VOLGOGRAD, August 2 (Itar-Tass) - The remains of 1,500 defenders of the Soviet city of Stalingrad - now Volgograd - have been committed to earth at the Rossoshki memorial cemetery near Volgograd on Monday.
The burial has taken place after the names of 29 Soviet soldiers earlier considered to be missing in action were established. The search for their relatives is currently in progress.
The remains of the Red Army soldiers were found in the area where fierce fighting had taken place throughout the Battle of Stalingrad (July 1942-February 1943).
The search in the Gorodishchensk district of Volgograd (former Stalingrad) had begun as a part of a national operation ³Memorial Watch 2004², in which teams from Moscow, Samara, Nizhni Novgorod, Tobolsk, Astrakhan, Yekaterinburg and the Volgograd region have taken part.
They have located the remains of nearly 2,500 participants in the Battle of Stalingrad and established the identity of 42 of them.
© ITAR-TASS