By Prensa Latina
Moscow : The Museum of the Great Patriotic War is paying tribute to three Cubans who joined the Red Army, as part of the commemorations of the 65th anniversary of the end of the blockade of Leningrad, which falls on Friday.
The exhibition shows three letters, photos and other documents about the brothers Aldo and Jorge Vivo, the only Latin Americans who participated in the 900-day Nazi siege of Leningrad.
Sponsored by the Russia-Cuba Friendship Association, the exhibition also includes information about Enrique Vilar, who commanded a battalion of riflemen and was killed in action at the age of 19 in Fiurstenam, on January 30, 1945, during the liberation of Poland.
Cuban Ambassador to Russia Jorge Marti, officials from the Russian Foreign Ministry and Latin American ambassadors laid a wreath at the museum, as a tribute to all soldiers killed in the Great Patriotic War.
Aldo Vivo was killed in December 1941, when his unit was trying to cross the Neva River. His boat was spotted and machine-gunned. All soldiers on board were killed.
His brother Jorge joined a guerrilla brigade made up of Spanish youths and adolescents mostly in July 1941.
In December 1941, the clandestine commando tried to penetrate Hitler’s flanks to break the siege on the Pulkovo heights, but they were discovered and only eight of 50 fighters survived, including Jorge Vivo, who was seriously wounded in his legs and hands.
He was admitted in the Leningrad hospital until he was transferred to the Caucasus in April 1942 and to Central Asia later.