As Timur Kutanov Jr. himself admits, he, being the grandson of a siege activist, absorbed patriotic feelings from childhood.
“It was my grandmother who chose the name Timur for me,” he told the RG correspondent. “It was not customary for us to argue with her in our family, and her arguments turned out to be ironclad.” I was named after Gaidar Timur himself and his team. Which, in fact, predetermined my fate. Moreover, my entire childhood, adolescence and youth were filled with his instructions, memories of the war, of how people fought and survived during the siege. Of course, I was influenced by the activities of my grandmother, and with her, by my father (Marat Kutanov, chairman of the Kyrgyz Society of Survivors of the Siege of Leningrad. – Ed.).
It is quite understandable that as a student at the Faculty of Economics and Finance in Bishkek, Timur gathered a group of like-minded classmates. Together they began to actively participate in events organized by the Society of Siege Survivors and, like true Timurids, to provide assistance to veterans.
“I am glad that this movement is not only functioning, but also growing and developing independently,” admits Timur, who has already graduated from a technical school and is now studying at the Academy of Management under the President of the Kyrgyz Republic. – One of the recent events in which Timurids took part was the unique event “Candle of Memory”, dedicated to the 83rd anniversary of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War and the 80th anniversary of the complete liberation of Leningrad. This evening, for the first time in Bishkek, the Great Symphony Orchestra of the City Hall performed Dmitry Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony (Leningrad) in the open air.
During the preparation of the “Candle of Memory”, Timur’s like-minded people, together with their senior comrades, resolved organizational issues, maintained correspondence with government agencies and, of course, participated in providing logistics and comfortable conditions for veterans and survivors of the siege – the honored guests of the action.
“This evening was special for our family,” says Kutanov Jr. – Unfortunately, this was not possible during my grandmother’s lifetime. The fact is that when she was 12 years old, in besieged Leningrad she saw a poster announcing that on August 9, 1942, a concert would be held under the direction of conductor Carl Eliasberg and Dmitry Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7 would be performed. And she, exhausted, walked almost the entire Vasilievsky Island to get to this concert. There was nowhere in the hall where an apple could fall. The symphony, of course, made an indescribable impression on her, as on everyone else. And she inspired absolute confidence in victory! And, of course, we are all glad that the Leningrad Symphony was performed in Bishkek in memory of the heroic feat of the Soviet people.
At the same time
Timur Kutanov has repeatedly proved by his example that the will to win is a hereditary quality. In 2022, we recall, he became the world champion in Muay Thai (Thai boxing). And now all his forces, as well as the forces of his like-minded Timurovites, are aimed at studying and preparing ceremonial events dedicated to the 80th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War.
