A new historical site has been created, thanks to the power engineers in Petrozavodsk

As part of the Victory Day celebrations, Karelian veterans and power engineers, and staff from JSC TGC-1 staged a flower-laying ceremony at an historical site that is new for Petrozavodsk.

Thanks to veteran of the Karelian power engineering Viktor Ivanovich Rybakov, and the JSC TGC-1 power engineers, there is now a monument in the Karelian capital, to the Great Patriotic War hero, Nikolai Varlamov. In 1943, he heroically closed the enemy bunker’s gun-opening with his body on the banks of the River Onda; in giving his life, he ensured the success of the offensive. A granite bust of the hero now looks out from the yard of the Rechnoaya Academy onto Varlamov Str., from which this soldier went to the front.

The Vyg HPPs Cascade of JSC TGC-1 and the name of the war hero Nikolai Varlamov have been closely associated for over 30 years. Viktor Ivanovich Rybakov who managed the Vyg HPPs Cascade for over 36 years, pioneered the immortalisation of this hero’s memory and was the organiser of the Varlamov Movement. This movement united the military scout brigades and patriotic militia into one integral unit.

“We unveiled a monument to Varlamov on May 8, 1992 in the village of Kamenniy Bor for one reason only, says Honorary RSFSR Power Engineer and citizen of the Republic of Karelia, Viktor Rybakov. — The village of Kamenniy Bor’s second name is Onda, as the village is located on the banks of the old river bed. We worked here for over 25 years with children from the residential children’s home, as part of a military and patriotic education scheme. We organised trips, meetings with veterans and many other important and interesting activities. During the perestroika years, the school and children’s home, the square of which features the bust of the hero Varlamov, was turned into a detention facility. It was under these conditions that the idea came to move it to Petrozavodsk.

The power engineers from the JSC TGC-1 Vyg HPPs Cascade dismantled the monument and transported it to Petrozavodsk. The monument spent the winter of 2013 at the Petrozavodskaya CHPP and then staff from the plant helped to install it. It was unveiled at a ceremony last year as part of the celebrations for Petrozavodsk’s 310th anniversary.

There is now a new historic site in the capital of Karelia and now the young sailors have yet another reason to be proud.

In the very near future, the Rechnaya Academy building will be turned into a Military Museum named after the Hero of the Soviet Union Nikolai Varlamov with the participation of the Karelian Republic Division of the Russian Fund for Peace and power engineers from JSC TGC-1.