WWII veterans from the CIS countries spoke about their work for the benefit of the common Victory

All the peoples who inhabited the Soviet Union at that time took an active part in the fight against Nazism during the Great Patriotic War (WWII). On April 23, veterans from Kazakhstan, Armenia and Belarus told Izvestia about their path to a common Victory. Video interviews with them are posted in the "Living History" section of the Izvestia "Great Victory" virtual museum.

Varos Amayakovich Avetisyan went to the military enlistment office in June 1941 as soon as he learned about the outbreak of the war. The mobilized from Armenia were sent to a collection point near Tbilisi, from there those who knew Russian went to the Tbilisi Artillery School. Varos Amayakovich received an officer's rank there.

The cadets completed a three-year program in six months and in 1942 were sent to the North Caucasian Front. That summer, the enemy rushed to the Caucasus and Stalingrad, but was stopped by the stubborn defense of the Red Army. Then the Soviet soldiers launched a counteroffensive, which ended with the defeat of the German troops.

Later, Varom Amayakovich served in the 3rd Belorussian Front. The veteran took part in the liberation of Minsk, Vilnius and Warsaw. In 1945, the officer took Konigsberg, where the enemy resisted especially fiercely, anticipating the imminent end.

Avetisyan celebrated the victory in Poland. After the war, he erected a monument to the war heroes in his native Armenian village. The veteran is especially proud that his compatriots from the 89th Infantry Division contributed to the storming of Berlin.

"The Armenian division victoriously entered Berlin and left its mark on the wall of the Reichstag in the Armenian language," Varos Amayakovich said.

A resident of Belarus, Tatiana Nikolaevna Karpechenko, was born in the Russian North. She graduated from a pedagogical school in the city of Velsk, Arkhangelsk region, after which she entered the pedagogical Institute in Arkhangelsk.

As Tatiana Nikolaevna recalls, during the war years, students learned what hunger was — sometimes there was simply no bread in the shops, even according to the cards. In addition, the Germans constantly bombed the ship repair plant in Arkhangelsk. As a student, she joined a law enforcement group that guided people to shelters during times of anxiety and reassured those who remained standing at the machine.

"You know how scary it was! And we were young. They went and calmed them down, but they were afraid, maybe even more than those they calmed down," the woman says.

After graduation, the young teacher was sent as a teacher to a rural school. She had to work for two people, teaching math and physical education at the same time. On weekends, the teachers worked at the collective farm.

In 1946, Tatiana Nikolaevna left for the Mogilev region, her mother's homeland. There she stayed to work as a mathematics teacher in the village of Alexandria. Among her students was the future President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko. Later, they even had a chance to work together at school. In January 2025, Tatiana Nikolaevna turned 101 years old.

Muratali Tulepbergenuly from Shymkent, Kazakhstan, was 16 years old when the war broke out. He was drafted into the army in the winter of 1943. After that, he was sent to study radio telegraphy in Tashkent. The young man found himself at the front in the autumn of the same year as a radio operator of the 39th separate artillery anti-tank division.

On his way to battle, the soldier passed through Ukraine, Brest, and advanced on Danzig. In the summer of 1944, he was awarded the medal "For Bravery", and in 1945 — "For the liberation of Warsaw". In victorious May, Muratali Tulepbergenuly met with British soldiers in Worms, Germany.

"My mother had five sons, all went to the front, but my mother stayed at home with her three-year-old granddaughter. So think about the hardships and sufferings we have endured. All the people stood up," he said.

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Earlier, on April 13, WWII veteran Anatoly Parubin told Izvestia about the capture of Vienna by the Red Army in 1945. According to him, the Germans blew up almost all the bridges across the Danube in the city, but the Soviet soldiers managed to clear the last remaining crossing.