Mckinnon's Russian Anzac Day Tribute

Foreign Minister Don McKinnon honoured some of New Zealand's lesser-known war dead in the unfamiliar surroundings of Red Square on Sunday (ceremony starts 2000 NZT).

Mr McKinnon, accompanied by Kremlin Guards, laid a wreath at Moscow's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in remembrance of New Zealand sailors who took part in the Northern Convoys that shipped aid to Russia during World War 2.

It was the first time that any New Zealand Minister has been in Russia on Anzac Day. The Minister is there for two days of meetings with Russian Ministers, including Prime Minister Primakov.

'The Northern Convoys are a less well-known part of our military heritage,' Mr McKinnon said.

'Between 1941-45, 40 Allied convoys carried vital supplies to Russia at a time when the only point of access to the Russian Army was a treacherous sea route which crossed the Artic circle to Murmansk.

'Over 2700 sailors, including many New Zealanders, were lost on these harrowing journeys, and today I salute the bravery displayed by all the convoy sailors in the face of brutal weather, unforgiving seas and the constant tension arising from the threat of U-boats attacks.'

Approximately 400 veterans of the Northern Convoys are still alive in New Zealand.

Mr McKinnon said New Zealand's most well-known convoy veteran, poet Dennis Glover, was so moved by his experience that he returned several times to Russia and titled a book of his poetry 'To Friends In Murmansk'.

The Minister later spoke about the courage of the convoy sailors at an Anzac Day Service attended by members of the New Zealand and Australian communities in Moscow.

At the end of his speech, Mr McKinnon referred to one Russian veteran of the convoys, who said: '20 million lives are certainly a high price to pay for victory, but ask any mother in New Zealand, England or Russia, is it too much, or too little, to lose even one son''