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.