New York Times - 10.05.2005

CONCERT AT THE UNITED NATIONS
UN assembly recalls Hitler and Stalin at ceremony

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations commemorated victims and victors of World War II on Monday, with speakers paying tribute to Allied sacrifices but also recalling Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's actions in eastern Europe.
The session was initiated by Russia, which also organized larger ceremonies in Moscow, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Allied victory in Europe and the subsequent founding of the United Nations. The international body was formed with a mission to ``save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.''
… Russia's U.N. ambassador, Andrei Denisov, said the war was ``the biggest tragedy for the nations of Europe and the world, regardless of which side countries were on.''
Denisov had begun the U.N. events on Saturday in the General Assembly, where Yuri Temirkanov conducted the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra in Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7, composed during the German siege of Leningrad in 1941.
Special guests were dozens of surviving beribboned Red Army veterans living in the United States….