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FOREIGN MINISTER SERGEY LAVROV’S OPENING REMARKS AT THE UNVEILING CEREMONY OF A COMMEMORATIVE PLAQUE TO ALEXANDRA KOLLONTAI (CLOSE FRIEND OF V.I. LENIN AND TOP SOVIET DIPLOMAT), MOSCOW, MARCH 28, 2017
Translation of minister Lavrov’s speech :
Friends,
This is yet another event aimed at commemorating people who served their Fatherland on the foreign policy and diplomatic fronts. Primarily, I would like to thank President of the Russian Academy of Arts Zurab Tsereteli for the wonderful bas-relief and the Moscow Government and Mayor Sergei Sobyanin for promptly making all the necessary arrangements and addressing legal issues.
Alexandra Kollontai was a legend, a remarkable public figure and politician, the first woman ambassador to represent our country abroad. It is symbolic that our meeting today takes place on the eve of her 145th birthday. She dedicated almost 35 years of her life to the Foreign Ministry. The years that preceded the Second World War and the years of the Great Patriotic War, the bloodiest conflict of the 20th century, stand out in her career.
As ambassador to Sweden, Alexandra Kollontai made a major contribution to ensuring that our relations with Sweden and other Scandinavian countries remain on a solid footing, as well as to prevent them from being influenced by Hitler’s Germany. One of the real achievements of this remarkable woman was that she took part in negotiations that led to Finland’s withdrawal from the war in 1944, which helped free up troops and send them to other fronts, saving lives of many Soviet soldiers.
After the war, Alexandra Kollontai worked at the Foreign Ministry and wrote the famous diaries that were to become an invaluable testimony on those historic times.
Once again, I would like to thank all those who contributed to this event. Moving forward, we will keep doing everything we can to perpetuate the memory of our outstanding diplomats.
Thank you.
_____________________
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