Over 2000 attend opening ceremony of memorial complex in North Ossetia

The Museum of Military History "Barbashovo Pole", named after Pyotr Barbashov, a Hero of the Soviet Union, was created in the venue of bloody battles near Vladikavkaz, which began the counteroffensive operation of Soviet troops in Northern Caucasus during WW II.

The hill near Vladikavkaz, where the memorial is located, was a venue of fierce battles for the city, during which thousands of Soviet soldiers perished. In 1983, a monument to Barbashov in the form of a soldier-submachine gun shooter was installed.

The outdoor museum exhibits real military equipment from the times of the Great Patriotic War, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

79 natives of North Ossetia are immortalized in the Alley of Soviet Union Heroes.

"North Ossetia made its worthy contribution to the overall victory, since every fifth republic's citizen had gone to the front, and only half of them returned," said Oleg Belaventsev, the Russian president's envoy to the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD).

According to Felix Kireev, a historian, the fights near the village of Gizel were key ones for the entire battle for the Caucasus.

Vladimir Prussakov, a 95-year-old WW II veteran, regretted in his speech at the opening ceremony that the authorities pay attention to veterans mainly on holiday days. According to his story, he cannot even install a washing machine in his apartment.