Victory Day celebrated in the countries of the former USSR

In Georgia, Victory Day is solemnly celebrated. May 9 here is an official holiday, festive events are held throughout the country. The main ones took place in Tbilisi in the Victory Park, where hundreds of veterans of the Great Patriotic War gathered. President Mikhail Saakashvili, the speaker of the parliament Nino Burjanadze and other officials laid wreaths at the monument to an unknown soldier located in this park, ITAR-TASS reports. Over 300 thousand residents of Georgia died in battles with the Nazis on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War. Tens of thousands were awarded government awards, 167 of them became the heroes of the Soviet Union. Now about 2.5 thousand veterans live in Tbilisi, in total in the country - about 9 thousand.

The President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev laid a wreath to the monument to twice Hero of the Soviet Union Azi Aslanov on the occasion of the 61st anniversary of victory over fascism. The commander of the tank brigade, Major General Azi Aslanov fell the death of the brave in January 1945 in battles for the liberation of the Baltic states. He received the first star of the hero for the courage shown in the Battle of Stalingrad, the second was awarded almost 45 years after his death. In total, over 700 thousand natives of Azerbaijan fought on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, more than 400 thousand of them did not return home. The memory of them was honored in all cities and regions of the country, ITAR-TASS reports. Scarlet carnations were also assigned to mass graves in Baku, in which hundreds of Soviet soldiers were buried, who were trying to save Azerbaijani doctors. According to official figures, during the war years, Azerbaijani doctors returned 1.5 million military personnel. While in the rear, Azerbaijan made a huge contribution to a great victory over fascism.

The title of national heroes of Turkmenistan is carried by all the inhabitants of Turkmenistan who died in the Great Patriotic War. This was reminded by the President of Turkmenistan Saparmurat Niyazov in a festive appeal to the participants in the Great Patriotic War and compatriots on the occasion of the 61st anniversary of Victory, ITAR-TASS reports. “Together with other fraternal peoples, Turkmens stood up to the fight against damned fascism,” the president said. According to him, 740 thousand Turkmen warriors died on the battlefields of the Great Patriotic War. “We must be very attentive to war veterans, their ranks are growing and now there are a little more than 3 thousand of them,” Niyazov emphasized the day before at the flow of flowers to the Memorial “Valnoy Fire”.

The celebration of Victory Day in the capital of Moldova took place on the memorial of military glory that opened after the reconstruction, ITAR-TASS reports. Tens of thousands of people, the country's leadership came to honor the memory of the fallen here. In general, the Victory holiday is celebrated in all cities and villages of the republic. Meanwhile, the attitude to this holiday among local politicians is ambiguous. In Moldova, veterans of the Soviet and Romanian armies are equalized. The authorities explain this by the fact that on August 24, 1944, Romania, who fought on the side of fascist Germany, went over to the side of the anti -Hitler coalition.

On the main street of Minsk - Independence Avenue - a festive procession passed. In the multi -thousandth column, which, according to tradition, was headed by the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, there were more than 500 veterans from all over the country, as well as participants in the international campaign "We are heirs of Victory", including front -line soldiers, their children, grandchildren and great -grandchildren from 26 countries of the world.

It is symbolic that it was Belarus, which was the first to show an example of mass heroism and selflessness in the fight against the fascist aggressor, which gathered this international representation of veterans. After the procession, a ceremony of laying wreaths took place on Victory Square. Speaking on it, President Lukashenko called for protecting the huge heritage of victory, decisively withstanding the falsifications of history, ITAR-TASS reports.

In Kiev in Khreshchatyk, veterans of war, their children and grandchildren passed solemn march. The column under the standards of four Ukrainian fronts and the partisan front was headed by President Viktor Yushchenko. On the festively decorated Khreshchatyk to congratulate veterans on Victory Day, tens of thousands of Kiev came. After the march of the veterans, a parade of units of the Kyiv garrison and pupils of the Bogun Military Lyceum took place. They carried the banners of the divisions and regiments that distinguished themselves in the liberation of the city from the fascist invaders, ITAR-TASS Valery Rzhevsky reports.

The President of Ukraine also took part in the color laying ceremony to the grave of an unknown soldier on the occasion of Victory Day in the Kiev Park of Eternal Glory. The participants in the ceremony honored the memory of the dead minute of silence. After that, the orchestra of the honorary guard of the Ministry of Defense performed the state anthem. A salute of six artillery volleys sounded. The ceremony ended with the solemn march of the soldiers of the honorary guard past the monument on the grave of an unknown soldier.

After that, the President of Ukraine, together with his wife Ekaterina Yushchenko, visited the National Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. They took part in the celebrations on the occasion of Victory Day, which pass near the museum. Under the artillery volleys, the fire of fame was lit. Those present honored the dead minute of silence. After that, the warriors of the honorary guard laid flowers to the Dnieper forces memorial. Yushchenko also talked with veterans and tried soldier's porridge cooked in a military field kitchen.

After that, the head of the Ukrainian state visited veterans in the Main Military Clinical Hospital of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. There, Viktor Yushchenko congratulated veterans on the day of May 9 and thanked them for the victory. “I am convinced that without this victory we would never have seen a free, cathedral, independent Ukraine,” he said. The president gave each veteran registered hours and flowers.

On May 6, in his radiation, the President of Ukraine said: “Our duty is to convey to the next generation the memory of the terrible day of the war and the heroism of our people. The war has not bypassed a single Ukrainian family. Each family contains its own symbol of that time. Show your children photographs of grandfathers, triangles from the front, obtained by courage of the order and medal. Tell them at what price the victory was given.”

Viktor Yushchenko also called on participants in the Second World War to reconciliation and asked not to shift this problem for the future. "I urge veterans of the Soviet and Ukrainian rebel armies that day to give each other and find the way to mutual understanding," he said.

Yushchenko recalled that Ukrainians have long forgiven the Germans, Japanese and Poles with whom they fought at different times, and now they should forgive themselves. “I am turning to you on behalf of the generation of your sons and daughters: Dear parents, do not give us this problem. Get hands to each other, forgive each other for the sake of Ukraine, for your children and grandchildren. The Ukrainian nation will appreciate your step. We cannot allow our children and grandchildren to observe the confrontation for the right to be called a real veteran. In this confrontation we will not find the truth,” Yushchenko said.

The joint parade of Russian and Ukrainian sailors took place in Sevastopol. Wreaths and flowers were today assigned to the obelisk of glory on Sapun Gore, to the victory monument on Cape Chersonese and to the memorial to the heroic defenders of Sevastopol, ITAR-TASS reports.

In honor of the day of memory of honors celebrating in the republic on May 9, the President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov laid wreaths to the monument to the mourning mother in the center of Tashkent, met with war veterans, ITAR-TASS reports. Live flowers were laid by representatives of the embassies of the CIS, Poland and Bulgaria in Uzbekistan at the military memorial in the Uzbek capital. Here, soldiers and officers found eternal peace, who died in Tashkent hospitals during the battle with fascism. The memorial occupies more than five hectares and is contained in an exemplary manner. During the war years, almost one and a half million people went to the front with fascism from Uzbekistan, a third of them lay their heads on the battlefields.

In the capital of Estonia Tallinn , according to RIA-News , picketers from the Union of the Fatherland party with a demand to remove this monument from the city center came to the monument to the Soviet warrior-liberator.

One of the two participants of the monument, standing almost at the trolleybus stop, held a blue-black-white flag, the second-a poster with the inscription: "Estonian people, do not forget-this soldier occupied our state and deported our people."

People who came to lay flowers to the monument began to show signs of aggressiveness, threatening uninvited pickets, almost pushing them into the roadway.

At first, the police asked the picketers to move away, but when the situation began to get out of control, both demonstrators were put on a police bus and taken away.

The director of the law enforcement department of the Estonian capital of Tarmo Miilits, according to Delfi.ee , that the police stopped a picket for security reasons. "We previously agreed with the organizers that if there were problems, the police can stop the event." The picket of the pickets was not detained, but delivered according to Miilits, to a safe place.

In Latvia on May 8, the day of the defeat of Nazism and the memory of the victims of World War II, which is not a day off, is officially celebrating. On May 9, Victory Day in Latvia is not officially celebrated.

Thousands of people came to the victory monument in Riga to celebrate the 61st anniversary of the Victory over Nazi Germany, and nearby representatives of the Union of Fatherland hold posters with inscriptions about the dual meaning of this day in the history of Latvia.

Victory veterans gathered in the Riga Park of Victory, youth and other interests are gathered in order to put flowers to the foot of the monument and listen to a festive concert. Several buffets are also deployed here, many are sitting on the lawn to relax.

Some of those who came to the holiday have Russian flags. Above the concert stage, a banner was posted with the inscription "Glory to the winners of fascism!" Among the celebrating National Bolsheviks are noticeable on May 9.

Meanwhile, through the road from the park, several people went to a picket with posters: "We will evaluate the crimes of totalitarian regimes", "05/08/1945 - the end of the war! 05/09/1945 - the beginning of the occupation of Eastern Europe." One of the picket participants held a poster with a caricature on a Russian soldier.

On the central square of the city of Baikonur ( Kazakhstan ) on Tuesday, in honor of the 61st anniversary of the Victory, a parade of troops of the Baikonur garrison took place. The parade was taken by the head of the divisions of the space forces of the Russian Federation deployed at the cosmodrome, Lieutenant General Leonid Baranov, the correspondent of Interfax-Kazakhstan said.

More than five hundred officers participated in the parade, the battalions passed a solemn march. After the parade on the square, a combat song contest took place, in which representatives of all schools of the city took part.

The current parade of Russian military units at the cosmodrome is called the latter: in connection with the ongoing reduction of units of the space forces of the Russian Federation, deployed here, a year later on Baikonur, according to the plan, no more than 4-5 structures of the space forces of the number of cosmic troops to the battalion should remain.

At the end of April, several auxiliary military units and support units ceased to exist, and the process of transmitting objects of the measuring complex of the cosmodrome to Roscosmos is currently intensively continues. Russia has been renting a Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan since 1994. The lease term, according to the agreements of the parties, was extended until 2050.