The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Memorial stone for Errol is from Russia with love
Rare rock will travel to Perthshire along Arctic Convoy route
A memorial stone for three Russian airmen and their Czech colleague who died in a Perthshire plane crash during the Second World War will be transported from Russia to Errol to mark VE Day.
The rare stone, Shoksha crimson quartzite mined in Karelia, carries a symbolic significance in Russia and will be shipped to Scotland using the same route as the Arctic convoys, for the 75th anniversary of the end of the war on May 8.
Aleksandr Gruzdin, Aleksandr Alexeev, Vaslily Dryamin and Frantisek Drahovzal all died when their plane crash landed at Fearnan on May 29 1943 during a training flight.
Adorned with a memorial plaque designed by a grandson of Moscow airman Ivan Yudinkov, the tribute will be placed at Errol Parish Church as a permanent site for the annual commemoration.
The rock is the same as that used to build The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Red Square in Moscow and for work at the Tomb of Napoleon in Paris.
The Shoksha stone is a gift to the Scottish people by the Republic of Karelia, which will open a new museum about the Arctic Convoys on May 7.
The memorial will be unveiled at the village church on VE Day, along with a special exhibition gifted permanently by Montrose Aviation Museum, at the hall.
The ceremony will be attended by the provost of Perth and Kinross, the consul general of Russia, dignitaries from Moscow and Scotland and the descendants of the Russian airmen.
Russian author Anna Belorusova, who first discovered the story of the Russian airmen after her grandfather fought beside them, wanted the memorial placed at the church because of a postcard her relative brought back from his time in Scotland in 1943.
Anna said: “Precisely seven years ago, in February 2013, I came to Scotland with fragments of my grandfather Pyotr
“Little did I know... it was the beginning... of a new chapter. ANNA BELORUSOVA
Kolesnikov’s puzzle in my hands – an old flight map with his ink marks, a 1943 RAF Christmas menu and some local postcards, among them, Errol Church.
“Little did I know then that it was the beginning of an extraordinary new chapter to his life story and the historic link of the two allies, written together with the people of Scotland.
“The plaque, with two Second World War wings’ insignia – the RAF and Russian Aviation – is designed by Ivan Yudinkov, grandson of the squadron commander Molodtsov who was in charge of receiving in Moscow the Albemarles ferried from RAF Errol.”