Dear colleagues and friends!

I heartily congratulate you on great Victory Day

Today we are celebrating our main holiday with the whole country – Victory Day. This day is sacred to each of us. This holiday has the most important state significance and at the same time is a personal holiday in every family in Russia. As long as we live, we will remember those who defended the freedom and independence of our Motherland.

In the first weeks of the war, more than 600 people – the employees, students, and professors of the university – leaving scientific laboratories, classrooms, reading rooms, went to the front. We remember each of them. Their names are carved on the granite slabs of the university memorial, near which every year on the eve of May 9 we gather and celebrate Victory Day.

The war also affected those who worked in the home front. The university mathematicians carried out fundamental applied research in aerodynamics and aviation, the physicists developed and launched into mass production new models of grenades and created new optical sights for our weapons. The chemists worked on an incendiary mixture that was used in the fight against enemy tanks. The geographers prepared maps for the commanding staff of the army as well as compiled weather reports and weather forecasts that were used in aviation. The teaching staff members and students worked in subsidiary plots, helped unload ships, and ensured the delivery of timber. Our female students volunteered for nursing courses to help wounded soldiers.

76 years ago, victorious volleys thundered. But even years later, the memory of our colleagues, who gave the Victory health, strength, life, remains in our hearts. Through the efforts of eminent scientists and university youth, we preserve the historical heritage, the memory of the great feat of our people.

I congratulate you on Victory Day! I sincerely wish you and your loved ones health, prosperity, a peaceful sky overhead and inexhaustible faith in the great future of our country.

Rector of Saratov State University,

Aleksei Chumachenko