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Slovak prime minister calls for commemorating Soviet Marshal Ivan Konev

Marshal played a decisive role in organizing the operations carried out on section of the Soviet-German frontline in Slovakia, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said

BRATISLAVA, October 6. /TASS/. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has called for commemorating Soviet Marshal Ivan Konev for personal contribution to liberating his country from Nazism.

Fico explained his idea in an interview with the national public broadcaster STVR, timed to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the Carpathian-Dukla offensive operation of the Red Army during World War II.

"This marshal played a decisive role in organizing the operations carried out on this section of the Soviet-German frontline in Slovakia. Why shouldn’t Slovakia commemorate such a personality by putting up a plaque in his honor? Why shouldn’t there be a monument to this man?" Fico said.

Marshal Ivan Konev commanded the 1st Ukrainian Front, involved in the Carpathian-Dukla operation, which lasted from September 8 to October 28, 1944. Its goal was to break through the Nazi defenses to join the rebel forces that had started the Slovak National Uprising on August 29, 1944, and jointly liberate the eastern part of Czechoslovakia.

In this operation, the Red Army was fighting shoulder to shoulder together with the 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps under the command of General Ludvik Svoboda to establish control of the Dukla Pass and enter Czechoslovak territory. In the battles with the Nazis about 21,000 Red Army soldiers and about 2,000 soldiers of the Czechoslovak Corps, which at that time had 16,000 men, lost their lives.

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