Brussels, May 8, 2025 — On Victory Day, representatives of the Russian House in Brussels laid flowers at Ixelles Cemetery, where Soviet soldiers who died in Belgium during the First and Second World Wars are buried. The annual ceremony symbolizes gratitude and remembrance for those who gave their lives in the fight for freedom and peace in Europe.

A special guest at the ceremony was Liliane Maroutaeff, daughter of Yury Maroutaev, a member of the Belgian Resistance. His first wife was Marina Shafroff-Maroutaeva, a heroic figure of the Russian émigré community in Belgium.

Marina Shafroff-Maroutaeva, daughter of a naval engineer and captain 1st rank, fled Russia with her family in 1918 and settled in Estonia, before moving to Belgium in 1928. In Brussels, she worked as a dental secretary. After Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, Marina and her husband Yury were among the first Russian émigrés in Belgium to join the Resistance. She secretly transcribed Soviet radio reports, translated them into French, and posted them around Brussels. She also assisted in acts of sabotage against German transport infrastructure.

On December 7, 1941, a German officer was killed in Brussels. When the occupiers threatened to execute 60 hostages unless the perpetrator surrendered, Marina — who was arrested a week later while attempting to stab another officer — took responsibility for both attacks. The hostages were released. Initially sentenced to execution, she was instead deported to Germany, where she was retried and executed by guillotine. In 1947, her remains were returned to Brussels with full honors. She was the first woman executed by the occupiers in Belgium and was posthumously awarded the Soviet Order of the Patriotic War, 1st Class, and several Belgian military honors.

The ceremony at Ixelles Cemetery served as a solemn reminder of the courage and sacrifice of people like Marina and Yury, and affirmed that their memory continues to live on through generations.