Today, May 9, 79 years have passed since the victory over fascism in the Second World War.
The occasion, marking the end of the Second World War, is observed by people in different parts of the world, including various former Soviet Union republics that witnessed some of the worst horrors of the war.
The German invasion of the Soviet Union, which started on June 22, 1941, took the country’s leadership and nearly 200 million inhabitants completely by surprise. A blitzkrieg, or “lightning war” against the USSR violated the Molotov-Ribbentrop treaty signed between Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939, which ensured that neither country attacked the other.
The Second World War went down in history as the largest and bloodiest conflict. The war, which lasted from 1941 to 1945, cost the lives of 300,000 Georgians. Battles took place on the territory of 40 states.