February 23, which is celebrated as Defender of the Fatherland Day in Russia, is also marked in Serbia. On Saturday people in Belgrade have remembered the 7,000 Soviet soldiers who died fighting the Nazi occupation in Yugoslavia. Moscow denounced Kosovo's recent self-proclaimed independence and the day was also an occasion for Serbs to thank Russia for is support.

Laying wreaths at the tomb of the Russian soldiers and officers in Belgrade who died in 1944 fighting the Nazis is a traditional annual ceremony.
The battle for Belgrade cost around 1,000 Soviet army lives, while around 7,000 perished in the campaign for Yugoslavia in total.
This year only a few veterans took part in the ceremony. The generation of Serbs who fought shoulder to shoulder with the Russians has nearly been entirely consigned to history. Now it is their sons and daughters who come to pay tribute to their memory.

Just a hundred steps away from the tomb is the so called ‘Russian cemetery’, which lies within the biggest in Belgrade. There you can still meet those who fought in WW2.

Iverskaya Chapel in Belgrade’s central cemetery is an exact copy of the chapel that was demolished by the Bolsheviks in Moscow’s Red Square. In 1931 it was recreated in Belgrade by Orthodox Russians and Serbs not far from the memorial to the heroes of WW1.
Back then two million Russians fought for Serbia’s freedom. At the cemetery there’s a memorial engraved with the words “Rest in peace, fighting eagles!” It is devoted to them and to Nicholas II. Until recently it was the only monument in the world to Russia’s last Emperor.

RussiaToday : News : Serbs pay tribute to Soviet liberators

It is good to see some people in this world haven't forgotten what the Red Army done for them. They are all too often shamefully overlooked in western analysis of WW2. Every european today owes an awful lot to the USSR.

__________________
Viva Fidel

"If there ever was in the history of humanity an enemy who was truly universal, an enemy whose acts and moves trouble the entire world, threaten the entire world, attack the entire world in any way or another, that real and really universal enemy is precisely Yankee imperialism"

"North Americans don't understand... that our country is not just Cuba; our country is also humanity"

True. The Russians died like flies in the Great Patriotic War. Good thing only communists died in that conflict. Everyone else had it easy.

What a stupid comment, at best it is logically inconsistent. Not everyone in Russia was a communist, it would be the equivelant of saying every American is a capitalist. And the ordinary people caught up in the flames of this war, where they all communists who deserved to die ? Even the very claim that a persons political ideology is a reason to accept their death is rather absurd. It is that mindset that has led us into hellish situations like WW2 and all the other conflicts that followed. Too many people have a poor ability to reason and they think that the other side deserves to die. It is a destructive path we are all on and the attitude you express is a reflection of that.

__________________
Viva Fidel

"If there ever was in the history of humanity an enemy who was truly universal, an enemy whose acts and moves trouble the entire world, threaten the entire world, attack the entire world in any way or another, that real and really universal enemy is precisely Yankee imperialism"

"North Americans don't understand... that our country is not just Cuba; our country is also humanity"

I agree with what Hugo said and I just want to ask you where Hugo insinuated that everyone else had it easy? he didn't, what he did was state a fact that any 10 year old kid who has played a WW2 video game knows, the red army played a massive part in defeating the facists. What is your problem with that?

__________________
Trust me, I'm a socialist!

There's power in a factory,power in the land, power in the hand of the worker. But it all amounts to nothing if together we don't stand, there is power in a union.
The union forever defending our rights, down with the blackleg, workers unite. To our brothers and our sisters in many far off lands, there is power in a union.
Money speaks for money, the devil for his own. - Billy Bragg

You're right. At that point, there were about forty million in Russia who were not communists. Of course, at that point, they had all been murdered by Stalin.

Well, no. Only the communists.


Is it? In my view, if a person's political ideology requires my destruction as a free human being, death cannot come to them quickly enough.


Primitive, collectivist tribalism and the appeasement of totalitarianism is what led the Europeons into WWII (or, as you might call it, The Great Patriotic War, comrade). The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor is what led the US into it. And none too late, either. The Russians were on the ropes and needed studebakers, along with tens of millions of tons of other supplies, to stay in the fight. Without US aid, the USSR would not have survived. Pleasant as that may sound, a Germany victory would have been even even worse for the Russians.

Firstly i'm going to ask for proper proof on the Stalin claim. Too many people throw around random figures on here that are backed up in no way, and it is time these culprits were challenged. From Gulag : A History by Anne Applebaum "Using archives, researchers cite a figure of 786,098 political executions from 1934 to 1953. Most historians consider this more or less plausible"


On your other point that communists deserve to die, well that is barely worth a response. It woud be similar to saying "the good thing is only capitalists died in 9/11". Its an appaulling destructive attitude. And what i will ask for clarification of is your u turn from "only communists died in this conflict". It is a shameful thing to say and sours the memory of the dead.

I wont even begin to tackle your claims about the inevitability of a German victory in WW2, as there has already been sufficient debates on that issue here.

__________________
Viva Fidel

"If there ever was in the history of humanity an enemy who was truly universal, an enemy whose acts and moves trouble the entire world, threaten the entire world, attack the entire world in any way or another, that real and really universal enemy is precisely Yankee imperialism"

"North Americans don't understand... that our country is not just Cuba; our country is also humanity"

Go do your own research, pollyanna. I ain't here to change your mind.

Not at all. Capitalists are good; they live in free societies.

You're right. Few things are inevitable. How about we call it 'probable'?

You know I've seen this answer in a thread before,...I think it was titled "how to win the debate when you don't know what you're talking about". Why are you here then? You do realise that this is a debate forum, and the purpose of debate is persuasion, you must be pretty bad at it if you think you're not here to persuade.

Yeh, capitalists are all pillars of morality, that's not just a ridiculous generalisation backed up with no evidence. And why does the society in which people live mean they are good or not, I live in a free society but I'm a socialist, does that make me good? It's a ridiculous premise anyway.

__________________
Trust me, I'm a socialist!

There's power in a factory,power in the land, power in the hand of the worker. But it all amounts to nothing if together we don't stand, there is power in a union.
The union forever defending our rights, down with the blackleg, workers unite. To our brothers and our sisters in many far off lands, there is power in a union.
Money speaks for money, the devil for his own. - Billy Bragg

Only problemis that the USST side had the political one top even in the military, the general soldiers wasnt the evil empire guy, but when they are lead by political officers who shots anyone who disaagrees its bad

I think we all know about the love stargi that the USSR used ones, ship troops to stalingrad, give one a gun the 2nd a ammoclip, and force them to attack shoting anyone who walked anystep backwards