WW2 soldiers remembered in Azerbaijan prior to VE Day anniversary

Over 300,000 residents of Azerbaijan took part in the fight against the Nazi, and 123 of them received the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union. None of the heroes is alive these days.

The remembrance meeting was held at the Azerbaijani Music Academy and organized by the Russian embassy and the Baku office of the Russian Center for International Scientific and Cultural Cooperation with the support of the Azerbaijani Russian community.

The meeting paid tribute not only to soldiers but also to people who secured the victory in the rear. Nearly 50% of Baku oil workers were women at the end of 1941. Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov said "there would not have been that victory without oil." More than 80% of oil produced in Baku were sent to the front. In addition, Azerbaijan was manufacturing 170 types of weaponry and ammunition, including the famed Katyusha missile systems. Itar-Tass