WREATHS LAID AT SOVIET SOLDIERS MEMORIAL

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ On occasion of the Motherland protectors’ day of Russia, Mongolian and Russian officials laid wreaths at the memorial to Soviet soldiers in Ulaanbaatar last Friday. After visiting the memorial on Zaisan hill, the Defense Minister of Mongolia D.Bat-Erdene and Ambassador of Russia to Mongolia Iskander Azizov and others laid wreaths at a monument to Soviet Marshall Georgy Zhukov, who was directed to command the First Soviet Mongolian Army Group and who saw action against Japan's Kwantung Army on the border between Mongolia and the Japanese-controlled Manchukuo. The sides also visited a museum named after Zhukov before presenting awards to winners of a competition among Russian-language schools in Mongolia. Motherland protectors’ day of Russia marks the date in 1918 during the Russian Civil War when the first mass draft into the Red Army occurred in Saint Petersburg and Moscow. It was originally known as Red Army Day. In 1949, it was renamed Soviet Army and Navy Day. Following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the holiday was given its current name. And it is also recognized in some of the former republic of the Soviet Union, such as Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and Belarus.