International holidays - Meeting Day on the Elbe

"Danube, Danube, Come on, find out where whose gift is!" - sounded from everywhere in the early 60s performed by the unsurpassed Edita Piekha The song was dedicated to the friendship of the countries of Eastern Europe, freed from occupation by German invaders in the spring of 1945 Another river, the Elbe, on which the fateful meeting of American and Soviet soldiers took place, will forever remain in the history of World War II This event formed the basis of the plot of the 1949 film directed by G Alexandrov with Lyubov Orlova and other famous actors The music for the film "Meeting on the Elbe" was written by the brilliant composer D Shostakovich The connection of troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front of the Red Army and the 69th American division 100 km from Berlin took place in the spring of 1945 - April 25 The allies met near the city of Torgau, located in the Leipzig district This became the basis for the release of a statement by the governments of three countries, the USA, the USSR and Great Britain, about the imminent defeat of the Third Reich The fascist army was torn into two groups, which were conventionally designated as northern and southern, which significantly weakened the strength of Hitler’s troops In memory of this, the Soviet Union erected a monument in Torgau, and the date April 25 became the holiday Day of the Meeting on the Elbe Photographs from those years showed Allied commanders meeting for a formal handshake The second meeting took place on a destroyed bridge across the river It was attended by an American patrol, which was under the command of 2nd Lieutenant of the US Army William Robertson, and Red Army soldiers led by Lieutenant Alexander Silvashko The jubilation of privates and officers instilled confidence that the war was practically won and the brown plague was over After the victory, relations between the two countries did not remain warm and friendly for long The advent of the Cold War turned former allies and friends into sworn enemies The confrontation between the two superpowers began with the speech of Winston Churchill on March 5, 1946, known as the Fulton speech But, despite this, the meeting on the Elbe still remained a bridge, a symbol of peace and the possibility of uniting East and West if another threat of war loomed over the world Since 1995, a tradition has emerged in the United States to celebrate East Meets West Day, also known as Elbe Day, at a memorial opened in 1988, which is located in the suburbs of Washington at Arlington Cemetery The event was attended by both American and Soviet veterans, representatives of the embassies of the two countries and officials They laid wreaths at the "Spirit of the Elbe" plaque while the national anthems of the two countries were played by a US military band In 2022, the traditional celebration was canceled by the US State Department But the memorial plaque of the monument in Torgau reminds us of the mutual assistance and friendship of the military men of the two countries and the feat they accomplished in the fight against the German invaders Embossed on it are the words: “Here, on the Elbe, on April 25, 1945, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front of the Red Army united with American troops”