(Baonghean.vn) - Exactly 72 years ago today, Nazi Germany signed the unconditional surrender document, marking the triumph of the Soviet people and army, ending the Great Patriotic War and predetermining the outcome of World War II, the most brutal war in human history.
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| The Great Patriotic War is a term commonly used in Russia and the former Soviet Union to refer to a part of World War II, which began on June 22, 1941, and ended on May 9, 1945. (Image caption: Moscow residents listening to a radio broadcast announcing that Nazi Germany had attacked Soviet territory on the morning of June 22, 1941.) |
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| A battlefield image from Belarus in 1941. |
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| In 1940, Nazi leader Hitler approved Operation Barbarossa (the codename for the Nazi German invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II). On June 22, 1941, the German air force launched air raids on cities along the western border of the Soviet Union. |
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| New recruits set off for battle in Moscow on June 23, 1941. This was in response to the call to defend the country against the Nazi German invasion. |
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| Women citizens tearfully bid farewell to their loved ones going to war in the Grushki district of Kyiv, Ukraine, on June 23, 1941. |
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| Soviet aircraft fly over the Peter and Paul Fortress in Leningrad. |
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| Air defense forces in Moscow in 1941. |
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| Nurses assist wounded soldiers after a Nazi bombing raid near Chisinau. |
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| Machine gunners. |
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| The Red Army supplied weapons to the Moscow militia. |
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| Women and children take shelter at Mayakovskaya subway station during an airstrike. |
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| Many volunteers came to register for military service at the Oktyabrsky Recruitment Office in 1941. |
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| Female pilots from the 46th Guards Air Regiment are resting near a bomb shelter. |
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| Workers and civilians are building barricades outside Leningrad. |
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| Soviet farmers in a cooperative are examining a downed German plane. |
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| Residents participate in digging trenches to defend the port city of Odessa. |
Kim Ngoc
(Synthetic)
