At the top of Yehulin Mountain in Zhangbei County, Hebei Province, about 240 kilometers from Beijing, Russian diplomats, compatriots and representatives of several countries laid flowers at a memorial dedicated to Soviet and Mongolian soldiers who died fighting the Japanese invaders. The event was attended by Russian Ambassador to China Igor Morgulov, clergy, schoolchildren, local authorities, as well as diplomats from the CIS countries and representatives of the SCO.
The participants honored the fallen with a minute of silence, remembering the feat of the soldiers who gave their lives for the liberation of China. Andrei Kisenko, a representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense, stressed the importance of remembering the Great Patriotic War and the sacrifices made for freedom. According to him, 27 million dead is the price that the Soviet people paid for peace.
The memorial complex in Zhangbei was rebuilt after the Civil War and opened in 1957. It has become a symbol of the fighting brotherhood of nations and is preserved with the active participation of Russia, Mongolia and China. Among the participants of the ceremony was Tatiana Semenova from Tomsk, the niece of a soldier who died in these places — her family learned about the feat of a relative only decades later.
