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The President laid a wreath at the Eternal Flame and visited the Wall of Memory, which is engraved with the names of 8,500 partisans and underground fighters from the Bryansk Region, who died fighting the Nazi invaders.

The memorial was opened in 1969 on the site where the Bryansk City Partisan Detachment set up its first camp in autumn 1941.

During the Nazi occupation, which lasted from July 1941 until September 1943, 139 partisan detachments were active in the Bryansk Region. Sixty thousand people fought in them, and 12 of them were decorated with the Hero of the Soviet Union.

Mr Medvedev spoke over a cup of tea with Great Patriotic War veterans, including former members of partisan detachments. The President noted during the conversation that the task now for Russia and for neighbouring countries that fought Nazism together is to prevent attempts to falsify history and revise the results of World War II. Mr Medvedev also said that there is a need for new books and films about the war’s history.

The President congratulated the veterans on the anniversary of Bryansk’s liberation from the Nazis, and on its City Day holiday.

The veterans presented Mr Medvedev with a commemorative medal honouring the memory of the partisans and underground fighters and issued to coincide with the first celebration of Partisans’ and Underground Fighters’ Day this year. This commemorative date falls on July 29 in Russia.

Later, the President had a working meeting with Governor of Bryansk Region Nikolai Denin, at which housing for veterans was one of items on the agenda.