ROME, May 9 (RIA Novosti, Nikita Barashev) - Palestrina is a tiny town forty kilometers off Rome. It has a monument to Russian soldiers who killed in battle in Italy during World War II-a sculptured angel with two books at his feet, one bearing the soldiers' names.
Russian ambassadorial officers and the town mayor laid V-E wreaths to the monument today.
Soviet involvement in the Italian Resistance was of tremendous importance, said Ambassador Alexei Meshkov. He quoted a guerrilla commander to press the point: "Soviet people were, to us Italians, international fraternity personified. Their valor and victories came as basic contribution to the Resistance and Liberation cause."
Soviet WWII soldiers are buried in more than two hundred Italian towns. Some of the fallen soldiers won Italy's supreme military award, Martial Glory gold medals, and the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Italians cherish their graves.
