Rosneft Celebrates 81st Anniversary of Victory Day
In celebration of the 81st anniversary of the Great Victory, Rosneft and its subsidiaries are organising a large-scale programme of patriotic events. Across the country, in major cities and remote northern villages alike, hundreds of events are being held to commemorate the people's immortal feat.
During wartime, the oil industry's role included supplying the Red Army with crucial fuel and lubricants. The remaining specialists, predominantly women and teenagers who had assumed the roles of the men who had gone to the front, discovered new deposits and started up factories, bringing Victory ever closer through their selfless labour.
The Immortal Regiment, Candle of Remembrance and St George's Ribbon campaigns are supported by over 100,000 employees of Rosneft's subsidiaries across the country. The Watch of Memory campaign is taking place at production sites, with oil workers starting their shifts carrying portraits of their relatives who fought in the Great Patriotic War. Both shift workers and office employees participated in the initiative.
Today, employees of Rosneft are honouring veterans, home front workers and children of the war. This is being done by presenting gifts and food parcels to those in need, in some of the most remote areas of Taymyr, the Turukhansk District and Yakutia.
Rosneft's creative and educational initiatives have successfully engaged children and young people in dozens of towns and cities, providing them with a deeper understanding of our country's history. In schools across Angarsk, Achinsk, Irkutsk, Moscow, Novokuybyshevsk, Orenburg, Saratov, Samara, Tomsk, Tyumen and Ufa, oil industry professionals are spearheading initiatives such as special Lessons in Courage, recitation competitions, quizzes, exhibitions and excursions that celebrate the heroic actions of the Soviet people.
The publication of The Immortal Regiment of the Kuibyshev Oil Refinery, a book dedicated to the refinery workers who served in the Great Patriotic War, marked a significant milestone. The book contains information about hundreds of heroic oil refinery workers who, upon returning from the front lines, built the plant and got production up and running. The book took over ten years to complete. As a result of thorough research, we have been able to ascertain the details of almost a thousand participants in the Great Patriotic War who were employed at the oil refinery. This book meticulously compiles the first and last names, ranks and positions, military and professional careers, heroic deeds and awards, and frontline photographs of these immortal heroes; their memory will be passed on to future generations.
Across various regions of the country, oil companies have organised motor rallies featuring restored military and vintage vehicles – ranging from the legendary ZIL-131 lorry to civilian cars from the 1940s. The routes pass through areas where fierce fighting took place, and participants lay flowers at memorials to fallen soldiers and civilians.
The Company also focuses on the improvement of memorial sites – oil workers are tidying up war graves and obelisks, planting flowers along the Avenues of Glory, and restoring monuments to heroes of the front and the home front. Hundreds of volunteers from Voronezh to Krasnoyarsk are engaged in the restoration of memorial sites associated with the events of the Great Patriotic War.
The festive atmosphere is enhanced by concerts at which participants in the Energy of Talent corporate festival perform popular songs from the war years – “Smuglyanka”, “Katyusha” and “Siniy Platochek” (The Blue Handkerchief). Guests can enjoy a field kitchen serving hot military porridge and fragrant tea with pastries. All interested participants are invited to take part in quizzes and win useful souvenirs, as well as taking some lovely photos.
Sports events brought together over a thousand oil industry workers, with marathons and relay races being held across the country. In Tyumen, the Victory Run relay race covered a distance symbolically representing the number 81, whilst in Izhevsk a cycle ride took place along sites of military glory.
On 8 and 9 May, around 1.5 million St George's ribbons will be distributed to car drivers at Rosneft and Bashneft filling stations across the country. Visitors to the filling station can also look forward to festive programmes featuring songs from the war years, field kitchens serving “frontline porridge” and themed photo zones, as well as exhibitions of civilian vehicles from the 1940s.
Preserving historical memory is an integral part of Rosneft's corporate culture. The Company organises and supports projects and initiatives aimed at preserving cultural, spiritual and national values. The Company's staff pay tribute to the Soviet people's heroic struggle against fascism. We remember! We are proud!
Department of Information and Advertising
Rosneft
May 8, 2026