History has its own life, it is like a person, both easy-going and self-respecting. ——Yu Qiuyu
On August 11, 1945, on the eve of Japan's surrender, Galia, a mixed-race Chinese-Russian child who would speak Chinese, was assigned by the Red Army to go to the Japanese fortress stationed in Suifenhe, Heilongjiang Province, to persuade the Japanese army to surrender. After that, at the age of 17, she never returned, and her body has never been found.
Garia
Galia was born in 1928 in Suifenhe, a border city in Heilongjiang Province, China. His father, Zhang Huanxin, was a native of Shandong, and when he broke into the Kanto in his early years, he met Galia's mother, the Ukrainian girl Fresnel, and the two married and settled in Suifenhe City. Because of her father's business, the family conditions are good, although she grew up in the war years, But Galia is the only girl in the family, childhood and adolescence are spent carefree under the care and care of the family, the thinking is very simple.
Galia inherited the advantages of her mother, looking very characteristic of a Ukrainian woman, with a tall figure of about 1.7 meters, white skin, standing tall, and clear eyebrows. As a child, her playmates recalled What Galia looked like: she had long braids, she loved to tie bows, she loved to wear dresses and boots, she liked to sing, she "loved to laugh, she didn't laugh and didn't talk." At the age of 13, the lively and cute Galia also won the first prize for the Russian Diaspora Concert. At the age of 14, she graduated from the Lucia Ojo School in Suifenhe, stayed in school to represent music classes and Japanese classes, and later returned home to help her father run the business.
Gala's parents
On the evening of August 8, 1945, the Soviet Union declared a state of war with Japan from the following day. On the 9th, the Soviet 17th Army attacked Suifenhe, and the officers and men of the Second Border Garrison of the Japanese Kwantung Army, as well as more than 3,000 people, including police, gendarmes, secret agents, and Japanese expatriates, entered the Suifenhe Tianchangshan Fortress to resist.
The Suifenhe Tianchangshan Fortress was part of the Maginot Line in the East, which was proudly known as the Japanese invasion of China. The defensive positions intersect with each other, the firepower is dense, the core position is condescending, whether it is a high mountain or an open area, trenches, anti-tank trenches, barbed wire crisscross, most of the trenches in the key defense areas are built according to the mountainous terrain in the form of V-shaped, S-shaped, Z-shaped up and down triple construction, there are reinforced concrete construction of underground military facilities, concrete walls up to 3 meters thick, as strong as rock.
The Soviet Red Army's attempt to attack Tianchangshan was met with a fierce counterattack from the fortress. The Red Army had no choice but to temporarily blockade TianchangShan, mechanized troops were assembling, tanks were ready to go, heavy artillery positions were deployed, and gun positions were adjusted. Assault means casualties as well as civilians. At the same time, the fighter jet cannot be delayed, and time passes by minute by minute. In the Suifenhe war situation, we must take the initiative in the shortest possible time.
On the evening of August 10, Chinese time, the news that the Japanese side had decided to prepare for surrender spread around the world through radio waves, and the Generals of the Soviet Red Army accurately grasped this information at the first time. So on August 11, the Soviets decided to find a man who could speak Japanese to persuade them to surrender. At the temporary headquarters at Suifenhe, a Soviet Red Army officer eagerly asked in Russian who could speak Japanese. All eyes were on Galia at once, and the Soviet officers approached Herya, hoping she would help persuade the Japanese to accept the impending peace.
After communicating with the Soviet officer, Galia walked over to her mother, and the two looked at each other. Galia said quietly, "The Red Army has called for an interpreter and asked me to follow them to the fortress to persuade the Japanese to surrender." There were my classmates and friends there, and I was going to persuade them to get out of that dangerous place. "The mother immediately cried and it was very quiet around. Crying, the mother took off her red floral headscarf, a new one she had worn when she left home that day, and draped it over her daughter's shoulder. Galia, along with four Soviet soldiers, took a white flag and drove in a car in the direction of Tianchangshan Fortress.
After Galia went up the mountain, there was no more news, and the four Soviet troops who accompanied her did not return. On the 13th, towards Tianchang Mountain, the Soviet Red Army fired ten thousand cannons in unison, like a roaring fire pouring down on the mountain, and the loud noise made the ground of the whole town tremble, so that the day and night shelling lasted for three days and three nights. The main peak of Tianchang Mountain, which is 731 meters above sea level, was cut by more than 3 meters by artillery fire. The fort carefully constructed by the Japanese army, which was expected to be held for a year, turned out to be a grave where they were buried.
On August 15, the gunfire finally stopped, and the family did not see Galia. My mother went to the headquarters where she remained to inquire, only to hear the answer that "the vanguard troops have left, and we don't know." Family, relatives and friends searched every inch of Tianchang Mountain, only to find the red flower turban. Because the Soviet military failed to reach a written conclusion about Galia's surrender, Galia was listed as a war missing person. The Suifenhe public security archives only recorded: "Local resident Zhang Huanxin's Chinese-Russian mixed-race girl went to Beishan to persuade the Japanese army to surrender, and died heroically." "There is no record of anything else.
Bronze statue of Galia
In 2005, the people of Suifenhe self-financed the erection of a statue of Galia, and the small figure and firm steps of Galia were frozen in August 1945. The turban-wielding statue represents her mission for peace, and the wings generated by the flames symbolize the friendship between China and Russia against fascism side by side. President Putin of Russia personally wrote a letter thanking Galia for her contribution to peace and writing an inscription on the statue. On July 1, 2014, the Heilongjiang Provincial Department of Civil Affairs officially approved Galia as a revolutionary martyr.