75th Anniversary of Brno Liberation

Brno's Red Army Monumnet 

Today is the 75th anniversary of Brno's liberation from Nazi Germany.  The Soviet Red Army, under the leadership of Marshal Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky, successfully liberated the city towards the end of the war.

Malinovsky Square is named after him and there's a memorial near the Mahen Theatre.

The Bratislava-Brno Offensive began on 25 March with the goal of taking Bratislava and Brno.  The 2nd Ukrainian Front, along with troops from the Royal Romanian Army, destroyed German divisions and help reunify Czechoslovakia which had been split by the Germans into the the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and a Slovak puppet state.

Brno was officially liberated on 26 April 1945.  I'm not positive but I think the fighting here lasted about two weeks.  Here's a 17-minute video I found out on YouTube.  It's in Czech, without any English subtitles, filmed by a Soviet cameraman.  

©BRNOmycity