Three Russian airmen and a Czechoslovakian colleague who were killed in a plane crash during the Second World War were remembered in a moving ceremony in a Tayside village on Monday.
The memorial service was held at Cow Park in Fearnan where Aleksandr Gruzdin, Aleksandr Alexeev, Vasily Dryamin and Frantisek Drahovzal died when their aircraft crash landed after taking off from Errol on May 29 1943.
Relatives of the crewmen joined dignitaries and locals, including a woman who was a baby when the tragedy happened, for a wreath-laying ceremony at a new memorial stone.
The story was uncovered by Russian author Anna Belorusova whose grandfather had served beside the men during the war.
She attended Monday’s memorial, alongside nine members of the Czech chef Mr Drahovzal’s family, the Russian Consul General, Perth and Kinross Provost Dennis Melloy and many from the village, including Isabel Johnston who was one at the time of the crash.
The ceremony, which was filmed for Russian TV, began with a piper-led walk to the accident site where the the ceremony was conducted by a Russian priest and a member of the Church of Scotland.
Anna said she was proud to have played a part in ensuring the men’s sacrifice was not forgotten.
“I have no words, it was the most moving ceremony. It was incredible, I had tears in my eyes,” she said.
“It was so genuine and moving with lots of people from all walks of life.”
Anna read an address to the congregation from Yuri Alekseev, the grandson of flight engineer Aleksandr Alekseev .
The Alekseev family only found out the true story of how their grandfather died last month and now plan to visit Fearnan themselves to pay their respects.
Yuri Alekseev said: “I never met my grandfather, Aleksandr Alekseev. But his story has always been part of our family lore.
“My father Lev, a teenager during the war, could remember Aleksandr going to the most dangerous sorties behind enemy lines and always safely coming home.
“One day, however, he left on a top secret mission, never to return.”
He said his father attempted to find out what had happened but the files were classified.
He died eight years ago, without having ever learned the truth, and is buried now next to his father in Moscow’s Novodevitchie cemetery.
Yuri said: “It was just four weeks ago that my family learned what had really happened in May 1943 in Perthshire.
“Now our family feels reconnected with my grandfather, it is as though he has finally come home.”
Another memorial service is being planned for Errol next year to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of the war.
