During World War Two, central Russia was the scene of fierce battles between home troops and Nazi-led invaders. Among Germany’s allies were around 200,000 Hungarian soldiers – more than half of whom died in the fighting. In 2003, federal author

On the fields near the Russian city of Voronezh, hundreds of thousands of men fought and died in WW2’s deadly Battle of the Don.

Over about 200 days, allies of Nazi Germany, including Italian, Romanian and Hungarian soldiers, met strong Soviet resistance with devastating consequences.

In 2003, in co-operation with the Hungarian authorities, the city of Voronezh decided to build a memorial for the Hungarian soldiers who died fighting in the Battle of the Don.

Before, the graves were scattered all across the city, but now 21,000 soldiers are buried at one site.

“It became the biggest defeat in Hungary’s military history and that is why memorials are now being put here to commemorate it and to ensure the bravery of the soldiers is not forgotten,” Professor Sergey Filanenko said, Doctor of Historical Sciences.
 
With due care and respect, Aleksandr Kuryanov and his team search for soldiers’ remains, working in all conditions to excavate them.

It’s been occupying them for the last fifteen years and so far they have found more than 3,000 Hungarian soldiers’ remains.

“Most of them were found in common graves where they were amassed after the battle. Now, the situation is different. There are very few witnesses left who really saw how they were buried. So, we have to search for individual graves, working with archives to find a location,” Kuryanov said.

WW2 veteran Irina Bogachova was a young nurse in the war and she says it's only right and proper that former enemies are shown respect.

“Their relatives must know where they are buried and even have a chance to come to visit their grave. It’s what is needed – for the country and for history, both ours and theirs,” Bogachova said.