Kazakhstan erects monument to Panfilov Guards in Russia’s Volokolamsk (PHOTO)
The commemorative action was initiated by employees of the Eurasian Group enterprises - JSC "Kazakhstan Electrolysis Plant" and JSC "Aluminum of Kazakhstan".
This year the ERG mission is timed to 75th anniversary of the Battle of Moscow which took place in 1941. The Red Army's 316th Rifle Division - a formation which consisted mostly of recruits from the Kazakh and Kyrgyz Soviet Republics, commanded by General Ivan Panfilov - took up defensive positions in the vicinity of Volokolamsk as part of Konstantin Rokossovsky's 16th Army.
The ceremony of unveiling the monument was attended by deputy head of the Moscow Region Government Elmira Haymurzina noted that the battle of Volokolamsk was one of the most important and bitter.
Assistant Military Attaché of the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the Russian Federation Nurjan Omarov expressed gratitude to the administration of the Moscow region and Volokolamsk city for warm welcome and said that the memory of those years will remain forever.
In turn, the head of Volokolamsk municipal district Evgeny Gavrilov stressed the importance of such events for military-patriotic education of young people.
NOTE: The Panfilov Division's Twenty-Eight Guardsmen commonly, referred to simply as Panfilov's Men, were a group of soldiers from the Red Army's 316th Rifle Division that took part in the defense of Moscow during World War II. According to official Soviet history, they were all killed in action on 16 November 1941, after destroying 18 German tanks. The Twenty-Eight were collectively endowed with the title Hero of the Soviet Union.
