On November 3, 2024, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia met with participants of the Time of Heroes program in the Patriarchal Hall of the Refectory Chambers of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow.
The meeting was attended by: Rector of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA) A.G. Komissarov; Chairman of the Synodal Department for Church Relations with Society and the Media V.R. Legoyda. 
The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church addressed the audience with a speech in which, in particular, he noted:
"All of us, non-military people, are fully aware of the importance of what you are doing, especially now, at this difficult time. That's why I really wanted to meet with you and share my thoughts.
In general, the idea of gathering the heroes of a special military operation and giving them the opportunity to take part in an important program for training government management personnel is, in my opinion, a very correct idea, a very timely initiative. It shows concern for the future of our Fatherland.
People say: the courage of the city takes. Determination and courage, together with professional experience, government positions, and especially coupled with government thinking, can bring great good results. The courage of the city takes, and wisdom creates the state.
For each of you, the war has become a serious life frontier. The experience you have gained in combat, without any exaggeration, can be called invaluable. Of course, we know that for this experience someone gave away the most valuable thing a person has - his life. It is impossible to pretend under bullets and artillery attacks. You can get scared, you can run away, you can close your eyes, but it's impossible to pretend. A person reveals himself as he is and as he may not always be able to reveal himself in peacetime. This is a difficult moral exam for courage, for loyalty, for perseverance, for humanity, after which it is impossible to remain the same."
Rector of RANEPA A.G. Komissarov thanked His Holiness Patriarch Kirill for the meeting:
"Your Holiness, we are sincerely grateful to you for finding the opportunity and time to meet with the participants of the Time of Heroes program on this bright day, the day of memory of St. Hilarion the Great. And tomorrow we all celebrate our other big holiday — National Unity Day. And he reminds us that the power and development of our country, the prosperity of our country depends largely on spiritual unity, on how we are ready to defend our traditional values, which you mentioned, our culture.
Our President Vladimir Vladimirovich said that the participants of the Time of Heroes program are the real elite and the future elite. And we are confident that in order to fulfill such a duty, and this is a very responsible task, we need not only knowledge, not only professional skills, but also, of course, spiritual strength to make our country stronger, to serve the country, to serve the people.
And when we prepared this program, we were guided, among other things, by your instructions, your words. I am very grateful to you, you gave me two books at our previous meeting, and I read them with pleasure. "Freedom and Responsibility" and a book that contains your thoughts, statements and judgments. There was such a quote that without a consistent and structured transfer of moral values, full-fledged education is impossible. And that is why today's meeting with you is so important for us all. Our heroes have a great desire, they would like to ask you for wise advice in answering the questions that bother them today. I am sure that your guidance and wisdom will help our heroes in making decisions for the benefit of our country and our people. Thank you very much again!"
His Holiness Patriarch Kirill then answered the questions of those present.
At the end of the meeting, His Holiness thanked all those present and presented each of the guests with his book "For Holy Russia. Patriotism and Faith" and an icon of St. Nicholas of Myra with the Patriarchal blessing.
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In order to implement the instruction of the President of the Russian Federation to the Federal Assembly dated March 30, 2024 No. Pr-616 (item 28), the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation is conducting a special training program "Time of Heroes".
The purpose of the program is to train managers from among the participants of a special military operation for subsequent work in state and municipal authorities, as well as state—owned companies.
The participants of the program are military personnel and veterans of a special military operation with higher education and managerial experience.
More than 44 thousand applications were submitted for participation in the "Time of Heroes" program. The first stream of the program includes 83 selection participants, 79 of them men and 4 women. There are 274 state combat awards for 83 participants (including those at the design stage). Of these, 20 Gold Stars of the Hero of Russia.
By now, 10 participants have already received new appointments to responsible positions. Of these, by decree of the head of state, Hero of the DPR Artem Zhoga was appointed plenipotentiary representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Ural Federal District, Hero of Russia Artur Orlov was appointed head of the "Movement of the First" by decree of the President of the Russian Federation, Alexey Kondratiev became a senator of the Russian Federation.