"They invited me to school and celebrated me on May 9th." The siege survivor was buried in a Krasnoyarsk cemetery "for the rootless."
Social activists from village of Baikit Krasnoyarsk Krai officials asked Putin to facilitate the exhumation and return of a fellow villager to the local cemetery. resident of the blockadeLeningrad Valentina Chebykina, who found herself in the "rootless" section of the Krasnoyarsk cemetery, рsaid "Borus".
Chebykina was born in Peterhof and ended up in Leningrad after the war began. Her father went to the front, her mother and brother died, and the seven-year-old girl was left alone. She spent 365 days in Leningrad during the siege. She was then evacuated and grew up in orphanages.
Social activist Maria Kaminskaya A woman from Baikit said Chebykina worked in the airport cafeteria and spent her final years living alone with her son, who suffered from mental illness. She was 89 years old, and everyone in the village knew her. As a survivor of the siege, she was invited to perform at the local school and honored on May 9th.
At the end of October, the woman broke her hip.
"The therapist examined her and left everything as is, knowing her son wouldn't be able to properly care for his mother... At the end of December, the situation became critical, and Aunt Valya was airlifted to Krasnoyarsk. There, they couldn't help her; they said she wouldn't have survived the operation—she was so exhausted." — Kaminskaya said.
Chebykina died on January 1st and was buried far from her home. Locals blame the social services, which were supposed to care for the siege survivor. Community activists are demanding "Aunt Valya" be reburied, but the local administration insists there's no money for it.
"A person who survived this is now lying under a plaque with an inventory number. How is this possible? We would have buried her here with honors. No one tells my son; they're afraid. But even if they did, how would he get to Krasnoyarsk?" — the social activist asks.
In the Ministry of Social Policy of the region reacted In response to the message: a siege survivor voluntarily refused regular visits from a social worker. But he still came, and even called an ambulance on December 25, after which the pensioner was sent to Krasnoyarsk.
Sergey Lapenkov, one of the initiators of the Immortal Regiment movement (not to be confused with the pro-government "BP-Russia"), whose website features Valentina Chebykina's story, commented: "A sad and common story. The authorities need old people, veterans of the war, and survivors of the siege of Leningrad, for the next anniversary, to demonstrate to the population their 'concern' for the victors and victims of Nazism. It's cheap and tidy. The rest of the time, old people, especially those alone, are of no use to them. This recent example illustrates precisely that."
January 27 marks the 80th anniversary of the lifting of the Siege of Leningrad. The date will be widely celebrated throughout the country.