The Russian Ministry of Defense, within the framework of the No Statute of Limitations project, has opened on its website a new multimedia section dedicated to the liberation of Hungary and the soldiers of the Red Army who died for the freedom and independence of this country during World War II. It contains documents from the Central Archives of the Ministry of Defense.
The military department noted that in the battles for the liberation of Hungary, the Soviet Union lost about 140 thousand people, 80 thousand of whom died during the capture of Budapest.
“The memory of those events is kept by over a thousand graves, mass graves and memorials to Soviet soldiers on the territory of Hungary,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
In particular, in the city of Dunajharaszti, located not far south of Budapest, there is a military grave that appeared in December 1944, when, during the offensive battles near Budapest, the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front captured a large railway station of the same name in this area. 13 Red Army soldiers are buried in the grave. Among them, the Red Army soldier Andrei Bychkov was awarded the medal “For Military Merit”, Private Fyodor Ignatiev and the Guard Private Nikolai Ozeryan were awarded medals “For Courage,” the Defense Ministry said.
In addition, in the Zala area, in the fortress city of Zalasentgrot, located 160 km west of Budapest, there is another war burial. The monument has a plaque with an inscription in Hungarian: “In memory of Soviet soldiers who died in 1945”. 12 soldiers and commanders of the Red Army are buried here. As reported in the military department, 11 of them died in these places on March 29, 1945 during the offensive operation of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, during which Soviet troops broke through the enemy’s defenses and, building on their success, made a 30-kilometer rush to the Austrian border.
The section also tells about a mass grave in the city of Zalasentgrot, in which six soldiers were originally buried, among whom was senior sergeant Kh. Khatamov. It is noted that the city still has a stone bridge called the “Khatamov Bridge”. A commemorative plaque attached to it says that this bridge was mined by German troops and that the Red Army soldier Kh. Khatamov, at the cost of his own life, prevented the blowing up of this strategic object and a historical monument.
Also, the multimedia section contains copies of documents on the liberation of Budapest, on the atrocities of the Nazis on the territory of Hungary, on the attitude of the Hungarians towards the Red Army, as well as on the policy of the USSR in the liberated lands.
In February last year, a section with declassified archival documents on the liberation of Budapest appeared on the website of the Russian Ministry of Defense for the 75th anniversary of this operation of the Red Army.