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110 years ago the First World War began. Only after four long years, in November 1918, it ended with the long-awaited ‘Armistice’.

The largest war in human history for its time, it was literally a global catastrophe – both for its contemporaries and for generations to come.

Belgium was one of the hardest hit – and one of the most heroic – of the Great War. Novels and studies, poems and music have been written about her role. It became for many, including Russia at that time, a model of fortitude and courage, a symbol of freedom.

But much less is known about Russia and its participation in that war. Not only because the Western Front was, of course, more important for Europeans than the Eastern Front. But also because in Russia itself, which the war plunged into the biggest social catastrophe in its history, the gravity of subsequent events tried to deprive the meaning or even destroy the memory of this heroic page of our past.

And today we want to remember what our country was like during the Great War, to pay tribute to the memory of thousands of soldiers and officers of the Russian army who fought on the expanses of Europe and are buried on the war memorials of Brussels, Liege or Antwerp, to tell about the ties and co-operation between Russia and Belgium, which were unusually intense just then – before and during the war.

Join us for a programme of commemorative events dedicated to Russia and Belgium, in November, the month of the end of the Great War, which began 110 years ago.

Date Time Event Address Going
16.10 19:00 History Club of the Russian House
Belgians in the land of the Tsars in 1900
Lecture by prof. Bladimir Ronin
21, Meridien str., 1210, Brussels More about the past event
11.11 11:00 Flower Laying Ceremony
at the burials of Russian and Belgian soldiers and officers at the war memorial of Ixelles Cemetery
Chau. de Boondael 478, 1050 Ixelles Dowload the invitation
15.11 19:00  History Club of the Russian House
‘All Quiet on the Western Front’. And on the Eastern One?
Lecture by prof. Bladimir Ronin
21, Meridien str., 1210, Brussels Free registration
23.11 16:00 Solemn service 
in memory of Russian participants of the First World War
St Nicholas Cathedral Church
Rue des Chevaliers 29,
B-1050 Brussels
Download the invitation
27.11 19:00 Film Premiere
A Russian Youth
by Alexander Zolotoukhine (Alexander Sokurov’s film directing workshop)
21, Meridien str., 1210, Brussels Free registration
10.12

ТВС

19:00 History Club of the Russian House
Émile Verhaeren et les Russes: Que reste-t-il de nos amours?
Lecture by prof. Bladimir Ronin
21, Meridien str., 1210, Brussels Free registration

Russian military graves from the First World War in Belgium

with an interactive map and a name list

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