Far East Celebrates Soviet Army's Victory on Lake Khasan

 

by Anatoly Ilyukhov, RIA Novosti

VLADIVOSTOK, August 9 -- The celebration of the 65th anniversary of the Soviet Army's victory on Lake Khasan began Saturday in the village of the same name in Primorye, the southern part of the Far Eastern region on the western coast of the Sea of Japan.

The program of the celebration envisages a concert of soldiers' songs, expected to gather professional singers and amateurs from the Khasan district, and meetings at frontier posts and in military units.

The military conflict between the Soviet Union and Japan, which ended in the battle of Lake Khasan, lasted between July 29 and August 11, 1938. Having occupied the northern part of China, Japanese troops invaded the Soviet territory and captured the mountains Bezymannaya and Zaozyornaya. Things came to a head on August 9, when Soviet troops led by Marshal of the Soviet Union Vasily Blyukher hurled the enemy forces away from the Soviet territory.

The experience of using military aviation, tanks and artillery before introducing the land forces, which the Soviet Army gained on Lake Khasan, played a huge part in the years of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, when the USSR fought fascist Germany.