Russian migrants living in Sutton will commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall with a £47,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).

Members of the Sutton-based Russian Community Association will use the HLF grant to begin a research project to capture the stories of migrants living in Britain at the time of the historic 1989 Berlin event.

The group will come together this Remembrance Sunday to begin the project, which will include old Soviet-era propaganda films.

Members of other minority ethnic groups, who have had experience of totalitarian regimes before emigrating to the UK, will also be invited.

Volunteers will interview up to 40 migrants and collect artefacts, photographs and documents to build an archive of personal memories.

Olga Bastable, 46, a member of the Russian Community Association, who came to Sutton 22 years ago, said: “This is a unique project, which will help us to re- evaluate the events that happened 20 years ago, and which are still influencing our lives.

“There are thousands of Russian immigrants living in London and this project will help us to make sense of the historic event.”

The memories will be collected on a new website with participants encouraged to create their own web page about the experience of being an immigrant.

The material collected will also be used to create an exhibition to be mounted at a number of local venues, including Sutton Central Library in April next year.

It is hoped that the wealth of information gathered will raise awareness about the significance of an event etched in the memories of older people but seen as remote and unfamiliar to the younger generation.

Sue Bowers, Head of HLF London, said: “This project will combine accounts of a pivotal event in world history with the stories of those personally affected by it and its aftermath.

“It will create a historical resource that also documents the experiences of those who migrated to Britain from the former Soviet bloc.”

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