Granddaughter of Marshal Amazasp Babadzhanyan featured in podcast by the National Centre RUSSIA
The
National Centre RUSSIA continues its new project — a podcast series titled
"Tell Me About Victory," dedicated to the 80th anniversary of Victory
in the Great Patriotic War and to the heroes whose feats are forever remembered
by generations.
In the ninth
episode, the guest was Yulia Markos — granddaughter of Chief Marshal of
Armoured Troops and Hero of the Soviet Union Amazasp Khachaturovich
Babadzhanyan. He took part in the Battle of Smolensk, the Yelnya and
Oryol-Bryansk operations, the Battle of Rzhev, defensive battles in the
Voronezh direction, the Battle of the Kursk Bulge, and advanced all the way to
Berlin.
Initially,
the marshal commanded rifle regiments, and after studying at the Frunze
Academy, he became a tank officer. His bravery became legendary. Babadzhanyan
was intelligent and well-read, and even predicted the war in advance.
"My
grandfather had an interesting life — as a child, he dreamed of becoming a
shepherd, but became a marshal. He was brave from a very young age. He always
valued people, did not want to risk their lives in the battle near Rzhev, and
had his own point of view on everything, which nearly brought him before a
tribunal. As a result, during the Battle of Rzhev, the enemy was repelled not
on the first day, but the next one — and without losses," said Yulia
Markos.
The
marshal’s granddaughter shared how he recalled the Battle of the Kursk Bulge.
The hardest moments for him were the death of his friend and when the Germans
bombed a train carrying children and women. Babadzhanyan himself was wounded
twice, one of those wounds being very serious.
It was the
tank crews under Babadzhanyan’s command who were the first to enter Berlin.
After the
war, Amazasp Khachaturovich headed the Armoured Forces Military Academy named
after Marshal of the Soviet Union R. Y. Malinovsky.
The Hero of
the Soviet Union’s granddaughter also spoke about Babadzhanyan’s love story
with his wife — they had known each other since childhood.
