Chinese veteran: Video meeting with Russian veteran meaningful

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-05-08 17:42

SHANGHAI - A Chinese World War Two veteran said Friday sharing war memories with a Russian veteran through an online video meeting was "fruitful" and "meaningful."

"It was meaningful to communicate with my Russian counterpart, especially at such an age and on such an important occasion," Ye Shangzhi, a 91-year-old Shanghai resident who fought in China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression from 1937 to 1945, said.

The pavilion of the Russian Federation at Shanghai World Expo invited Ye and other Chinese and Russian veterans to attend the video meeting on Thursday.

The meeting was part of the pavilion's activities marking the 65th anniversary of the end of the Russian Great Patriotic War, which falls on Sunday.

The online meeting's participants were in three cities. The participants included two Shanghai-based Chinese veterans, one Russian veteran who survived the Siege of Leningrad, another Russian veteran in Moscow and several experts on international relations in Beijing.

Ye said he knew from his own experience how much Russians had done and sacrificed during World War Two, adding that Russia is a country he "will never forget."

"Victory in the Second World War was decisive in shaping world history. Without the bloody struggles (of Russians, Chinese and others), what we have today would not have been possible... and the whole world would have continued to live in darkness," Ye said in the video meeting.

"Both Russian and Chinese people made great sacrifice during the war. Tens of millions of people died in both countries, and nearly every household has a family member either killed or injured," he said.

During the meeting, 85-year-old Russian veteran Martynushkin spoke from Moscow to his "Chinese friends and comrades," remarking that despite language differences, it's easy for the nations' veterans to understand each other as both of them had endured the war.

"What made me happy was that the Chinese veterans did not only understand what China's situation was during the war, but also knew what contributions the Soviet Union made," Martynushkin said through an interpreter.

Babaskina Yudmila, a 79-year-old Russian survivor of the Siege of Leningrad, shared her war memories with the press and expo visitors at the Russian Pavilion.

Russia's "Great Patriotic War," known in the West as a part of World War Two, refers to the battles from June 1941 to May 1945 against Nazi Germany and its allies on the Eastern Front.

Chinese President Hu Jintao is scheduled to visit Moscow on Saturday and Sunday to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the end of the war.

The 872-day-long Siege of Leningrad, one of the longest and most destructive sieges in world history, started on 18 January 1943.