Russia and UK Agreement to Preserve War Graves
The Russia and UK agreement to preserve war graves is one of the few points of cooperation still existing between the two countries. This unofficial understanding guarantees that British military burials in Russia and Crimea, and Soviet burials in the UK, shall be looked after. 663 British soldiers died and are buried in Russia, many of them in the early 20th century conflicts, including the Arctic convoys of the Second World War. Despite Britain’s economic sanctions on Russia, which led to a halt in official payments for maintenance, it seems that the graves have been taken care of by the Russian authorities, as well as by private contractors. In turn, Britain looks after 674 Soviet graves. Gareth Hardware, the director of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, said that while British officials have not directly visited all the sites in Russia, a UK diplomat and an amateur historian have reported that the graves in Arkhangelsk and Murmansk are still neat. “We are maintaining their graves in our cemeteries,” he noted the mutual commitment. This quiet agreement, while Britain is labelled Russia’s ‘public enemy number one’, demonstrates a rare exception to deteriorating diplomatic ties. John Foreman, a former British defence attaché in Moscow, said there was no formal treaty on war graves, but things like that still respect. The same kind of cooperation has been observed by German authorities in charge of thousands of war graves in Russia, which shows that historical remembrance is always beyond modern-day conflicts. In the current context of intense international rivalry, this agreement between Russia and the UK proves that soldiers who died in war can and should be treated with respect, regardless of the political situation.
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