Nalchik honoured for World War Two role

Five more Russian cities have been honoured for their part in the
Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, Russian
President Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday.

Medvedev was speaking at a meeting of the organizing committee for
celebrations for the 65th anniversary of the capitulation of Nazi
forces.

The new “cities of military glory” are Nalchik, Vyborg, Volokolamsk,
Bryansk, and the Volgograd Region town of Kalach-Na-Donu.

“The president’s decree on new cities of martial glory, in
anticipation of the 65th anniversary of victory, was signed today,”
Medvedev said, as reported by ITAR-TASS.

The title of “city of military glory” was established in 2006 and is
awarded to cities, “on the territory or in the immediate proximity of
which during the ferocious battles the defenders of their mother
country showed fortitude, and mass heroism, including the cities which
have already been awarded the title of Hero City.”

The Hero Cities are 12 cities of the former USSR – Leningrad (now St.
Petersburg), Stalingrad (now Volgograd), Kiev, Sevastopol, Odessa,
Moscow, Kerch, Novorossiysk, Minsk, Tula, Murmansk, Smolensk, and the
Brest Fortress.