MOSCOW, May 3 (UPI) -- Russia launched a week of celebrations Monday to commemorate its great World War II victory over Nazi Germany, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.
"World War II veterans gathered for a traditional meeting in Moscow's Alexandrovsky Garden" Monday morning," the news agency said. "They laid wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the monument to Marshal Georgy Zhukov and tombs by the Kremlin wall," it said.
Nearly six decades after the end of the conflict, known as the Great Patriotic War in Russia, the anniversary is still a major holiday and an occasion to express massive public patriotism.
Some 27 million Russians died in their four year struggle for survival. Zhukov was the outstanding Russian general of the war, responsible for the defense of Stalingrad, Moscow and Leningrad. In 1945, he commanded the forces that took Berlin.
