A bond of generations and nations: Rector of Polytechnic University Andrey Rudskoy honors heroes at Tashkent's “Victory Park”

During the official visit of a delegation from Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU) to participate in the international festival «Future Innovators,» currently taking place in Tashkent, SPbPU Rector Andrei Rudskoi visited the memorial complex «Victory Park.» This was not just a point on the visit’s itinerary — it was a deliberate and deeply symbolic gesture, uniting past and present, memory and science, and two great cities: St. Petersburg and Tashkent.

Tashkent carefully preserves the memory of the war years: the park’s design recreates the atmosphere of that time — visitors are greeted at the entrance by the Victory Arch in the form of a five-pointed star, and the central alley is lined with bas-reliefs depicting key events of World War II.

The first stop on the route was the monument «Ode to Resilience» — a place with a very personal and tragic story. It is dedicated to the memory of an ordinary Uzbek woman, Zulfiya Zakirova, who lost five sons during the war. Her fate embodies the resilience of mothers who gave what was most precious for the sake of Victory, which is why this monument holds a special, sacred meaning for the people of Uzbekistan.

The SPbPU delegation honored the memory of all fallen heroes by laying flowers with a ribbon reading «from the academic and educational community of St. Petersburg.»

The rector then proceeded to the «Leningrad Monument,» unveiled in 2025 to mark the 80th anniversary of Victory. This memorial is a sign of profound gratitude to the Uzbek people, who welcomed tens of thousands of evacuated Leningraders, and at the same time a symbol of shared brotherly memory of Uzbek soldiers who defended Leningrad. A capsule containing soil from the Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery, where about 7,000 soldiers from Uzbekistan are buried, is set into the monument’s base as a pledge of the unbreakable bond between the two peoples.

The event was given a special atmosphere by the fact that the park was full of children and young people that day — from preschoolers to students, including those from the Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Agricultural Mechanization Engineers (TIIAME). Several groups of young people approached Andrey Ivanovich and asked to take photos with him. They eagerly talked about the war and asked questions; it was clear that they know what the Siege was, and why Tashkent and Leningrad are forever connected.