The most significant, spectacular event in the work of the Association are Remembrance Marches, in which Polish and Russian students go together from Gniezdowo station to the Katyn Forest every year in April. A group of 150 Polish students together with teachers and about 150 group of Russian youth take part in the March. The organizer of the march in Russia is the Polish House in Smolensk and two Smolensk schools cooperating with us: General School No. 8 and Smolensk Corps of Cadets. From the beginning, the project was patronized by: from the Polish side: Krzysztof Dudek – director of the National Center for Culture in Warsaw, Marek Woźniak – Marshal of the Greater Poland Voivodeship, Ryszard Grobelny – Mayor of the City of Poznań. During each Remembrance March and our entire stay in Smolensk, we were surrounded by the protection of the federal authorities of the Smolensk District, including Governor Sergey Antufev, Sergei Kudriaviewev, head of the International Cooperation Department in the Smolensk Oblast, and Igor Grigoriev (formerly Anatoly Voloshenko) – Director of the State Compound Memorial . Lilia Turczenkowa – president of the Smolensk branch of the Russian Association of Victims of Unlawful Political Repression, Rościsław Tymań (formerly Stanisław Afanasjew) – president of the Polish House were also with us during these solemn events. Every year, our meetings are attended by teachers of befriended Russian schools and Liliana Kulikow – the headmaster of the Secondary School No. 8 in Smolensk and Igor Gagarin – the headmaster of the Smolensk Cadet Corps. Our knowledge and cooperation of several years certifies that contemporary Polish-Russian relations can be built on mutual understanding, respect and sympathy.
In order to prepare for the trip, students of Polish schools implement the educational project Persistent Memory of Generations, which was developed by a team of teachers-coordinators based on proposals of didactic and educational activities in individual schools, becoming a general outline of the content implemented in this undertaking. Each of the associated schools develops and enriches the Association’s project with individual tasks, detailed interests and predispositions of both students and teachers participating in the project.