Accra, April 18, GNA - A photo exhibition devoted to the memory of veterans and victims of the Great Patriotic War, fought between Russia and Germany, opened in Accra on Monday.

It was the bloodiest phase of the World War II and lasted nearly four years from 1941-1945, causing more than 27 million deaths. The exhibition dubbed "People Who Won the War" was organized by the Russian Embassy in Accra to mark the 60th anniversary of the victory over Nazism, which falls on May 9, 2005.

"The memory of those terrible war years will remain forever as an undying national sorrow etched into the hearts of all those living, all those who have had more than their share of grief, who traversed all the hardships of the war and did not simply survive but stood firm and emerged victorious, Mr Valery Orlov, the Russian Ambassador told guests at the opening of the xhibition.

Officials from the Ghanaian Foreign and Defence Ministries, members of the diplomatic corps, university officials, journalists and the public saw photographs of the war dug from the archives of the Soviet Information Bureau.

There were also photographs of High Command of the Red Army, heroes of the Soviet Union as well as posters of the Great Patriotic war and awards of the Great Patriotic war.

Mr Orlov said the war was an enormous historic event in the life of not only the Russians but of mankind since it unleashed the largest catastrophe in world history and had lessons for current and future generations.

"Many years have now passed but we can still see the consequences of the war today. We can still see people's ruined lives, the letters announcing the deaths of loved ones, now yellowed with time, that almost every family has," the Ambassador said.

He said just as the Second World War brought together people of different nationalities and religions as well as political persuasions in a common fight, the same should guide them to face the danger of emerging new threats.

Mr Orlov warned against attempts to distort and cast a slur on the importance of the Soviet Union's contribution to the victory over fascism, saying this would die down as allies continued to talk freely about the role of the Russians.

The photo-exhibition will last until April 30, 2005 and would then be presented to the Library of the University of Ghana, Legon. 18 April 05