The "NCIC" Foundation team held a meeting with a representative of the Russian Embassy in the UK

On September 2, the team of the Northern Convoys International Centre met with Timofey V. Kunitsky, a representative of the Russian Embassy in Great Britain. During the meeting, which took place in a warm and friendly atmosphere, the achievements of the Foundation and plans for the future were discussed. Also during the meeting an important event took place: Mr. Kunitsky donated to the Foundation a commemorative scarf in the colours of the ‘Tartan of the Arctic Convoys’. The scarf is a sample of Scottish tartan, created especially in memory of the Northern Convoys. This rare item was sent to the International Centre by the Consul General of Russia in Edinburgh Denis I. Moskalenko. The Director of the International Centre Vladimir P. Solomonov, in his turn, presented Mr. Kunitskiy with a personal medal of the "NCIC" Foundation for his contribution to the preservation of the history of the Northern Convoys.

The Director of the Foundation gave our guest a tour of the exhibition ‘Allied (Northern) Convoys and Lend-Lease 1941-1945’, an important and notable part of which are personal belongings of Charles Brodie, a Scottish veteran of the Northern Convoys, which had been handed over to the Foundation in previous years with the assistance of the Consulate General of Russia in Edinburgh. The scarf will thus make up a part of the Foundation's collection dedicated, on the one hand, to Scottish sailors and their maritime traditions, and, on the other hand, to symbols that help to preserve the memory of the heroism of the Northern Convoys through the years and across borders.

We express our sincere gratitude to the Russian diplomats for their warm attention to the work of the Foundation, their active interest in the history of the Northern Convoys, and we hope for the continuation of our co-operation and new cordial and interesting meetings!

We would like to express our deep gratitude to the Consul General of Russia in Edinburgh D.I. Moskalenko, as well as to Andrey A. Pritsepov who served as Consul General in 2014-2019, and also to T.V. Kunitsky for their help in preserving the memory of the heroism of the participants of the Northern Convoys of the Great Patriotic War and their valuable contribution to the collection of the "NCIC" Foundation!

For reference:

Tartan is a traditional Scottish cage pattern known to many, in many ways playing a heraldic-like role. Tartans were once tied to clans; more recently, tartans commemorating milestone events or occasions have been registered. In 2015, in the year of the 70th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, at the initiative of the Russian Consul General in Edinburgh A.A.Pritsepov, the Scottish specialist Brian Wilton designed a tartan dedicated to the Northern Convoys - The Russian Arctic Convoy Tartan. In 2016, the tartan was registered in the relevant official register. The tartan was designed to commemorate the Northern Convoys in a traditional Scottish form, and was also used to make commemorative gifts for local veterans of heroic naval campaigns.
The motifs of the family tartans of the MacLauds and MacKenzies, the clans living in the Loch Ewe area where the convoys left for the Soviet Union, were used to create the tartan. Most importantly, the artan's author interviewed veterans of the Convoys to reflect in the pattern the heroism and tragedy of those dangerous sea crossings based on their personal memories. The red, white and blue colours read Soviet and British flags - both national and naval (as well as the flag of the British merchant navy); flames; snow, ice; sea, sky. The black line symbolises Hitler's planes against the sky, and the silver line symbolises the trace of a German torpedo in the water, which could be seen by the sailors participating in the convoys.