[Regnum] The end date of the Battle of Leningrad, August 9, became the Day of Military Glory of Russia. The corresponding decree was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, the document was published on the official portal of legal information on April 1.
The accompanying materials to the law indicated that the initiative would emphasize the significance of the Battle of Leningrad as the longest battle of the Great Patriotic War and would immortalize the feat of the defenders of Leningrad.
The document comes into force on the day of its publication.
The Battle of Leningrad, which lasted from July 10, 1941 to August 9, 1944, was the longest of the Great Patriotic War. Troops from the Northern, Northwestern, Leningrad, Volkhov, Karelian and 2nd Baltic Fronts participated in the fighting at various times.
The result of a series of military operations and the successful completion of the Battle of Leningrad in August 1944 was the complete liberation of Leningrad from the Nazi blockade, as well as the occupied territories of the Leningrad Region and the Karelo-Finnish SSR from the Nazi and Finnish occupiers.
During the Battle of Leningrad, Soviet troops lost about 980,000 people killed, and about 2 million people were wounded. Over 350,000 soldiers of the Leningrad Front were awarded orders and medals, 226 of them were awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. Another 1.5 million people were awarded the medal "For the Defense of Leningrad".
As reported by the Regnum news agency, on March 11, Putin introduced a bill to the State Duma to establish the day of the end of the Battle of Leningrad, August 9, as the Day of Military Glory of Russia.
In 2017, the date of August 9 was included in the city law "On holidays and memorable dates in St. Petersburg" as the Day of the end of the Battle of Leningrad in the Great Patriotic War. Every year on this day, in different areas of the city, at cemeteries where the defenders of Leningrad are buried, and at military memorials, solemn mourning ceremonies of laying wreaths and flowers, and memorial events are held.
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FSB showed archives from the Great Patriotic War about the trial of traitors in the Kherson region
The FSB of Russia for the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol has declassified archival data on the trial and investigation of traitors and collaborators who helped the Nazis in the Kherson region during the Great Patriotic War.
According to the documents, in July 1943, several Soviet paratroopers-scouts landed in the area of the village of Verkhniye Serogozy. Three of them were killed, three were taken prisoner. After a brutal interrogation, they were shot on the outskirts of the village of Nizhniye Serogozy along with two more civilians. Later, the place of execution was identified by witnesses and perpetrators.
The archive contains interrogation data of former employees of the counterintelligence and punitive body of the occupiers. Police officers from several districts of the Kherson region were also involved in the capture of the intelligence officers.
“Based on the testimony of former collaborators, it can be traced how several odious traitors, who were later known for their cruelty and treachery – former citizens of the USSR and deserters from the Red Army, in particular Dubogrey – voluntarily entered the service of the punitive organs,” the materials state.
The trial of the traitors took place in March 1959. Six collaborators were sentenced to capital punishment. They were agents of the Nazi secret field police, fighting partisans and the patriotic underground.
The archival documents were declassified as part of the all-Russian project “No Statute of Limitations”.
Earlier, in November last year, archival materials about the brutality of policemen during the Great Patriotic War were made public. Among the published records are interrogation protocols of residents of the Kherson region after liberation in the spring of 1944, as well as their statements to the state commission for the investigation of the crimes of the Nazi invaders.