On April 25, 2014, the Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak laid a wreath on the Memorial Plaque “Spirit of Elbe” erected at the Arlington National Cemetery in memory of the historic Link-Up of the 58th Guard Division of the Red Army and the American 69th Infantry Division at the Elbe River near the German City of Torgau on this day in 1945.

As it became customary, representatives of the U.S. State Department – director of the office of Russian Affairs and its staff members, Heads of diplomatic missions and military attaches of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, as well as American and Russian veterans living in the U.S. joined the solemn ceremony to pay tribute to Soviet and American soldiers who sacrificed their lives fighting for freedom and happiness of all humanity.

At the invitation of the office of the Ministry of Defense at the Embassy of the Russian Federation, Rector of St. Andrew Cathedral, Philadelphia PA, Archpriest Mark Shinn, and Alexander Kozlov, director of St. Andrew’s Museum, were present at the ceremony.  For Father Mark, the ceremony was a moving reminder of the great things our two nations can accomplish when they work together in trust and mutual respect.

Partial Source Embassy of the Russian Federation, Washington DC; Archpriest Mark Shinn