Penza, 7 November 2017. PenzaNews. The ceremony of extracting two capsules with messages to descendants, which had been bricked up in 1967 and 1977 in the horizontal granite slab near the Rostok monument at the Sura embankment in Penza, was held on the day of the 100th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution, November 7.

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Thanks to the fact that preliminary works on their opening, which had taken several hours, had been carried out beforehand, nothing distracted from the celebration of the moment.

At least a thousand of people came to feel involved in the historic event.

They were those who had been present at the ceremony of laying the messages, their children and grandchildren, as well as residents who had been waiting for several decades to find out what was the message citizens of the USSR, who had lived in Penza in the second half of the 21st century, left to their descendants.

Many of those present held flags of Russia in their hands. In addition, participants of the event were joined by those who took part in a procession organized by the regional committee of the Communist Party. Representatives of the Left Front, the officially unregistered United Communist Party, the Modern Age Generation, and others public organizations including youth ones also joined the participants.

A banner with photographs depicting the moment of laying the message in 1967, was installed at the stage.

Ivan Belozertsev, who mentioned importance of the moment, was the first to turn to those present.

"It is not only about words but rather about precepts our ancestors gave us. These are the people who did a lot for the Penza region," he said.

Then, the head of the region touched upon the issue of foreign policy including the situation in Ukraine but Penza residents of different generations who were present at the event became indignant and demanded that the governor spoke only about Russia. Ivan Belozertsev made a short pause and continued the speech prepared beforehand.

In turn, the leader of Penza communists, deputy of the regional Legislative Assembly, presidium member of the Central Committee of CPRF Georgy Kamnev congratulated people on the 100th anniversary of the revolution and reminded about communist ideals.

"Let us never forget achievements of the Great October," he emphasized.

In addition, Penza residents were congratulated on the memorable date by Vladimir Kerkhanadzhev, veteran of the Battle for Stalingrad and the Battle of Kursk, chairman of the city council of veterans, who called to remain faithful to Russia.

The floor was also given to the participants of the ceremony in 1967 Larisa Bubnova and Vera Astakhova.

Then, accompanied by an arm volley workers of the Fire and Rescue Centre extracted the capsules from the slab and handed them in to the governor.

Iven Belozertsev opened them and demonstrated the contents to those present, after which he gave the capsules to children as a symbol of continuity of generations.

The people and guests of the region then listened to the text of both messages in a solemn setting.

The first one – as of 1967 – was recorded in the performance of Mikhail Rudakov, actor of the theatre "Voice of a Poet", member of the Union of Russian Writers.

The second message – as of 1977 – was read by the actor of the Penza centre for culture and leisure Sergei Makarov.

The people present at the ceremony suggested laying a capsule into the slab with a message addressed to future generations but none of the officials reacted to the idea.

At the end of the ceremony, everyone was given an opportunity to take a picture of the capsules.

The reconstruction of the embankment continued even during the celebration that was why participants of the ceremony were deprived of an opportunity to have a walk along it after the event.