – through personal connection – that the sense of responsibility for the Fatherland and national identity are formed.

The Cities of Labour Valour are also places of commemoration. It is of fundamental importance that both residents and visitors to these cities are aware of and pay due tribute to their immense contribution to the Great Victory and to their role in the history of Russia.

Here, I would like to express my gratitude to the fifty municipalities that, in cooperation with the Russian Military Historical Society, have installed City of Labour Valour steles along with the comprehensive landscaping of the adjoining territories and have undertaken this work in a manner befitting the heroism of the homefront workers. Often – and I reiterate this – these were teenagers. Their stories must be given a place in regional museums of local history, which ought to be rich in information about their compatriots: homefront workers and frontline soldiers, veterans of local conflicts, and servicemen taking part in the special military operation.

It is also necessary to make educational and outreach efforts more substantive and wide-ranging. I instruct the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, and the Ministry of Culture, in conjunction with the National Centre for Historical Memory, to continue developing museum and exhibition spaces within cultural and educational institutions, and to prepare methodological recommendations for their integration into learning and educational processes.

Museums represent one of the most effective tools for transmitting historical memory to new generations. In our country, it is often public organisations and citizens themselves who take the initiative to create them. A case in point is the Museum of Memory of the Victims of the Genocide of the Soviet People. This museum was inaugurated in Moscow on June 22, which marked the 85^th anniversary of the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, and constitutes a further development of the No Statute of Limitations major public project, under which systematic, large-scale work began and continues to this day to investigate the facts of the extermination of civilians by the Nazis and their accomplices.

The Military Historical Complex on Shumshu Island is another public initiative supported by the state and the regions. It is dedicated to the final battles of World War II – the Kuril Landing Operation. The plan is for the memorial to be completed by 2030, in time for the Victory Day anniversary.

We will discuss this in more detail today as part of our consideration of the new national memorial route, The Far Eastern Victory.

The national project Tourism and Hospitality Industry proposes increasing the annual number of domestic trips within Russia to 140 million by 2030. But these trips should not only be convenient, safe, and interesting. The key is for people to gain deeper knowledge about the country – its culture, history, and traditions – and a sense of belonging to the fate of the Fatherland.

Much is already being done at both the federal and regional levels. In particular, I would like to highlight the work of Rosmolodezh (the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs) as part of the More Than a Journey project. These are programmes of the Ministry of Economic Development, which have already identified over 140 routes to sites of military glory in 51 regions of the country.

It is gratifying that public organisations are also involved in this work. The Military Historical Society has over 200 routes under the Roads of Victory programme. The Russian Geographical Society is also promoting travel linked to military history research.

It would be appropriate to consolidate all state, regional, and public programmes in the field of patriotic tourism on a single information platform, so that people can easily choose a route based on their capabilities, interests, and group composition; find practical information on transport, accommodation, and child-friendly facilities, as well as professional tour guides.

I repeat: it is important that efforts to preserve the memory of the defenders of the Fatherland and the most important events in the country’s history be built within the framework of a unified state policy, through joint efforts by citizens, government, businesses, and public organisations.

Let us move on to the agenda. Gennady Krasnikov, President of the Russian Academy of Sciences, has the floor.

President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Gennady Krasnikov: Mr President, colleagues,

The labour feat of the Soviet people during the Great Patriotic War is not only an example of selfless service to the Motherland and the unprecedented mobilisation of all resources during wartime, but also clear evidence of the personal contribution by the country’s citizens to Victory.

A systemic policy aimed at developing production mobilised absolutely all available resources. This nationwide effort involved both large plants and small enterprises, as well as millions of people of all ages.

It is no coincidence that the City of Labour Valour honorary title has received such a strong public response. In 2020–2025, the title was awarded to 70 cities.

Since the previous meeting of the Organising Committee, the Russian Academy of Sciences has reviewed 29 applications. In 16 cases, the Academy rejected the applications because there were no formal grounds for awarding the title, while 13 applications were approved. Applications that had received a positive assessment from the Academy during the previous period were also submitted for consideration. Thus, a total of 34 applications were received from 19 regions and seven federal districts. Scientists conducted extensive research and expert assessments.

I would propose focusing on the following 12 applicants: Pervouralsk, Korolev, Yoshkar-Ola, Vyatskiye Polyany, Saransk, Cheremkhovo, Ussuriysk, Berezniki, Kopeysk, Serov, Ukhta, and Biysk. During the Great Patriotic War, enterprises in these cities were awarded orders and Red Banners of the State Defence Committee.

I will begin with the city of Pervouralsk, the centre of pipe manufacturing. Every other artillery gun, as well as every other mortar, was made from Pervouralsk tubes, amounting to more than 465,000 gun tubes. The city also became the main supplier for the Soviet Union’s steel and coke plants. It produced more than half of the country’s total refractory materials, which were used in the construction of coke ovens, glass furnaces, and metallurgical furnaces.

The next city is Korolev, which was known as Kaliningrad during the war. Artillery systems were designed at the Central Artillery Design Bureau in Korolev. Under the leadership of Vasily Grabin, the 100-mm field gun was designed there among other things and went on to become one of the Victory weapons.

Approximately 30 percent of all artillery pieces produced in the USSR were designed by the Korolev Central Artillery Design Bureau.

The repair and restoration of military equipment was also of great importance. In Korolev, teenage workers, guided by experienced specialists, began repairing small arms. By the end of 1941, they had also mastered the repair of tanks and self-propelled artillery systems, as well as the production of grenades and mines. By 1942, they were repairing 203-mm howitzers and guns of other calibres.

We also recommend the city of Yoshkar-Ola, which, following the relocation of evacuated enterprises, became a centre of optical science and the production of optics for military equipment. In particular, it manufactured tank telescopic sights, anti-aircraft rangefinders, sniper sights, and artillery stereoscopic telescopes. More than 91,000 optical sights for Mosin sniper rifles and the Tokarev semi-automatic rifle were produced there, accounting for approximately 20 percent of the total.

The town of Vyatskiye Polyany stands as a vivid testament to our people’s moral fortitude. It became one of the leading and unique centres for the mass production of automatic firearms, operating under the direct supervision of the renowned designer Georgy Shpagin. It supplied the infantry with the finest models of automatic weapons.

The famous PPSh submachine guns were manufactured not at a purpose-built industrial plant, but rather at the ingeniously re-purposed local spool-and-bobbin textile mill. Moreover, the core of the workforce consisted not of experienced workers, but of those who had only recently left school – teenagers from vocational schools, aged just 14 to 15.

The next city is Saransk. It produced approximately 11 million fuses of various types, accounting for every 30^th shell. Its factories also served as the country’s sole supplier of rectifier sets with mercury, copper sulphate, and selenium valves. These units were indispensable for charging batteries and for illuminating military airfields.

In Cheremkhovo, the coal heart of Siberia, miners toiled under the slogan “In labour as in battle.” Following the loss of Donbass and the disruption of the Moscow Region coal basin, the city’s mines became the main supplier of coal for the railways and enterprises of the Trans-Baikal Territory and the Far East. During the war, four of the city’s enterprises were awarded the Red Banner of the State Defence Committee.

In Ussuriysk, tanks were overhauled, self-propelled armoured railcars and military equipment for the Pacific Fleet were repaired, as were hospital trains and tracked vehicles. The city’s workers restored approximately 3,000 Soviet tanks.

The city of Berezniki was one of the main suppliers of chemical products for military needs, and the country’s sole producer of soda ash and caustic soda, as well as metallic sodium, which was utilised in the oil industry to produce top-quality petrol. It was here, at the soda plant, that the technology for producing the incendiary mixture was developed – the very Molotov cocktail used to destroy enemy tanks, self-propelled guns, armoured vehicles, and German fortified positions.

Kopeysk, whose principal industry was coal mining, became a place of evacuation for coal industrial combines of Donbass. During the war years, miners in Kopeysk extracted 16 million tonnes of coal, accounting for over 30 percent of the total coal output of the Chelyabinsk Region. The city’s factories also produced mines, shells, aerial bombs and components for the Katyusha rocket launcher. In 1942–1943 alone, more than three million combat shells of various calibres and types were manufactured.

In 1941, the Serov metallurgists smelted 42 percent of all highly alloyed steel in the country. The city was also the only supplier of malleable, roll-foundry iron in the USSR. In total, over the course of the war, the metallurgists smelted and rolled out 125 critical grades of alloyed steel, which were utilised in the manufacture of aircraft and tanks, as well as in the production of mortars and shells. Every tank built at the Ural Tank Plant in Nizhny Tagil contained ferrochrome produced in Serov.

Ukhta also played a special role. In this oil industry centre, the production of petroleum products was established, supplying oil depots and railways, as well as the Ulyanovsk, Chelyabinsk and Tyumen chemical plants, the Northern Fleet and several military flotillas.

On November 6, 1941, Ukhta launched the first industrial-scale production of channel black in the country. Products derived from natural gas processing were of critical importance to the chemical defence industry. By the end of 1943, more than 50 percent of all (technical) carbon black in the USSR was produced at enterprises in Ukhta.

Finally, one more city we recommend is Biysk, which was among the largest centres for medical care. In Biysk, more than 200,000 wounded were treated in 25 hospitals. During the first two years of the war, Biysk remained the only place in the USSR where endocrine preparations – insulin and adrenaline – were produced for the front. More than six million vials of these preparations were manufactured during the war. In addition, every 30th Soviet soldier wore a uniform sewn in Biysk.

Mr President,

Members of the Organising Committee,

Each of these cities wrote their own chapter in the Great Victory. Victory was forged not only in the workshops of great industrial plants but also through a nationwide feat – when every citizen, from factory director to teenage vocational school student, worked at their limits to defend the Motherland.

The candidate cities for the honorary title we are presenting today are, for the most part, small cities. Nevertheless, they occupied a significant place in the system of military and industrial cooperation during the Great Patriotic War. Taking into account their contribution to the Victory, we propose that consideration be given to awarding them the honorary title of the Russian Federation, City of Labour Valour.

Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you very much, Mr Krasnikov. We will continue our discussion and then, should our colleagues wish to add any comments or formulate a proposal, we will address those as well.

(In his address, Secretary of the United Russia Party General Council Vladimir Yakushev spoke on the party’s participation in implementing the presidential initiative on awarding the honorary title City of Labour Valour to cities and said that, taking into consideration the expert opinions of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the United Russia also suggests considering the possibility of assigning this title to the 12 cities indicated.

Governor of the Primorye Territory, Chair of the State Council Commission on Tourism Oleg Kozhemyako outlined his proposals in tourism; in particular, he suggested conducting a national monitoring of the themed and event tourism and identify relevant itineraries, museums, scientific and educational space, memorials, cultural heritage sites, identify the main historical themes and set a single rule for creating routes, and create a single information resource.

Yelena Tsunayeva, First Deputy Chair of the State Duma Committee on Labour, Social Policy and Veteran Affairs, executive secretary of the Russian Search Movement, a nationwide public movement with a mission to perpetuate the memory of those who lost their lives defending the Fatherland, raised the issue of improving legislation, as well as excursion and museum activities for preserving historical memory.)

Vladimir Putin: Thank you very much.

Are there any other considerations on the subjects we have been discussing? Please, colleagues, at your discretion, go ahead. No? Well, then I will ask my colleagues from the Executive Office above all (turning to Sergey Kiliyenko): Mr Kiriyenko, please sum up with your colleagues our today’s discussion. All these areas should be reflected in corresponding documents, which would continue our work in support of all the efforts that the Pobeda (Victory) Organising Committee is doing in the areas which have been discussed today, so that nothing is forgotten.

Everything we spoke about today is of great importance and great value for the country, for its population and for the upbringing of young people.

Now we have talked about the Far East, about the last landing operation. Few people in the country know what happened there. This is a very interesting and heroic story of the last days of the Great Patriotic War, when people sacrificed their lives after the end of the war in Europe, after crushing German Nazism, and covered the firing ports with their bodies in order to ensure the success of the operation, and so on.

At every stage, in every region of our vast country, there are examples that both present and future generations can and should look to for guidance. This fully applies to projects related to tourism as well.

Of course, it is always pleasant just to admire the nature, however, when it is also associated with such clear content that is extremely important for upbringing young people, it becomes twice, or even three times as interesting and important.

I want to thank everybody for today’s work. All the best, and let’s continue the work of the Pobeda (Victory) committee as it was previously planned.

Thank you, all the best.