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Chinese veterans get Russian medals CHANGCHUN: Four silver-haired Chinese veterans two men and two women received medals from the Russian Government yesterday for their help defending the former Soviet Union against the Nazis between 1941 and 1945. The ceremony took place in Changchun, capital of Northeast China's Jilin Province. All four veterans served with the No 88 Brigade of the Soviet Union Red army. The brigade was made up of soldiers from Korea, the Soviet Union and China. "Most of my comrades-in-arms who took part in the war later worked and lived in the three provinces in Northeast China. However, most of them have passed away. The average age of the four of us in Jilin Province is more than 80," said 94-year-old Yan Jize. "The war, 60 years ago, was one of the most terrible in the world. We will never forget that when the Nazi troops swept through the Soviet Union, these Chinese veterans fought to defend the country under assault," said Vladimir V. Goryachev, deputy consul-general of the Consulate General of the Russian Federation in Shenyang, speaking at the ceremony. The medal awarded to the four veterans bears the image of the Kremlin, while on the other side is the date of the 60th anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany. One of the veterans was 86-year-old Zhuang Feng, the former vice-director of the Publicity Department of the Changchun municipal Party committee. She took out her photo album and showed off a group photograph taken with Chairman Mao Zedong and pictures of her wearing the Soviet Union army uniform. In 1936 she decided to join the anti-Japanese army at the age of 17, with her two-year-old child in her arms and despite her parents' opposition. Two years later, the Japanese army launched a number of attacks against the First Route of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Allied Army. Zhuang was nominated to be a platoon leader in charge of female soldiers. Zhuang Feng, together with more than 500 soldiers of the Allied Army, joined the No 88 Brigade of the Soviet Union Red Army in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province in the winter of 1939. During her time in the Soviet Union, Zhuang and two dozen other female soldiers received intensive training in medical care and airborne techniques. "On behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Government I take this opportunity to tell the veterans how much we think of them. It is the highest honour the Russian Government gives to foreigners when commemorating the war," Goryachev said. (China Daily 06/03/2005 page3) |
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