PRIEST OF HOLY TRINITY CATHEDRAL TAKES PART IN THE COMMEMORATION OF THE RUSSIAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE

On 11 November 2026 a ceremony was held in Paris, at the monument to the Russian Expeditionary Force on the place du Canada, in memory of the Russian soldiers who fought in France during the First World War. Father Daniel Naberezhny, priest of Holy Trinity Cathedral, took part in it and served a litia at the monument for the fallen soldiers of the Force.

11 November marks the anniversary of the Armistice of 1918, which brought the fighting of the First World War to an end. In France the day has the status of a national day of remembrance. Commemorative ceremonies are held throughout the country on this day. Children and schoolchildren are involved in them. So that the memory of the past may be passed on to new generations.

The monument to the soldiers and officers of the Russian Expeditionary Force was unveiled in Paris on 21 June 2011. It stands on the bank of the Seine, not far from the pont Alexandre III and the Grand Palais. In 1916 Russia sent special infantry brigades to France. Two of them (some 20,000 men) fought on French soil, chiefly in Champagne. The Force was disbanded after 1917.

As has become the tradition, those who gathered at the monument included staff of the Russian Embassy, representatives of Russian-French associations, descendants of the soldiers of the Force, and Russian-speaking Parisians. A priest of Holy Trinity Cathedral was also among the participants this year.

Scouts of a Russian scout group took part in the ceremony as well, together with the parents of some of them. When the litia was over, the scouts solemnly sang the hymn “Kol slaven nash Gospod v Sione”, words by Mikhail Kheraskov and music by Dmitry Bortniansky.