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Added on the 09/05/2022 17:22:00 - Copyright : AFP EN
The Siege of Leningrad has become a symbol of the endurance of the Soviet people. They were fully surrounded by Nazi forces in 1941 when the city's last road connection was severed. After 872 days of bombings, starvation, and extreme cold, the siege was finally lifted, but up to 1.5 million lives were lost. People trapped in the city had to live off of one pound of bread per day. Can you imagine that?
Can you imagine 27 million of anything? The saying goes that every family in the Soviet Union lost at least one person in WWII, or what's known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War. Some families were completely wiped out. More than 27 million Soviet citizens died, people gave everything to save their homeland. 27 million is a vast, unfathomable number, so we tried to put it into perspective.
Every family in the Soviet Union lost at least one person in the war. More than 26 million people died, in what's known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War. Some of those who faced the terror shared their memories of the day that the war began and how they sent their fathers to the front. Here are two personal accounts of tragic loss during WWII.
Les Aléas du direct : Emission du lundi 17 novembre 2014
Although 72 years of peace have passed since Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union, there are still some that can recall those horrifying years of war. Veteran pilot Yakov Lomko remembers how Soviet Air Force troops turned propellers by hand in the freezing weather before taking off. He is able to marvel at today's modern Russian aviation technology through the use of virtual reality and see just how far technology has come.
Russians all over the world are celebrating their biggest annual holiday, called Victory Day, which is basically the Russian version of the Fourth of July. 2017 marks the 72nd anniversary of the Soviet victory over Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War, which is what Russians call World War II. A number of commemorative events celebrating the official surrender of Nazi forces to the Soviet Union will take place across 26 Russian cities. Each city will host its own "Immortal Regiment" parade, in which descendants of soldiers and civilians who participated in the war march together while holding pictures and memorabilia of their ancestors. Living survivors of the war don their old military uniforms and enjoy special respect from fellow citizens. The Soviet Union took arguably the hardest toll out of all countries invaded by the Nazis, losing 11 million soldiers and up to 20 million civilians. The official symbol of the victory is an orange and black striped ribbon called the Saint George's Ribbon, and it was displayed everywhere. Regular citizens organized creative ways to display the Saint George's Ribbon, including swinging one from a crane and marching a giant version through a field. The biggest event on Victory Day, which takes place every 9th of May, is the military parade on Red Square, which features various military units and hardware parading in front of Russian top brass, including the president, prime minister, and defense minister. At the end of the day, all the celebrations are usually capped off with a large fireworks show.