Putin Greets Russians On National Unity Day In Sevastopol

On National Unity Day, Vladimir Putin visited a memorial complex dedicated to the end of the Russian Civil War in Sevastopol. The President laid flowers at the eternal flame near the monument and congratulated the people of Crimea and all citizens of Russia on the national holiday.

The ceremony is timed to coincide with National Unity Day marked in Russia on November 4. Built on the instruction of the President, the memorial was unveiled on April 22, 2021, on the banks of the Karantinnaya Bay. The Russian Military Historical Society, with support from the International Council of Russian Compatriots, carried out this project; it was designed by Chairman of the Artists’ Union of Russia Andrei Kovalchuk.

The monument presents a sculptural composition with two male figures at the centre symbolising the two opposing sides in the Civil War. Above them rises a statue on a pedestal representing Mother Russia that calls on its sons to be reconciled. The bottom of the monument carries the inscription: “We are a single people, and we have only one Russia.” This is where the eternal flame is burning.

In the autumn of 1920, after the Red Army swept into Crimea, 126 ships and vessels carrying about 150,000 refugees, who were officers of General Pyotr Wrangel’s army, members of their families and the White Army supporters, fled from the peninsula’s ports, with Sevastopol among them. That marked the end of the Civil War battles and its end for the south of Russia. However, the end of confrontation across the country is generally dated by 1922.