Tag Archives: red army

Americans and Soviet Russians standing side by side in Budapest

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Szabadság tér – Liberty Square – is close to Budapest’s Parliament building. At one end of this piazza, there is a tall monument surmounted by the 5-pointed star of Communism. The monument also bears a hammer and sickle, as well as bas-reliefs depicting Red Army troops liberating Budapest from the Germans at the end of WW2.

On both sides of the Soviet war memorial, which stands close to the US embassy, there are statues.

One statue depicts President Ronald Reagan, and the other President George W Bush. Both presidents were in power during the period when the Soviet Bloc and the Soviet Union were disintegrating.

Although the Russians were not loved by the Hungarians whom they ruled, it is good to see that the memorial to their soldiers, who sacrificed their lives to free Hungary from Nazi domination, has been maintainedand kept in good condition.

A Soviet soldier buried in Genova (Genoa)

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The Cimitero Staglieno in Genova contains a remarkable collection of funerary sculpture. But I will not  write about this now. Instead, I  am going to concentrate on only  one memorial – something I was not expecting to see in this cemetery.

The monument is in part of the cemetery dedicated to those who were killed in WW2. The bodies of these unfortunate people are either in the graveyard or commemorated there because their remains were cremated, or otherwise disposed of, by the Germans in their various camps for prisoners, including concentration camps. The monument that attracted my attention has its inscription both in Italian and  Russian. It is the grave of Fyodor Andrianovič Poletaev (1909-1945).

In Stglieno Cemetery

Fyodor’s biography is described in detail at https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%ABdor_Andrianovi%C4%8D_Poletaev, but I will summarise it here.

He was born in  the Ryazan Oblast in Imperial Russia. At the outset of ww2, he was called up to join the Red Army.

In June 1942, Fyodor was captured by the Germans and became a prisoner of war. After being transferred from one POW camp to another, he arrived in July 1944 at  a concentration camp at Tortona, near Genova. He escaped from this camp, and then joined a group of Italian partisans fighting in the Appenine Hills. He died fighting in a battle at Cantalupa. He was buried in the Staglieni Cemetery in Genova, where his monument can be seen.

Thus, a labourer from the Sovie Union ended up a hero in Italy.