DUSHANBE, May 6, 2014, Asia-Plus – An official opening of the memorial slab in honor of Tajik veterans of World War II took place at the Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery in St. Petersburg on May 5, Mohammad Egamzod, a spokesman for the Tajik Embassy in Moscow, said.
According to him, Tajik delegation led by Tajik Ambassador to Russia Abdulmajid Dostiyev, representatives of the St. Petersburg Government and consular missions accredited to St. Petersburg as well as war veterans attended the ceremony.
Speaking at the ceremony, Ambassador Dostiyev noted that more than 300,000 residents of Tajikistan took part in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 and 92,000 of them died in battle. 65 of residents of Tajikistan were given the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Tajik diplomat stressed that dozens of evacuated enterprises and hospitals had operated in Tajikistan during the Great patriotic War f 1941-1945.
Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery is located in St. Petersburg, on the Avenue of the Unvanquished, dedicated mostly to the victims of the Siege of Leningrad.
The memorial complex was opened on May 9, 1960. About 420,000 civilians and 50,000 soldiers of the Leningrad Front were buried in 186 mass graves.
Near the entrance an eternal flame is located. A marble plate affirms that from September 4, 1941 to January 22, 1944 107,158 air bombs were dropped on the city, 148,478 shells were fired, 16,744 men died, 33,782 were wounded and 641,803 died of starvation.
