During the Great Patriotic War northern convoys and lend-lease supplies arrived in Arkhangelsk. All in all, 42 allied convoys with 16 million tons of military goods arrived in the city during the war. Many convoy ships sunk.
Northern convoys and their input on the victory over Nazi Germany are of special interest to the student of the Russian North, because the trade and transportation of food, armor and machinery was realized through the ports of Arkhangelsk and Murmansk.
On the 24th of April we conducted a special meeting, where our honorable guests were veterans – the members of the “Brotherhood of the Northern convoys” club. The veterans shared their memories with the audience. It was really interesting to listen to veteran's stories about their experience during the war.
U. Barashkov, our local historian, shared with the audience about his experience of creation (or publication) of the book «The Arctic convoys according to Glenn Miller: A collective memory experience». His book was published in 2001 and includes the memories of the participants of the convoys, both Soviet and foreign sea-men.
Eric Johnson, Public Affairs Officer, thanked the veterans and presented them special gifts - books of memoires of the American veterans. After meeting we gathered for watching the film “Action in the North Atlantic”.
It was a really memorable day in our life.