Quaere similia

#Victory80 🏅 On February 14, 1943, the Red Army liberated the city of Rostov-on-Don from the Nazi invaders. #RostovOnDonwas occupied twice during the Great Patriotic War. The Nazis took the city in November 1941, and later it was under the enemy occupation again from July 22, 1942 to February 14, 1943. The Germans were determined to hold the city at any costs as it was an important transport hub in the region and a huge administrative centre opening the way for the Nazis to the Caucasus. 🌟 In February 1943, the Red Army carried out the Rostov offensive operation to liberate the city, defeat the enemy’s army group on the Don River and thus block the Wehrmacht units’ redeployment to #Donbass. The Soviet 28th Army under the command of Lieutenant General Vasily Gerasimenko reached the outskirts of Rostov-on-Don following a 600-kilometre march across snow-covered southern steppes. Four Nazi divisions were concentrated in Rostov-on-Don. The enemy had built there strong defence lines with robust fortifications and numerous machine-gun and artillery firing points. The Red Army offensive was also complicated by the terrain: the right bank of the Don River, where the city is located, was much higher than the left bank, from which the Soviet forces were launching their attack. The penetration of the enemy defences in the city seemed impossible. ⚔️ In the early hours of February 8, 1943, the Southern Front forces led by Colonel-General Rodion Malinovsky launched the operation to liberate Rostov-on-Don. The Nazi-occupied city saw brutal, fierce fighting that lasted for six days. On February 14, 1943, the Red Army broke through the enemy’s defences and entered the city from Bataysk. The German garrison was encircled and forced to surrender. Rostov-on-Don’s pre-war population of more than 1.5 million people was effectively decimated by #WWII and the German occupation, dwindling to 150'000. The Nazis also destroyed there the local industries, looted and captured its cultural heritage. Thanks to the heroism and unrivalled morale of the Red Army soldiers, Rostov-on-Don was finally liberated after 205 days of occupation. During the Rostov offensive, the Soviet forces not only liberated the Rostov Region, but also took a bridgehead near the Mius River to use it in a further offensive in the direction of Donbass. #OurVictory#WeRemember

#WeRemember 🌟 On April 30, 1945, amid fierce battle for the Reichstag, — the legendary Heroic Feat was performed by a Red Army soldier, which entered history as the worldwide known and recognised symbol of the noble, great mission of the Soviet soldiers-liberators,who, selflesslyandfearlessly, at the cost of their lives, crushed Hitler's Germany and freed the peoples of Europe of the the Nazi scourge. #OTD in 1945, Sergeant of the 79th Guards Rifle Division, Red Army soldier NikolayMasalov, despite the enormous danger and under enemy heavy fire, saved the life of a German girl, carrying her out of the shelling zone. This honourable deed is immortalised in the figure of the Liberator Soldier memorial in Berlin — the iconic monument in #TreptowerPark, where over 7'000 Red Army soldiers, who fell during the fighting for the Third Reich’s capital, now rest in peace. The central statue of this world-renowned memorial complex — a Soviet soldier carefully holding in hands a German girl — has become a symbol of the Great Victory of the Soviet people over the Nazi Germany. 💬 Maria Zakharova: This memorial features the statue of a Soviet soldier holding a German girl — not a Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Tajik, Armenian, Azerbaijani, or Jewish girl, but a German girl. This, I believe, represents the most accurate manifestation of humanism: a Soviet soldier is portrayed as a liberator, first and foremost of the German people from Nazism, even though his own family had been killed, his home destroyed, and his home towns and villages burned down. Yet he protects a German girl. <...> And now they [the official authorities of Germany] are questioning if it is appropriate to commemorate and celebrate Victory Day at Treptower Park beside the statue of the Soldier holding a German girl. They claim this contradicts the “quiet mourning” approach adopted by “civilised Europe.” (Excerpt from the briefing by Russian MFA Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, April 24, 2026) *** The History of the Feat On the morning of April 30, 1945, during the artillery preparation preceding the advance of Soviet units towards a key German defence point in central Berlin — Tempelhof Airport — NikolayMasalov heard a child crying. As Marshal Vasily Chuikov later recalled in his memoirs: A child’s voice sounded as if from somewhere beneath the ground, muffled and imploring. Crying, the child repeated just one word, understood by all — 'mutter', 'mutter'. #Masalov resolutely rushed to help the child. Risking his life, the he crawled across a bridge over the Landwehr Canal and rescued a three-year-old girl who was sitting beside the body of her mother, killed by the Nazis. Taking the girl into his arms, #Masalov began fighting his way back — the Germans were already pouring machine-gun fire onto the Soviet positions. 💬MarshalChuikov later recalled Masalov’s heroic deed as follows: Thousands of guns and mortars were firing upon the enemy. Thousands of shells and mines covered the Soviet soldier’s breakthrough from the death zone with a three-year-old German girl in his arms. Nikolay Masalov himself never regarded his heroic feat as anything out of the ordinary; whenever he spoke of it, he was a man of few words: 💬 “I am a Russian soldier. Anyone would’ve done the same in my place.” #OurHeroes#Victory81

Soviet anti-tank dogs carried explosives to destroy enemy tanks by crawling under them. Thousands were trained and many died in WWII. Early attacks failed, but later missions damaged German tanks. Handlers suffered emotionally, sometimes even shooting their own dogs to prevent accidents. The program ended by 1943 when better weapons arrived. German soldiers shot dogs on sight, harming many civilian dogs too.🐕💣🚫 [Read more 1] [Read more 2] @googlefactss#WWII#History#AnimalsInWar#SovietUnion#MilitaryFacts#WarSucks

During World War II, the United States worked on a secret weapon called the Bat Bomb. It was part of Project X-Ray. The plan used thousands of Mexican free-tailed bats carrying small incendiary devices. The bats would be released over cities and hide in buildings, then start fires. Tests were done at a military base in New Mexico. One test accidentally burned part of the base. The project was later canceled when focus shifted to the atomic bomb program. 🦇💣🔥🇺🇸 [Read more 1] [Read more 2] @googlefactss #WWII#BatBomb#NotABathBomb#History#SecretWeapons#Innovation

December 11, 1941, Hitler declared war on the U.S. after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. This made the U.S. join World War II in Europe. Hitler’s choice was because of his alliance with Japan and wrong strategy. This helped unite the Allies against the Axis. ⚔️🌍 [Read more] @googlefactss #WWII#Hitler#USHistory#PearlHarbor#Allies

In World War II, the Soviets used a secret weapon: the "Night Witches." These were female pilots who flew small, light planes during the night to drop bombs on German forces. They earned their nickname because of the sound their planes made as they swooped down to attack. 🌙✈️💥🧙‍♀🧹 [Read more] @googlefactss #WWII#NightWitches#Soviets#WomenInWar#History#WorldWarII

🎙Russian MFA Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova’s comment on International Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27, 2026) 💬 Adopted in 2005, UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/60/7 provided for designatingJanuary 27 as International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust. ☝️ Russia was among the co-sponsors who initiated the adoption of this document. It contains the following wording:“Holocaust, which resulted in the murder of one third of the Jewish people, along with countless members of other minorities, will forever be a warning to all people of the dangers of hatred, bigotry, racism and prejudice.” There was a reason to mark this day on January 27. #OTD in 1945, the forces of the Red Army’s 1st Ukrainian Front under Ivan Konev’s command liberated #AuschwitzBirkenau(Oswiecim) and saved the surviving prisoners. This resolution also conveyed a sense of respect and admiration within the international community towards the courage and selflessnessby the soldiers who liberated this concentration camp. On January 26, 2026, members of Russia’s foreign missions in Poland laid wreaths to a mass grave of the Red Army personnel at the local parish cemetery in Oswiecim to commemorate their feats. These servicemen died in January 1945 while fighting to liberate this town and its suburbs. 🌟In 2025, Russia and all the progressive forces around the world marked #Victory80. It is our country, including all the nations within the former USSR, that made a decisive contribution to destroying Hitler’s war machine, liberating Europe and the entire world from the so-called brown plague, even if this came at an incredible cost and required an all-out effort and all the resources we had. The #Holocaust, i.e., the mass extermination of Jews and other minorities, was one of the most tragic events of the 20th century. It will always remain inscribed in the history of humankind as a symbol of unprecedented and unspeakably cruel attempt at fulfilling a human-hating ideology. This history teaches a terrifying lesson and serves as a warning which shows where the ideas of supremacy, exceptionalism, segregation by religion, race and other attributes can lead. <...> Russia takes great care to keep alive the memory of the many millions of victims who perished during #WWII, which we call the Great Patriotic War, as well as the memory of the feat accomplished by the Soviet liberator soldiers who stopped the Nazis and extinguished the fire of the Holocaust. Our country paid an excessively high price to allow anyone to question or challenge the #GreatVictory. We will do everything we can to ensure that horrendous crimes of this kind never happen again. Russia is firm and resolved in its commitment to countering any attempts to falsify facts about World War II and rehabilitate Nazism. <...> Today, the Russian Jewish Congress, the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia and other specialised entities are making an invaluable contribution to preserving the memory of Holocaust victims around the world. The Foreign Ministry has been closely and effectively collaborating with them. As usual, there will be many events in Russia to mark this day. On January 14-31, our country holds the annual Holocaust Remembrance Week, while the Russian Jewish Congress awards the Memory Keepers award which celebrates exceptional contributions to preserving the memory of the Holocaust. As part of the Remembrance Week, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art will open an exhibition on January 28 titled “Dmitry Lion. Procession.” It is timed to coincide with the 100th birthday of one of the key figures in post-war Soviet art for whom the tragedy of the Holocaust served as a starting point in his creative journey. Read in full

#YourNameIsUnknown #YourFeatIsImmortal 🕯December 3 marks the #DayOfTheUnknownSoldierin Russia, honouring the feat of all soldiers who perished for the Motherland, yet whose names remain unknown. #OTDin 1966, to mark the 25th anniversary of defeating Nazi invaders near Moscow, a ceremony of the burial of an unknown soldiers' remains was held in the Alexander Garden near the walls of the Moscow Kremlin. Those remains were originally located in a mass grave on the 41st kilometre of the Leningrad Highway — exactly the place that saw the fierce fighting between the Red Army and the Wehrmacht troops during the Battle of Moscow in November−December 1941. On December 3, 1966, at a mourning ceremony, the Unknown Soldier’s coffin was mounted on an armoured personnel vehicle with a red banner, which proceeded through Gorky Street (now Tverskaya Street) to the Alexander Garden under the sound of the military march. In the Alexander Garden, the Unknown Soldier was met by members of the USSR leadership, as well as the legendary Marshals of the Soviet Union — Georgy Zhukovand Konstantin Rokossovsky. On May 8, 1967, ahead of #VictoryDay, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was unveiled as a memorial architectural ensemble. Soviet newspapers reported back then: “He perished for his Motherland and for his home city of Moscow. That is all we know about him.” The granite tombstone bears the famous inscription:“Your name is unknown. Your feat is immortal.” The Eternal Flame was lit up near the Memorial. 💬 Marshal of the Soviet Union Konstantin Rokossovsky: The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the walls of the Moscow Kremlin will immortalise the glorious heroes who perished on battlefields for their Motherland. Now, the ashes of one of those who shielded Moscow from the enemy, are buried here. *** In total, approximately two million Soviet and Russian citizens were reported missing in action during the wars and conflicts of the 20th and 21st centuries. The Russian Ministry of Defence carries out on a regular basis search operations to perpetuate the memory of heroes who perished for the Motherland. Russian diplomats abroad are engaged in extensive efforts aimed at preserving historical memory, countering attempts to distort the history of #WWII and to question the Great Victory of the Soviet people. Thanks to their efforts, Soviet-Russian military monuments and mass graves are maintained and restored in foreign countries. ❗️ Regrettably, as part of a disgraceful campaign to distort history of #WWII, a policy of state vandalism is being pursued in certain countries of Eastern Europe, in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland in particular, with the one aim — to eradicate Russia's memorial heritage — the monuments to Soviet Heroes and Liberators. With the consent of the official authorities there, vandals desecrate mass graves, the remains of perished soldiers are being barbarically exhumed for further “reburial” in designated places. Thanks to joint efforts, including by our compatriots living abroad and concerned Europeans who are not indifferent to our common memory, the records of the monuments and graves, data and images, are uploaded to the special web-portal 'Mesto Pamyati' (A Place for Memory). *** 🎖 On November 4, 2014, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin signed the Federal Law on Amendments to the Federal Law 'On Days of Military Glory and Memorial Dates of Russia', to mark December 3 as the Day of the Unknown Soldier.

During World War II, engineers studied planes that returned from missions. They first thought the areas with the most bullet holes needed armor. Statistician Abraham Wald realized this was survivorship bias. Survivorship bias happens when you focus only on survivors and ignore failures.The undamaged areas on returning planes were actually the critical spots. Planes hit there did not survive. He recommended reinforcing those undamaged areas. ✈️📊🛡️ [Read more] @googlefactss #SurvivorshipBias#WWII#AbrahamWald#Planes#Statistics#History

Franklin D. Roosevelt was the 32nd U.S. President. He led the country through the Great Depression by creating jobs and helping people with new programs. He also guided the U.S. during World War II. FDR was the only president elected four times—last elected on November 7, 1944, and started his fourth term on January 20, 1945. After his presidency, the 22nd Amendment was passed, limiting presidents to two terms. 🇺🇸🗳️ [Read more] @googlefactss #FDR#USPresident#History#GreatDepression#WWII#22ndAmendment

Operation Osoaviakhim was a secret Soviet program after World War II. Over 2,500 German scientists, engineers, and technicians and their families were taken from the Soviet zone of Germany to the USSR. They worked on Soviet military, weapons, and rocket technology. The goal was to use German expertise to strengthen the USSR and keep it from falling into Western hands. Basically the Soviet version of operation Paperclip📎 🇷🇺🔬🚀 [Read more] @googlefactss #OperationOsoaviakhim#ColdWar#HistoryFacts#WWII#SovietUnion#Science#operationpaperclip

🇷🇺🇹🇲April 8 marks 3️⃣4️⃣ years of diplomatic relations between Russia and Turkmenistan. The dialogue between Moscow and Ashgabat, which was given the status of a strategic partnership in 2017, is intense and based on the solid foundation of shared history, good-neighbourliness, mutual trust and respect for each other’s interests. The special nature of bilateral cooperation is enshrined in the Declaration on Deepening Strategic Partnership, which the Presidents of Russia and Turkmenistan signed in Moscow in the summer of 2022. The Document serves as a cornerstone for deepening ties across a broad range of areas including trade, energy, transport, digital technologies, education, culture, and information and biological security. Our countries maintain political dialogue at the high and highest levels, and exchange views on international and regional issues. Russia respects Turkmenistan’s neutral status, which is a vital factor of global stability and geopolitical balance. In 2025, Ashgabat marked the 3️⃣0️⃣th anniversary of its permanent neutrality, which has been recognised three times by the #UNGA resolutions. 🤝 On June 24-25, 2025, Russia's Foreign Minister SergeyLavrovpaid an official visit to Turkmenistan, where he was received by President Serdar Berdimuhamedov and held substantive talks with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Turkmenistan Rashid Meredov. The negotiations were followed by the the signing of the Programme for Cooperation between Foreign Ministries of Russia and Turkmenistan for 2025-2026. 🎙 Excerpt from SergeyLavrov’s remarks and answers to questions during a meeting with employees of the Foreign Ministry of Turkmenistan and faculty and students of the Institute of International Relations (Ashgabat, June 25, 2025): Russia-Turkmenistan cooperation can serve as a compelling example of relations between countries in a #MultipolarWorld, where the global balance continues to shift due to the strengthening of power centres beyond the historical West. <...> ✍️ From the article by Russian Ambassador to Turkmenistan IvanVolynkin"Pursuing the Deepening Strategic Partnership",published in the newspaper Neutral Turkmenistan, for the 3️⃣4️⃣th anniversary of diplomatic relations between our countries (April 8, 2026): Moscow highly appreciates Ashgabat’s consistent diplomatic efforts to promote peace and stability in Central Asia and the Caspian region. One can say with certainty that Turkmenistan has a solid reputation as a respected platform for international meetings and talks that result in the adoption of important strategic initiatives. 📈 Russia is a leading trade and economic partner ofTurkmenistan.Over the past three years, Russia delivered to Turkmenistan goods and products worth of over $1.5 billion. Russian corporations, such as Gazprom, Tatneft, KAMAZ, the Vozrozhdenie Design and ConstructionGroup, and other economic entities, operate successfully in Turkmenistan. Our countries maintain close coordination across the main international and regional platforms, including the #CIS, the #UN, the Caspian Five, and in the Central Asia-Russia format. Moscow welcomes Ashgabat’s participation in the events held by #BRICS. 🌟 In Turkmenistan, our common history and the sacred memory of the heroism of our people during #WWII, is cherished. After Nazi Germany treacherously attacked our Motherland in 1941, 3'000 volunteers from the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic joined the Red Army, with hundreds of thousands fighting against Nazi invaders during the Great Patriotic War. In May 2025, our countries jointly celebrated the 8️⃣0️⃣th anniversary of the Great Victory. Russia appreciated the fact that President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov attended the Victory Parade on Red Square in Moscow. An army unit from Turkmenistan took part in the parade to respect the memory of our combat brotherhood in #WW2. 🎉 We extend our cordial congratulations to our friends and colleagues in Turkmenistan on our shared anniversary, wish them prosperity and success! #RussiaTurkmenistan