#FacesOfVictory
🗓 On April 5, 1923, Soviet fighter pilot and Hero of the Soviet Union Timur Frunze was born.
The son of Mikhail Frunze, a renowned Soviet military leader, revolutionary, and prominent Civil War commander, Timur was destined for a military career from childhood. After losing his parents and grandmother early in life, he was taken under the care of Kliment Voroshilov, who served as People’s Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs of the Soviet Union.
At the age of 10, Timur was enrolled in a specialised Air Forces school. Upon completing his studies there, he continued his training at the Myasnikov Kacha Red Banner Military Aviation School, which he graduated with honours in 1941 and was commissioned with the rank of lieutenant.
✍️ Timur’s teachers recognised both his determination and his natural ability. In a service review, his course director, Senior Lieutenant Nemykin, wrote:
“I have never met a young man who so eagerly absorbed new knowledge. His interests extend far beyond the curriculum...”
Beginning in 1938, Timur served in the Red Army. After he finished flight school in September 1941, Air Forces command initially intended to keep the young pilot away from the front lines so he could build experience in the rear. However, Frunze strongly insisted on being sent to the front.
In December 1941, he was assigned to the 161st Fighter Aviation Regiment on the Soviet Northwestern Front, where he flew a Yak-1 fighter aircraft.
During his service, Frunze completed nine combat missions, shooting down two enemy aircraft alone and one as a member of a two-person crew.
🕯 On January 19, 1942, his life was tragically cut short: at just 18 years old, Timur died in an unequal battle against seven enemy fighters.
The Soviet pilot was buried with full military honours at the cemetery in the village of Kresttsy, Novgorod Region. After the war, his remains were reinterred at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.
🎖 On March 16, 1942, by an executive order of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Lieutenant Timur Frunze was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.
#Victory81#WeRemember
#FacesOfVictory
🗓 On April 5, 1923, Soviet fighter pilot and Hero of the Soviet Union Timur Frunze was born.
The son of Mikhail Frunze, a renowned Soviet military leader, revolutionary, and prominent Civil War commander, Timur was destined for a military career from childhood. After losing his parents and grandmother early in life, he was taken under the care of Kliment Voroshilov, who served as People’s Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs of the Soviet Union.
At the age of 10, Timur was enrolled in a specialised Air Forces school. Upon completing his studies there, he continued his training at the Myasnikov Kacha Red Banner Military Aviation School, which he graduated with honours in 1941 and was commissioned with the rank of lieutenant.
✍️ Timur’s teachers recognised both his determination and his natural ability. In a service review, his course director, Senior Lieutenant Nemykin, wrote:
“I have never met a young man who so eagerly absorbed new knowledge. His interests extend far beyond the curriculum...”
Beginning in 1938, Timur served in the Red Army. After he finished flight school in September 1941, Air Forces command initially intended to keep the young pilot away from the front lines so he could build experience in the rear. However, Frunze strongly insisted on being sent to the front.
In December 1941, he was assigned to the 161st Fighter Aviation Regiment on the Soviet Northwestern Front, where he flew a Yak-1 fighter aircraft.
During his service, Frunze completed nine combat missions, shooting down two enemy aircraft alone and one as a member of a two-person crew.
🕯 On January 19, 1942, his life was tragically cut short: at just 18 years old, Timur died in an unequal battle against seven enemy fighters.
The Soviet pilot was buried with full military honours at the cemetery in the village of Kresttsy, Novgorod Region. After the war, his remains were reinterred at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.
🎖 On March 16, 1942, by an executive order of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Lieutenant Timur Frunze was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.
#Victory81#WeRemember
#FacesOfVictory
🗓 On April 5, 1923, Soviet fighter pilot and Hero of the Soviet Union Timur Frunze was born.
The son of Mikhail Frunze, a renowned Soviet military leader, revolutionary, and prominent Civil War commander, Timur was destined for a military career from childhood. After losing his parents and grandmother early in life, he was taken under the care of Kliment Voroshilov, who served as People’s Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs of the Soviet Union.
At the age of 10, Timur was enrolled in a specialised Air Forces school. Upon completing his studies there, he continued his training at the Myasnikov Kacha Red Banner Military Aviation School, which he graduated with honours in 1941 and was commissioned with the rank of lieutenant.
✍️ Timur’s teachers recognised both his determination and his natural ability. In a service review, his course director, Senior Lieutenant Nemykin, wrote:
“I have never met a young man who so eagerly absorbed new knowledge. His interests extend far beyond the curriculum...”
Beginning in 1938, Timur served in the Red Army. After he finished flight school in September 1941, Air Forces command initially intended to keep the young pilot away from the front lines so he could build experience in the rear. However, Frunze strongly insisted on being sent to the front.
In December 1941, he was assigned to the 161st Fighter Aviation Regiment on the Soviet Northwestern Front, where he flew a Yak-1 fighter aircraft.
During his service, Frunze completed nine combat missions, shooting down two enemy aircraft alone and one as a member of a two-person crew.
🕯 On January 19, 1942, his life was tragically cut short: at just 18 years old, Timur died in an unequal battle against seven enemy fighters.
The Soviet pilot was buried with full military honours at the cemetery in the village of Kresttsy, Novgorod Region. After the war, his remains were reinterred at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.
🎖 On March 16, 1942, by an executive order of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Lieutenant Timur Frunze was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.
#Victory81#WeRemember
#FacesOfVictory
🗓Marina Raskova, a legendary navigator, a symbol of courage and a source of inspiration for thousands of young women who dreamed of flying, was born on March 28, 1912.
Her aviation career began in 1931, when she was hired as a draftswoman in the air navigation laboratory of the Zhukovsky Air Force Academy in Moscow. Marina was a technical assistant of the laboratory head, pilot Alexander Belyakov, and attended lectures at the academy, where she became keen on navigation, subsequently enrolling at the correspondence department of the Leningrad Institute of Aviation.
✈️ In 1934, she received the diploma of navigator, and a year later she learned to fly at the Central Flying Club in Moscow. She took part in flights since 1935, setting several world flight distance records.
Her main achievement was the famous non-stop flight of the Rodina aircraft from Moscow to the Far East with an all-female crew, which made her a national celebrity.
🎖 In 1938, Marina Raskova, Valentina Grizodubova and Polina Osipenko became the first women to be awarded the titles of Hero of the Soviet Union for that flight.
When the Great Patriotic War began in 1941, Raskova was instructed to establish female air force units. In October 1941, she created the night bomber aviation regiment that flew the U-2 (Polikarpov Po-2) aircraft, and a dive bomber regiment flying the Petlyakov Pe-2 planes. In December 1942, one of these regiments was deployed near Stalingrad, where fierce fighting was underway.
The famous 46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Regiment, which Raskova created, instilled uncontrollable fear in the Germans, who called it the Night Witches.
🕯 Marina Raskova did not take part in fighting. On January 4, 1943, her plane crashed on its way to the frontline near the village of Mikhailovka, Saratov Region, due to bad weather. The urn with her ashes was buried in the Kremlin Wall on Red Square in Moscow.
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#FacesOfVictory
⚓️ On January 16, 1909, Boris Alexeev was born – commander of the S-33 submarine of the Black Sea Fleet, Hero of the Soviet Union, Captain 1st Rank, Candidate of Naval Sciences.
From a young age, Boris Alexeev devoted his life to the sea – already at 14, he worked on vessels of the Volga-Caspian Shipping Company. In 1931, he graduated from the Baku Maritime Technical School and entered service in the USSR Navy.
After completing submarine command courses in Leningrad, Alexeev first served with the Pacific Fleet and, from November 1939, with the Black Sea Fleet, where he met the beginning of the Great Patriotic War.
⚔️The defence of Sevastopol and the liberation of Crimea became key chapters of his combat record. Between 1941-1944, while commanding submarine S-33, Boris Alexeev carried out 18 combat patrols.
Even when his submarine was undergoing repairs, he continued to fight the Nazi invaders. For instance, in the spring and summer of 1942, acting as the supporting commander of submarine S-31, he broke through to besieged Sevastopol – delivering ammunition and food and evacuating wounded and sick Red Army soldiers.
In 1943-1944, S-33 conducted raids against enemy communications between Sevastopol and western Black Sea ports, as well as off the Crimean coast. The results of these operations were confirmed after the war:
• April 20, 1943 – sank the Romanian transport Suceava;
• September 22 and December 27, 1943 – destroyed two enemy transports by torpedoes, of approximately 6,000 and 4,000 tons;
• May 12, 1944, off Cape Sarych – intercepted and sank an enemy landing barge, capturing the naval ensign of Nazi Germany.
💬 Excerpt from the award citation for Boris Alexeev (June 5, 1944):
Captain 2nd Rank Alexeev completed 18 fully autonomous combat patrols during the Patriotic War.
His combat record includes seven enemy ships sunk and one damaged. All attacks were conducted boldly and persistently, despite active countermeasures of the enemy escort.
At sea, Captain 2nd Rank Alexeev constantly seeks out the enemy, finds him and delivers a devastating blow. Through his courage and determination, inflicting significant damage on the enemy, he has earned universal respect among the personnel of the submarine brigade.
He is worthy of the title “Hero of the Soviet Union”.
🏅 On July 22, 1944, by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Boris Alexeev was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union, and submarine S-33 was granted the Guards status.
After the Victory, Boris Alexeev continued his exemplary service – commanding a submarine division of the Black Sea Fleet, graduating with honours from the Voroshilov Naval Academy and training new generations of submariners. He passed away on January 25, 1972, and was laid to rest at Serafimovskoe Cemetery.
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🗓 On August 18, 1921, the legendary Soviet fighter pilot Lydia Litvyak — known by her call sign White Lily — was born.
Lydia dreamed of conquering the skies from a young age. At 14, she began training at an aviation club, and by the age of 15, she completed her first solo flight. After graduating from flight school, she began training cadets in flying at just 19 years old.
✈️ In October 1941, Lydia Litvyak was called up for military service, and a year later, she joined the 586th Women’s Aviation Regiment. Her first combat mission took place in the skies over Saratov, piloting a Yak-1 fighter.
In September, she participated in fierce battles over Stalingrad. Due to her impressive achievements in the air, Litvyak was transferred to the 9th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment, known as the “ace regiment”. Following the successful counteroffensive near Stalingrad in 1943, fierce battles erupted on the approaches to Donbass, where Lydia Litvyak continued her service in the skies.
🕯 On August 1, 1943, while defending Donbass, Litvyak engaged in an air battle against several Messerschmitts, which outperformed the Yak-1 in both speed and manoeuvrability. Radio operators intercepted distressing messages from pilots: “Lilya has been shot down!” The crash site of Litvyak’s fighter was discovered only decades later. She was just 21 years old during her final combat mission.
In total, the White Lily completed 168 combat missions, personally downing 12 enemy aircraft and 4 more as part of a group. She became the most successful female pilot of World War II.
🎖 Lydia Litvyak was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on May 5, 1990.
#FacesOfVictory#WeRemember
🗓 On June 8, 1920 — 104 years ago — the most successful ace pilot of the Anti-Hitler Coalition, Three-time Hero of the Soviet Union and to Marshal of Air Forces Ivan Kozhedub was born.
⚔️ Ivan Kozhedub achieved his first aerial victory at the age of 23, on July 6, 1943, during the Battle of Kursk. During his 40th combat sortie at Kursk, he engaged in a battle 12 enemy aircraft and shot down a Junkers Ju-87 Stuka dive-bomber, followed by another Stuka on July 7. On July 9, 1943, Kozhedub destroyed two Messerschmitt Me-109 fighters.
On October 1-12, 1943, he shot down 14 German aircraft during dogfights over the Dnieper — a unique combat episode in the history of Soviet aviation.
In August 1944, Kozhedub was appointed Deputy Commander of the 176th Guards Fighter Aircraft Regiment and started flying a new Lavochkin La-7 fighter.
During the Great Patriotic War, Kozhedub flew 330 combat missions, engaged in 120 dogfights and shot down 62 enemy aircraft.
After the Victory, he continued to serve with the Soviet Air Force and commanded a fighter aircraft division during the Korean War. Kozhedub was promoted to Air Marshal ahead of the 40th anniversary of the Great Victory.
🎖 Three-time Hero of the Soviet Union, Ivan Kozhedub received two Orders of Lenin, seven Orders of the Red Banner, one Order of Alexander Nevsky, one Order of the Great Patriotic War 1st Class, two Orders for of the Red Star, Orders for Service in the Soviet Armed Forces 2nd and 3rd Class, and multiple medals.
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#FacesOfVictory
1️⃣2️⃣5️⃣ years ago – on March 30, 1901 – Major General Alexey Fyodorovwas born. A legendary Soviet partisan commander, one of the outstanding organisers of the resistance movement during the Great Patriotic War, a two-time Hero of the Soviet Union.
Born into a peasant family in Lotsmanskaya Kamenka (near Dnepropetrovsk), he rose from a Red Army volunteer and Civil War veteran to become First Secretary of the Chernigov Regional Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of the Ukrainian SSR.
After the Great Patriotic War began, when the enemy approached the Chernigov region in September 1941, Alexey Fyodorov took charge of the regional HQ of the partisan movement and of the local partisan formations. It was in those dark years that his exceptional talent as an organiser of underground resistance and his instinct as a military commander came fully to the fore, making him one of the architects of Soviet partisan warfare.
📄 From Order No. 1, approved by Alexey Fyodorov, of the regional HQ directing the partisan movement in the Chernigov region on organising the struggle against the Nazi occupiers and their accomplices (October 30, 1941):
The bandit forces of German fascism, having invaded the territory of our sacred Soviet land, are carrying out mass terror with the help of contemptible nationalist scum – executions, violence, and the plunder of our people.
I hereby order:
1. To establish a unified partisan detachment in the district from among Communists, Komsomol members, Soviet activists, collective farmers, and representatives of the intelligentsia.
2. The task is to destroy fascist railway trains, motor vehicles, and depots, and to wage an all-out struggle against the German occupiers.
By March 1942 alone, the Chernigov partisan detachment under Fyodorov’s command had fought16 engagements, eliminating around 1,000 Hitlerite troops, destroying 33 road and railway bridges, derailing 5 enemy trains, and blowing up 5 depots and 2 factories.
The Germans and their accomplices among the Ukrainian nationalists repeatedly tried to eradicate Fyodorov’s formation, even redeploying front-line units reinforced with armour and artillery for that purpose.
🎖 On May 18, 1942, for courage and heroism displayed in partisan struggle behind enemy lines against the German invaders, Alexey Fyodorov was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union, together with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.
By early 1943, the formation under his command comprised 12 partisan detachments with a total strength of more than 5,000 fighters.
From March to June 1943, it significantly expanded the zone of active operations behind enemy lines – across Belarus, as well as the Bryansk and Oryol Regions.
🥇 In April 1943, Alexey Fyodorov was promoted to the rank of Major General.
During “Operation Kovel Junction” ( July 7, 1943 – March 14, 1944) his partisans destroyed 549 enemy trains with ammunition, fuel, military equipment and manpower.
🎖 For exemplary fulfilment of combat missions, heroism and bravery, Fyodorov was awarded a second Gold Star medal on January 4, 1944, becoming twice a Hero of the Soviet Union.
In April 1944, Alexey Fyodorov was assigned to senior Party and state work. In his final post as Minister of Social Security of the Ukrainian SSR, he served for 22 years. His glorious wartime path was immortalised in his memoir The Underground Committee Carries On (1955), as well as in the multi-part film released in 1979 under the same title.
🕯 Alexey Fyodorov passed away on September 9, 1989. His memory was honoured throughout Ukraine in monuments, busts and memorial plaques.
Regretfully, the descendants of those whom Alexey Fyodorov and his partisans fought are today trying to erase the name of this outstanding man from historical memory. The neo-Nazi Kiev regime is destroying monuments and other memorials to Soviet soldiers in an attempt to strip its people of their true history, their memory, and their Victory.
❗️But #WeRemember – and we will not allow the memory of our heroes to be desecrated.
Khatyn Massacre
8️⃣3️⃣ years ago, in Nazi-occupied Belarus, an entire village was wiped out.
149 people were burned alive. 75 of them were children.
This atrocity was carried out by Ukrainian collaborators under German command (the 118th Schutzmannschaft Battalion and the SS-Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger).
🇨🇦Canada gave asylum to two Nazi butchers of Khatyn: Joseph Vinnitskii and Vladimir Katriuk.
❗️They were never held accountable for their crimes and died in peace.
Memory cannot be selective.
No one is forgotten! Nothing is forgotten!
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🏅 In January 1944, Leningrad was completely liberated from the Nazi siege, which had lasted 8️⃣7️⃣2️⃣ days.
During this time, the city endured severe hunger, constant shelling, and bombing.
◾️ Facts about the genocide of the Soviet people in Leningrad 👉 More than 1 million people fell victim to the genocide. Of these, over 600,000 residents — children, women, the elderly, soldiers wounded and maimed at the front — died of hunger, cold, exhaustion, and disease.
Leningraders saw death all around them every day, but they did not lose their dignity and faith in Victory.
The memory of the Leningrad siege is preserved by museums, memorials, and the Piskarevskoye Cemetery, and the stories of survivors remind us of the courage and resilience of the city's residents.
#WeRemember
🎥The film was produced by the Information Department of the Administration of the Governor of St. Petersburg, commissioned by the Government of St. Petersburg, with the support of JSC "GATR" and the Archives Committee.
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🏅 In January 1944, Leningrad was completely liberated from the Nazi siege, which had lasted 8️⃣7️⃣2️⃣ days.
During this time, the city endured severe hunger, constant shelling, and bombing.
◾️ Facts about the genocide of the Soviet people in Leningrad 👉 More than 1 million people fell victim to the genocide. Of these, over 600,000 residents — children, women, the elderly, soldiers wounded and maimed at the front — died of hunger, cold, exhaustion, and disease.
Leningraders saw death all around them every day, but they did not lose their dignity and faith in Victory.
The memory of the Leningrad siege is preserved by museums, memorials, and the Piskarevskoye Cemetery, and the stories of survivors remind us of the courage and resilience of the city's residents.
#WeRemember
🎥The film was produced by the Information Department of the Administration of the Governor of St. Petersburg, commissioned by the Government of St. Petersburg, with the support of JSC "GATR" and the Archives Committee.
🔥 In anticipation of the 81st anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War, diplomats from the Russian Embassy in Belgium and the Permanent Mission of Russia to the European Union, together with staff of the Russian House in Brussels, began holding a series of traditional memorial events at the graves of Soviet soldiers and citizens throughout the Kingdom.
🧧On May 5 of this year, A flower-laying ceremony was held at the graves of Soviet citizens buried in the cemeteries of Peysan, Kevi, and Chime.
🧧On May 8 of this year, staff of the Russian House in Brussels, as well as activists of the Russian compatriots movement, visited the cemetery of the Brussels commune of Ixelles and laid flowers at the grave of the legendary participant in the Belgian Resistance movement, Marina Shafrova-Marutaeva.
🎗Marina Shafrova-Marutaeva actively participated in the underground struggle against the Nazi invaders and was nicknamed the "Belgian Joan of Arc" for her heroic deeds.
Commemorative events in Belgium will be held throughout May.
#Victory81#WeRemember
🇫🇷🎗 Paris honors Russian participants in the French Resistance
🗓 On May 7, on the eve of Victory Day, Russian Ambassador to France A.Yu. Meshkov, accompanied by the military attaché, laid a wreath at the monument to Russian participants in the French Resistance, located in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.
🌺 The ceremony was attended by Russia's Permanent Delegate to UNESCO, R.Zh. Alyautdinov, the leadership of the Russian House of Science and Culture in Paris (RDNC) and the Russian Trade Mission in France, as well as concerned French and Russian compatriots.
"To date, 180,000 Soviet citizens and people from the former Russian Empire who participated in the anti-fascist Resistance have been identified. We remember each of them. And this monument is dedicated to a famous soldier, a Russian participant in the French Resistance," A.Yu. Meshkov emphasized in his speech.
🎼 Performances by students of the children's musical theater "Gameins" and the grandson of a Resistance participant, actor and public figure Guillaume Rath, added a special solemnity and touching touch to the event. They performed the anthem of the French Resistance, "Song of the Partisans," as well as the famous Soviet composition "We Need One Victory."
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