"In gratitude for your solidarity with the Soviet people in the fight against Nazism. From Stalingrad to Valencia on the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad," reads the plaque.

The plaque's reveal ceremony on February 2 was attended by many residents of the city, the City's political representatives headed by the Mayor Julio Fuenmayor, and members of the diplomatic corps including the Russian Ambassador to Venezuela Mr. Sergei Melik-Bagdasarov.

It was he who read out the celebratory address written and dispatched by the head of Volgograd specifically for this occasion.

"It is especially symbolic," Vladimir Marchenko wrote, "that this memorial plaque is placed on the Square dedicated to the 200 anniversary of the Battle of Carabobo, which was the decisive battle in the war for the liberation of Venezuela from the Spanish colonial rule and a crucial turning point in the history of the Latin America's struggle for independence."

The plaque was jointly made by Volgograd State University and the Bering-Bellingshausen Institute and presented to the Venezuelan side in December 2022 during the 16th Intergovernmental Russian-Venezuelan High-Level Commission.

The leadership of both cities is confident that this event will be a significant step in the development of the friendship and cultural ties between Volgograd and Valencia – the cities that cherish the memory of the events that determined the course of world history and honor the heroism and selflessness of our ancestors.

Photo: Embassy of the Russian Federation in Venezuela