Photo: nevnov.ru
The monument, commemorating the memory of the Red Army soldiers of the 9th separate ski battalion, has been installed in Finland, the Nevsky Novosti news agency reports. The solemn opening ceremony took place on Friday, May 24.The monument was erected near the town of Kuhmo.
All the soldiers and commanders of the military unit, which is called the “missing battalion”, were called up from the territory of the Arkhangelsk region during the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940. It consisted of more than six hundred skiers. Most of them went to the front as volunteers. Only few of them returned home.
According to the governor of the Arkhangelsk region, Igor Orlov, who took part in the celebration, the monument is a tribute to the feat of our ancestors. They laid down their heads, but did not retreat, fulfilling their duty.
The members of the search teams also took part in the ceremony. They found the remains of nearly one hundred and seventy soldiers along the way of the battalion. Most of them were buried in Arkhangelsk.
Note, more than twenty remains were found during the search expedition this year. So far, Russian search teams have managed to establish the identity of only one Red Army soldier. Since 2001, five expeditions to Finland have been organized to search for the dead from the Archangel ski battalion.
Russkiy Mir
