CHINA / DIPLOMACY
By Lin Xiaoyi Published: May 09, 2021 06:03 PM
Russian girls hold up pictures of their predecessors who took part in the Great Patriotic War during the Immortal Regiment march in Beijing on Sunday. Photo: Li Hao/GT
The slogan Sino-Russian friendship passes down from generation to generation rang out in the square of Beijing Exhibition Centre on Sunday.
Echoing the grand Victory Day military parade in Moscow s Red Square, Russia, almost 400 people gathered in Beijing, joining the Immortal Regiment march to commemorate the 76th anniversary of the end of the Great Patriotic War.
Large number of descendants of Soviet Union and Chinese soldiers who took part in battles against Nazi Germany held up pictures of their relatives and friends during the march. They sang the well-known Russian song Katyusha and talked about the turbulent years and touching stories from the past.
Kalle Laanet: Eesti vajab tugevaid liitlasi ja liitlassuhteid nagu hapnikku
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Тилль наш – Культура – Коммерсантъ
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Sixty years ago, on May 5, 1961, a Redstone rocket hurled Alan Shepard’s Mercury capsule,
Freedom 7, 116 miles (187 km) high and 302 miles (486 km) downrange from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Freedom 7 parachuted into the Atlantic just 15 minutes and 22 seconds later, after attaining a maximum velocity of 5,180 mph (8,336 km/h). Shepard, a Navy test pilot and NASA astronaut, became the first American to fly in space.
Shepard’s flight was a triumph, not least because it had been conducted live on national television and in front of the world press. It was a notable contrast to the secretive ways of the Communist-led Soviet Union. But 25 days earlier on April 12, 1961, Soviet Air Force pilot Yuri Gagarin had made a single orbit of the Earth, becoming the first human to travel beyond the atmosphere. It was just the latest Soviet space first, going back to Sputnik, the first artificial Earth satellite, in October 1957. Gagarin’s flight was yet another stunning propaganda success i