Roundtable in Volgograd highlights contribution of Caucasians to victory in GPW

At least 180,000 natives of Dagestan took part in the Great Patriotic War (GPW, or WWII elsewhere in the world), of whom 90,000 perished in battles, Renat Abdulkerimov, representing the organization "Dagestan", has stated said at the roundtable "Contribution of Different Nations to Common Victory". Stalingrad (now Volgograd) was defended by natives of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia, other speakers have noted.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that natives of the Caucasus had taken an active part in the GPW. The myths about their mass desertions and their collaborationism are based on the intention to justify the repressions of the Caucasian nations, said the historians interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot".

The roundtable was organized by the Volgograd Regional Committee for Nationalities and Cossacks and the Public Chamber of the Volgograd Region.

The searching works in the region have helped to significantly expand the knowledge about the national composition of Stalingrad defenders, said Andrei Oreshkin, the chairman of the regional Russian public organization "Russian Search Movement".

"Only during the first four days of the war, the military enlistment offices of Dagestan received more than 4000 applications from volunteers to go to war; there were 800 women among them," said Renat Abdulkerimov, an activist of the Volgograd regional public organization "Dagestan".

His colleague Abdul Djalilov said that in total Dagestan sent about 180,000 people to participate in WW II, of whom 90,000 perished.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.