Traditionally, on the eve of Defender of the Motherland Day, commemorative events were staged at memorials situated along the roads of the Russian Highways State Company.
At the 71 km of the M-1 "Belarus" Highway, employees of the Golitsyn Branch led by the branch Director Igor Donato, as well as Representatives of the Territorial Administration of Kubinka Odintsovo Municipality and 10th Battalion of the 1st Road Police Regiment laid flowers at the monument to the heroic road workers who perished in battles for their Motherland during the Great Patriotic War.
The monument was erected in 2002 to honor seven road workers and soldiers who, on April 23, 1942, joined a battle at 135 km of the Minsk Highway with a superior enemy forces. They made the supreme sacrifice, but they were able to gain time to ensure redeployment of Soviet troops at this roadway section. During the Great Patriotic War, this road was one of the vital military routes of the country, along which Moscow Defense Center and the entire Western Front were supplied.
In the Novgorod Region, at the 563 km of the M-11 "Neva" Highway, employees of the St. Petersburg branch of the Russian Highways State Company led by branch Director Alexei Volkov, and representatives of Magistral of Two Capitals LLC laid flowers at the monument "To Those Who Died in Defense of the Motherland". The memory of the soldiers who sacrificed their lives to save their Motherland was honored with a moment of silence.
The memorial was erected in 2020 in memory of the Red Army soldiers of the 2nd Assault Army who perished in Myasny Bor as they were repelling the foe from besieged Leningrad. The memorial also includes roadside icon shrine with two tessellated images, one of the Novgorod Our Lady of the Sign and the other of the Faithful Saint Prince Alexander Nevsky, Protectors of the Ancient Novgorod Land.
