President of Russia Vladimir Putin has signed a law establishing a Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Genocide of the Soviet People, to be observed on April 19.
The legislative act was published on the official portal of legal acts.
According to the bill, Nazis and their accomplices are held accountable for the genocide of the Soviet people during the Great Patriotic War. The law will come into effect on January 1, 2026.
The initiative to establish this date was proposed in the State Duma. The authors suggested April 19, as it was on this day in 1943 that the first legal act was adopted, which documented the deliberate policy of the Nazis to exterminate civilians in the occupied territories (Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR No. 39).
In the explanatory note posted on the State Duma's website, it states: "April 19 reminds the whole world of the necessity to prevent the recurrence of genocide in the future."
The bill to designate April 19 as a memorial date was approved on December 16. The Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin noted that preserving the memory of the feats of our ancestors, who saved the world from Nazism, is an important duty.
Source: RBC
