DUSHANBE, April 21, 2014, Asia-Plus -- By Dushanbe mayor’s order 714,000 somoni have been allocated from the city budget for providing extraordinary grants to veterans of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 and the persons equated to them on the occasion of the 69th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.

Shavkat Saidov, a spokesman for the Dushanbe mayor’s office, says veterans and invalids of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 living in Dushanbe will receive 900 somoni each, while home front workers, the Leningrad siege survivors, spouses of the servicemen who died in the Grate Patriotic War of 1941-1945, the Chernobyl cleanup operation invalids, spouses of those who died while defending the constitutional order in Tajikistan, as well as participants of military conflicts in territories of other countries living in Dushanbe will receive 650 somoni each.

Victory Day marks the end of World War II in Europe, specifically the capitulation of Nazi forces to the Allies (the United Kingdom, Soviet Union, France, the United States and other principal Allied nations) on May 8, 1945.

In Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and other countries of former Soviet Union, the day of Victory over Nazi Germany was celebrated on May 9, because when the German Instrument of Surrender actually entered into force (May 8, 1945 at 23:01 CET), it was already May 9 by Moscow Time.  Post-Soviet countries have continued the tradition.