How heroes from China's Guangdong fight in Soviet Union's Great Patriotic War?

GUANGZHOU, China, May 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- News report from GDToday.

As this year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Soviet Union's Great Patriotic War, some shared memories that go beyond national borders are once again illuminated.

Descendants of revolutionaries from South China's Guangdong Province once stood shoulder to shoulder with the Soviet people, fighting against fascist aggression. In their blood and veins, they fought with their flesh and bodies for desired peace.

Their stories not only engrave the friendship forged by the Chinese and Russian people but also reflect Guangdong's fighting history in the global anti-fascist cause.

An unapologetic fight

In the early 1930s, hundreds of aspirational youths, mostly young heirs to Chinese revolutionaries, were sent from China to the Soviet Union to learn useful expertise and technical skills.

However, in 1941, when Nazi Germany launched a sudden attack on the Soviet Union, they were forced to confront the cruelty of war head-on. Many of them, coming from a life of luxury, had to endure hunger and cold when they were moved out of the classroom to the rear of the battlefield.

At the Ivanovo International Children's Home, they learned how to toil in factories and farms and even volunteered at city hospitals to aid wounded soldiers. Their stories stand as a testament to resilience, bridging national frontiers in a shared struggle against fascism.

Deng Jinna, an angel healing pain

Deng Jinna from Guangdong Province, who passed at 82 in December 2020, stands as a witness to this chapter of history.

When the war erupted in 1941, Deng, at 8, alongside her peers at the Ivanovo International Children's Home, shuttled long hours between hospitals to clean bandages for soldiers fighting on the front line. Just like an angel, Deng worked tirelessly to pen encouraging notes on scraps of newspaper. Those agonizing soldiers were lifted up by songs and dances from Deng and her peers.

In 2020, Pashkov Viktor, the incumbent Consul General of Russia in Guangzhou, handed the "75th Anniversary Medal of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War" to Deng by her hospital bed, honoring her and the Chinese people's solidarity during the war.

"We fed the wounded, told them stories, and when they smiled, we knew it was all worth it," said Li Duoli back in 2020, Deng's peer during the war.

Her eldest son, Li Dongming, recounted their wartime ordeal: "When enemy planes dropped incendiary bombs, older children rushed to douse flames with sand. We survived on potatoes and onions." These fragments of memory, etched with courage and resilience, bridge decades to illuminate how even the youngest bore the weight of history. 

Huang Jian, fighter at home front

In 1941, Huang Jian was only 14 years old. Deemed too frail and weak, he didn't make it to the military, but still, he craved a history-making miracle behind the lines: collecting empty bottles to make gasoline-filled Molotov cocktails, shoveling snow at airbases, laboring in munitions factories, and even donating blood monthly for three years in a row.

"All for victory!" was the punchline that kept him going. "We were still very young," Huang Jian once reflected, "but every drop of blood we gave, every potato we grew—it was our defiance against fascism."

These words crystallize the extraordinary resolve of a generation who turned scarcity into strength, proving that even the youngest hands could wield the tools of liberation.

Su Siblings, warriors at textile factories

Another legendary story came from the children of Su Zhaozheng, a noted figure in China's labor movement. His daughter Su Liwa and son Su Heqing, after undergoing military training, worked at the Ivanovo Textile Factory, where they produced critical supplies for the front lines.

The horror of the war still engraved deeply in their memories. "When German planes roared above us, we groped, fled into air-raid shelters, and then rushed back to our machines the moment the all-clear sounded."

Their unyielding resolve, emblematic of Guangdong's sons and daughters, became an indispensable link in the Soviet Union's wartime industrial chain—a testament to how ordinary hands fueled an extraordinary struggle.

What to remember after 80 years?

Eighty years later, as China and Russia jointly commemorate this historic victory, the stories of the people of Guangdong stand not only as a tribute to the past but as a clarion call for peace. In an era marked by rising division and confrontation, humanity needs such transnational bonds of solidarity to illuminate the way forward.

Today, this history reminds the world: behind the winning fight against fascism lay the sacrifices and unity of countless ordinary people across borders. Their collective resolve, forged in the crucible of war, remains a beacon for global cooperation in the face of modern challenges.

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