The Chairman of the Board of the Regional Public Organization Donbass Community in Moscow, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Education and Science Gennady Onishchenko emphasized that Yosif Kobzon is not just listing of high ranks, but a large-scale phenomenon in Russian culture, song culture, as well as in Russian intellectual life. “Yosif Kobzon was a sincere patriot of a multinational family of peoples living in the Russian Federation. He was an encyclopedist in terms of knowledge of songs: patriotic and folk. With a special emotional spirit, he sang songs about the Donbass. He will live, help us until we remember and sing his songs,” said Gennadiy Onishchenko.

The First Deputy Chairman of the Board of the RPO Donbass Community in Moscow Petr Akayemov read an appeal of the singer’s widow, Ninel Kobzon, to the Donetsk residents. “A year passed after the death of Yosif Davydovich, but he continues living in his songs, books, memoirs, memory of his children, grandchildren, relatives and friends. He loved Donetsk very much, always spoke about it with admiration and he returned here with great joy again and again. The mining region has been dear to him since childhood. The opening of the memorial plaque in Donetsk to Yosif Kobzon is a testament of great love for the fellow countryman, and it means that his songs will sound in your city, will live in your Donetsk hearts,” the appeal says.