Every year, representatives of towns, villages, and the Army of the Czech Republic and members of the convoy join in a ceremony in which flowers and wreaths are laid down at the monument to the liberators by the Slavia cinema and the monument to the victims of fascism at the local cemetery.
PŘÍSLUŠNÍKŮM V. SBORU TŘETÍ AMERICKÉ ARMÁDY, KTEŘÍ DNE 5.KVĚTNA 1945 OSVOBODILI MĚSTO STŘÍBRO (“TO THE MEMBERS OF THE 5TH US ARMY CORPS, WHO LIBERATED STŘÍBRO ON MAY 5, 1945”)
By the town cemetery’s east wall, visitors can find the largest monument in all the towns nearby Tachov dedicated to prisoners of war from the Red Army. This monument is actually the joint grave of two officers, said to have been majors in the Red Army. Vasily Іvanovich Zhurbenko and Filip Fedorovich Butsukin laid down their lives in the war’s final days.
A contemporary witness describes them as having been among the Red Army officers riding in the transport whose journey ended here in Stříbro on May 5, 1945. It is said that the approaching Allied armies could be heard that evening, and that it was in light of this that the Soviet officers took their own liberation into their hands and attacked the escorting German personnel. During this clash, several dozen Soviet commanders were heavily wounded, and these two officers were shot. They were both buried at the site of the events—i.e. on the way to Těchlovice—perhaps even that same day. This later became a tended grave, and a monument was added to it.
Later, most likely in 1953, the two men’s remains were exhumed and transported to the town graveyard, where a monument was built above their shared grave. This structure is currently in excellent shape thanks to an extensive reconstruction on the 40th anniversary of liberation.
The inscription on its plaque reads: “Zde jsou pohřbeni bývalí váleční zajatci, důstojníci Rudé armády Vasilij Ivanovič Žurbenko a Filip Fedorovič Bucukin zahynuvší rukama fašistických katů při osvobozování ze zajetí 5. května 1945. Věčná Vám památka, drazí soudruzi. Na památku obětem fašismu za 2. světové války.” (“Two prisoners of war, Red Army officers Vasily Іvanovich Zhurbenko and Filip Fedorovich Butsukin, are buried here. They perished at the hands of the fascist executioners while escaping from captivity on May 5, 1945. May your memory be eternal, dear comrades. In memory of the victims of fascism in World War II.”)
The Paths of Liberation—The Pilsen Region