The inauguration of the restored Soviet war memorial took place in the town of Nagybayom (Somogy region), located 200 kilometres southwest of Budapest. The ceremony was attended by employees of the embassies of Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus and Kazakhstan, as well as representatives of the Hungarian public from Budapest, Kaposvár and Pecs. This is reported by TASS.
A wreath from the Russian Embassy was laid by Minister Counsellor Tigran Garibyan and Military Attaché Oleg Smirnov. At the ceremony, the Russian Ambassador to Hungary Evgeny Stanislavov was greeted and said that “it is our duty to remember the feat of Soviet soldiers who gave their lives during the war for the freedom of all mankind”.
According to Sherali Mamasoliev, head of the Russian Defence Ministry’s representative office for the organisation and conduct of war memorial work in Hungary, 1,396 Soviet soldiers and officers who died in 1944-1945 in battles with the Nazis are buried in this place. The memorial complex is an area with mass graves and a central obelisk with a high relief of a Soviet soldier and a gilded star. It is flanked by two 76-millimetre artillery pieces.
During the renovation of the memorial complex, the main monument was restored, the burial ground was tidied up, and marble slabs with the names of the fallen soldiers were installed. The archival work carried out by the Ministry of Defence allowed to immortalise most of the names.
In his turn, Hungarian reserve colonel Béla Puskás, responsible for war graves in the administration of the Somogyi region, pointed out that in his time “the remains of the heroes of the Red Army were honourably consigned to the ground” and should be carefully protected.
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