The 55th Podolsk Infantry Regiment – the progenitor of today's peacekeepers who serve on the Pridnestrovian land was formed 223 years ago. It was created on the shores of the Gulf of Finland and changed its location more than once. It was placed in Bendery three times. The regiment was officially disbanded in 1917, but its deeds remained forever in the memory of descendants. Vadim Krasnoselsky initiated the commemoration of the military unit a hundred years later, in 2017, which left a bright mark in military history and in the chronicles of the region. Celebration of the regimental holiday of servicepersons of the 55th Podolsk Infantry Regiment has become a tradition. Every year on August 29, Bendery residents and guests of the city gather at the Military Historical Memorial Complex to honor the memory of the fallen defenders.
Prayer service was held at the chapel of the Savior Not Made by Hands. The service was headed by the Archbishop of Tiraspol and Dubossary Sawa. The PMR President Vadim Krasnoselsky addressed the audience upon its completion.
“Today we honor the soldiers and officers of the 55th Podolsk Infantry Regiment, the regiment of the Russian Imperial Army, who defended the borders of our Fatherland throughout the history of its existence. These are bright pages in the history of the 55th Podolsk Infantry Regiment: the fight against Napoleon, the liberation of the Caucasus, the heroic defense of Sevastopol, the liberation of the Balkans. It was the soldiers of the 55th Podolsk Infantry Regiment who brought independence to Romania, Bulgaria, and Serbia, stopping the persecution of Orthodox Christians on the Balkan Peninsula. Servicepersons of the 55th Podolsk Infantry Regiment also took part in the Russo-Japanese War and in the First World War. By the way, it was the 55th Podolsk Infantry Regiment that was at the forefront of the Brusilov breakthrough. They forever inscribed their glorious name in the history of Russia, the Russian Empire and Pridnestrovie. Of course, not only soldiers of the 55th Podolsk Infantry Regiment defended the borders of our Fatherland. You can name other units that were stationed in the territory of Pridnestrovie. This is the 56th Zhytomyr Infantry Regiment, Volynsky, Astrakhansky, and many others, whose generals, soldiers, officers lie exactly in this place, in this land. Unfortunately, there was a period of time when this glorious story of our defenders was erased from memory. We are able in Pridnestrovie to raise that layer of history that just told us about the feat of our ancestors, and we not only restored the history of these units, we raised the long forgotten names and surnames of those who gave their lives to the defense of our Motherland. We, of course, rely on the past and think about the future. We have a rich history, the history of the Pridnestrovian region, and literally two days later, on August 31, in Tiraspol, in the Catherine Park, another museum will be opened - an archaeological museum, which will show the thousand-year history of our region, the history of peoples living here – Scythians, Celts, Sarmatians, other peoples who also lived here and defended the borders of our Fatherland. It is this love of history that characterizes the real Pridnestrovie. We rely on our history, we value it, thanks to which we look into the future”, Vadim Krasnoselsky emphasized.
The co-chairman of the Joint Control Commission from the Russian Federation, Andrei Gorobtsov spoke about the inviolability of the connection between different generations of Russian soldiers, as well as the Pridnestrovian-Russian ties. Andrei Gorobtsov emphasized that Russian peacekeepers will always ensure peace on the banks of the Dniester.
After the litiya for the fallen soldiers, the PMR President and the participants of the event laid flowers at the Orthodox cross installed on the territory of the Military Historical Memorial Complex, thereby paying tribute to the memory of not only the soldiers of the 55th Podolsk Infantry Regiment, but also the soldiers and officers of more than one and a half hundred Russian regiments of imperial army who were buried in this cemetery. Vadim Krasnoselsky initiated and led the work on the restoration of the military cemetery and the creation of a memorial complex on its basis.
The participants of the event laid flowers in memory of the fallen soldiers at the Cossack Cross and the monument to the victims of the war in 1992.
The commemorative events continued with the laying of flowers at the monument of Russian military glory, known to the people of Bendery under the name "Eagle". The obelisk is directly related to the Podolsk infantrymen: it was they who installed this obelisk to the 100th anniversary of the end of the Patriotic War of 1812 (this is evidenced by the inscription carved on the stone "Descendants to Valiant Ancestors. From the 55th Podolsk Infantry Regiment"). The funeral litiya was also served here.
