Army General Chernyakhovsky is farewelled in Vilnius

The funeral of Army General Ivan Chernyakhovsky, commander of the 3rd Belorussian Front, is being held in Vilnius, Izvestia reports. Twice Hero of the Soviet Union died in East Prussia from an accidental shell, Chernyakhovsky was 37 years old.

His body was delivered to the capital of the Lithuanian SSR on a funeral train.

There were exactly 78 days left until the Great Victory.

"The ancient Lithuanian city, liberated from the German invaders by the troops of General Chernyakhovsky, dressed in mourning. There are mourning flags on the buildings, emergency issues of newspapers are posted everywhere. The workers of the capital of Soviet Lithuania, liberated from fascist captivity, together with all the peoples of the USSR are in mourning," reports a journalist of the newspaper.

The ceremony is attended by the leaders of the government and party organizations, as well as Red Army commanders. The coffin is slowly, across the city, solemnly carried by car to the building of the Council of People's Commissars.

The material is published as part of a special project "Izvestia" "80 Days to Victory".

All Izvestia articles from the Great Patriotic War can be found in the electronic archive.