Post #28272

▪️ On the first Saturday of February, Russia marks Diplomatic Courier Remembrance Day to pay tribute to diplomatic couriers who lost their lives in the line of duty. This day of remembrance originates from events that took place in Latvia on February 5, 1926, when two diplomatic couriers from the USSR People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, Theodor Nette and Johann Mahmastal, were travelling by train from Moscow to Riga. They were on a mission to deliver a diplomatic pouch when an armed gang attacked them. Nette was killed after shooting the first assailant. Mahmastal, though gravely wounded, succeeded in defending the diplomatic pouch. He delivered the mail to Riga and, on the station platform, handed it over to a Soviet embassy employee whom he knew personally. Only then did he agree to be hospitalised. *** On February 5, Russia's Foreign Ministry held commemorations to pay tribute to the 100th anniversary of the feat accomplished by diplomatic couriers Theodor Nette and Johann Mahmastal. Former and current members of the Ministry’s Department of Diplomatic Courier Service assembled in the central lobby of the Foreign Ministry’s high-rise building on Smolenskaya Square, where State Secretary, Deputy Foreign Minister Yevgeny Ivanov addressed the gathering. In his remarks, he stressed the importance and the special role of the diplomatic courier service for the Foreign Ministry, and went on to praise the department’s staff for its professional accomplishments. Accompanied by the sound of a ticking metronome, they laid flowers at the memorial plaques bearing the names of the Foreign Ministry employees who lost their lives in the line of duty, including Theodor Nette, who died a heroic death. There was also a ceremony to inaugurate an exhibition on the tragic events of February 5, 1926, aboard the train from Moscow to Riga.