By Angela Moonga
Russia’s Ambassador to Zambia Dr Azim Yarakmiredov says western countries have decided to rewrite history by naming themselves the victors in the Second World war, when the same was mostly achieved by the successes of the Soviet Union.
Delivering his address during the May 09, Victory Day and Day of Remembrance at the Russian Cultural House in Lusaka on Saturday, Dr Yarakmiredov said western countries have forgotten or pretend to forget that the West only joined the war in 1944 when the Soviet forces already were almost in Germany.
”I want to underscore that one must not lie at the expense of those who forged this Victory and liberated the Europe from the ‘brown’ plague,” he said. “That is how the Victory was achieved. There is not a family in Russia, which had not lost a relative or a friend during the war. Here on the Wall of Remembrance at the Russian House you can see portraits of those people, who forged the Victory, parents and greatparents of the Embassy’s staff, of our compatriots in Zambia.”
Dr Yarakmiredov said the day was a day of remembrance, of their heroic forbears, who not only brought peace to the world but also entrusted them with its safekeeping, so that the fascist blight would never return.
”However, it seems that some western countries, which made their fortunes on the misery of people during that war, haven’t drawn necessary conclusions and started to move NATO infrastructure to the Russian borders, organized a coup in Ukraine which brought a neo-Nazi regime into power, and thus basically created pre-conditions for another major war in the middle of Europe,” he said. “After 8 years of appeals and negotiations with a goal to peacefully resolve the existing problems of the people of Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine, which rejected the neo-Nazi regime, after more than sixteen thousand people were killed there, of which six hundred were children, the Russian Federation had no other choice but to start the special military operation to demilitarize and, more importantly, to denazify Ukraine.”
He said as it became evident from the revelations of the former heads of Germany and France, the collective West had had no intentions to resolve the existing problems in Ukraine peacefully.
Dr Yarakmiredov said hey were preparing for a war with Russia by arming the regime in Kiev.
”It is difficult to overestimate the importance of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War for the peoples of Africa. In 15-20 years after the end of the war most of the countries of the African continent received their independence, including Zambia, which will celebrate its 62nd anniversary in October,” he said. “On this day that is sacred for all Russians and most of the people around the world, on the Victory day and day of remembrance I would like to assure our friends and rivals, that Russia will always stand for peace and justice, and will achieve all objectives and goals of the special military operation in Ukraine, so that the fascist blight would never return to our Earth.”
He said that this was the main responsibility of the Russian people to their grandparents and the main responsibility of the Russian Federation as the permanent member of the UN Security Council to the international community.
He said that on May 09, the entire progressive humanity celebrates the 81th Anniversary of the Great Victory, saying for the people of Russia it is a victory in the Great Patriotic War, and for many other countries – in the Second World War.
”For us in Russia, it is simultaneously a day of remembrance.One thousand four hundred eighteen days of the Great Patriotic War went down in history as the days of great heroism, bravery, perseverance and selfless love for the Motherland,” said Dr Yarakmiredov. “During the war, the Soviet Union, which was the predecessor of the modern Russia, suffered more than twenty seven million casualties, including fourteen million civilians, of which seven point four million were deliberately killed by the fascists, mostly in concentration camps, and another two point two million died during forced labour in Germany.”
He said during the siege of Leningrad, which lasted for 880, eight hundred thousand people died from starvation and cold, adding that this is more than the combined losses of the United States and Great Britain during the entire Second World War.
”During the war, in the Soviet Union, one thousand seven hundred and ten cities and seventy thousand villages were completely destroyed,” said Dr Yarakmiredov. “At the same time, despite horrific losses and devastation, eight hundred seventy thousand pieces of military equipment were produced, among them one hundred twenty thousand planes, ninety thousand tanks, more than six hundred thousand cannons and mortars.”
He said even though almost the entire Europe worked for the fascists, by the end of the war the USSR was producing more military equipment than Germany and its allies, and that was achieved by the hard work of the Soviet people in the rear, where women, children and elderly worked for fourteen-sixteen hours, giving their best to help the frontlines.
