Hundreds of residents of Dushanbe and guests of the Tajik capital participated in this year’s Immortal Regiment March that was held in Dushanbe on the occasion of the 77th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.
The action participants marched from Victory Square (Great IS-2 Tank monument) to Victory Park, where they laid wreaths at the Military Glory Memorial and sang “Katyusha.”
The Immortal Regiment is a massive civil event staged in major cities in Russia and around the world every 9 May during the Victory Day celebrations. It is also a public non-profit organization, created in Russia on a voluntary basis with the aim of "immortalizing" the memory of home front workers, armed forces service personnel, partisans, personnel of resistance organizations, and personnel of law enforcement and emergency services. It involves people carrying on the memory of war veterans, with participants carrying pictures of relatives and/or family friends who served in the country's labor sector, paramilitary units, the Soviet Armed Forces and law enforcement organizations during the Second World War.
The 1941–45 period of World War II is known in Russia as the "Great Patriotic War". During this war, which included many of the most lethal battle operations in human history, Soviet civilian and military casualties were about 27 million, accounting for a third of all World War II casualties. The full demographic loss to the Soviet peoples was even greater. During the Soviet Union's existence, the Victory Day was celebrated throughout the USSR and in the countries of the Eastern Bloc. The war became a topic of great importance in cinema, literature, history lessons at school, the mass media, and the arts.
According to the Republican Council of Veterans of War and Labor, only 57 veterans of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 are estimated to be still alive in Tajikistan, while last year, 94 veterans of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 celebrated Victory Day in Tajikistan.
More than 300,000 residents of Tajikistan reportedly took part in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 and more than 100,000 of them died in battle.
64 of residents of Tajikistan were reportedly given the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Besides, 15 other Tajikistan’s residents were Full Holders of the Order of Glory.
Victory Day marks the end of World War II in Europe, specifically the capitulation of Nazi forces to the Allies (the Soviet Union, United Kingdom, France, the United States and other principal Allied nations) on May 8, 1945.
In Russia and other countries of former Soviet Union, the day of Victory over Nazi Germany is celebrated on May 9, because when the German Instrument of Surrender actually entered into force (May 8, 1945 at 23:01 CET), it was already May 9 by Moscow time. Post-Soviet countries have continued the tradition.
