Today’s session of the WOA’s Gabfest Club was dedicated to the events that happened 70 years ago in Ukraine and the USA.
This weekend the local community celebrates the 70th anniversary of the Dnipropetrovsk liberation from Nazi occupants. In October 1943 the city was recovered by the Red Army after the Battle for Dnipro river. This battle was one of the largest World War II operations. It involved almost 4,000,000 troops on both sides and stretched on a 1400 kilometers long front. During this four-month operation, the eastern bank of the Dnipro was recovered from German forces by five of the Red Army's Fronts. They conducted several river assault crossings to establish several bridgeheads on the western bank. Subsequently, Kiev was liberated in a separate offensive. The Dnipro river Battle was one of the costliest operations of the World War II. The casualties were estimated at being from 1,700,000 to 2,700,000 on both sides. The operation consisted of several smaller operational phases, among them - Dnipropetrovsk Offensive.
The club members were given a challenging task – to watch Russian movies about the battle and render them in English. The first movie was a black and white documentary “The Battle for Dnipro”. The relevant vocabulary was introduced in the Wikipedia article about the event. The second movie was an amateur video of the tour of the Dnipropetrovsk Diorama “The Battle for Dnipro”. Diorama paintings are massive artworks that reveal a wide view of a particular subject, often a landscape, military battle, or historical event.
In the same year (1943) in the USA a journalist, economist, state department official and special assistant to Secretary of State Mr. Leo Pasvolsky worked as an executive officer of the secretive Advisory Committee on Postwar Foreign Policy. A curious fact was presented to the Gabfest Club members – Mr. Pasvolsky was born in Dniropetrovsk oblast , in a mining town of Pavlograd; his family immigrated to the USA when the future politician was twelve years old. In 1943 Pasvolsky was placed in charge of International Organization and Security Affairs in the State Department with responsibility for drafting the United Nations Charter. The Charter of the United Nations is the foundational treaty of the international organization called the United Nations.
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated aims include promoting and facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, civil rights, civil liberties, political freedoms, democracy, and the achievement of lasting world peace. The UN was founded in 1945 after World War II to replace the League of Nations, to stop wars between countries, and to provide a platform for dialogue. United Nations Day is observed on October, 24 and is devoted to making known to peoples of the world the aims and achievements of the United Nations Organization. The club members watched a video about the UN missions and had a conversations about this organization.
The session was educational both for English learners and for those who needed to learn more about the local history.
Number of participants – 32.
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