Russia, Ukraine and Belarus Mark 60

[Mariboulg]

Russia, Ukraine and Belarus Mark 60
The Associated Press, Fri 22 Jun 2001


MOSCOW (AP) — People across the former Soviet Union laid wreaths and lit candles to mark a bitter anniversary Friday, 60 years since the Nazi invasion that led to the deaths of some 27 million Soviet citizens.

In the same early morning twilight that accompanied the invasion, elderly veterans, jackets sagging with medals, placed candles in ceremonies at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Kremlin in Moscow shortly before 4 a.m. — about the time that German troops crossed into Soviet territory on June 22, 1941.

Several hundred young people also joined the event, holding small flags and candles. The war plays a major part in the family history of most people in the former Soviet Union — even those born after it ended.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's father, for example, was disabled by a German grenade; and Putin's older brother died of diphtheria as an infant in besieged Leningrad, now St. Petersburg. His mother nearly starved to death, Putin has told biographers.

Under a mid-morning drizzle, Putin laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. ``Twenty-seven million dead — such a price was paid by no other country,'' Putin said in a television address. ``You cannot understand Russia unless you understand what we went through in the war.''

The German parliament marked the anniversary by formally commemorating fallen soldiers on both sides of the conflict.

In Berlin, Parliament President Wolfgang Thierse called the assault a ``murderous push'' responsible for millions of deaths, expressing remorse for the pain inflicted on the people of the Soviet Union and sorrow for Germans who died.

Ceremonies were held in Belarus in the town of Brest near the former Soviet border. Kiev, capital of Ukraine, was also holding commemorations.

The war victory is looked back on as an untarnished accomplishment at a time when many people are disillusioned by the loss of the Soviet Union's superpower status after its 1991 breakup, and by the subsequent economic and political disorder and corruption.

But the commemorations paper over many of the era's unpalatable memories.

There is little mention of the fact that the Soviet Union entered World War II in September 1939 in an alliance with Nazi Germany, carving up Poland and the Baltic States between them.

On June 14, 1941, Soviet forces rounded up thousands of people they feared would oppose Soviet rule in Estonia and deported them to Siberia, where thousands died. That anniversary was mostly ignored in Russia.

Adolf Hitler broke the alliance with Stalin and attacked the Soviet Union, capturing huge swaths of the country until the tide turned with Soviet victories in battles at Stalingrad and Kursk in 1942-43.

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