Trois Ponts - Tombs of prisoners of war and partisans dead in Belgium during World War II
List of Soviet military graves in Belgium
- Arlon
- Awenne
- Balen
- Bruxelles, Etterbeek
- Bruxelles, Evere
- Bruxelles, Ixelles
- Champlon
- Chapelle-lez-Herlaimont
- Chimay
- Comblain-au-Pont
- Dotsenko Tree (Bois de Stepennes)
- Engreux
- Flawinne
- Fleurus (Vieux-Campinaire)
- Genk
- Gent
- Han-sur-Lesse
- Han-sur-Lesse
- Hannut
- Houthalen
- Hoves /Silly
- Jumet-Gohyssart
- Koersel
- Kortemark
- Lanklaar
- Leopoldsburg
- Les Villettes
- Leuven
- Linden
- Liège, Citadelle
- Liège, Cointe
- Liège, Robermont
- Liège, Saint-Walburge
- Marchienne-au-Pont
- Maurage
- Montignies-sur-Sambre
- Morlanwez
- Mussy-la-Ville
- Namur, Belgrad
- Nidrum
- Peissant
- Proven
- Quévy
- Rebecq
- Reninge
- Robertville (Orthodox cross)
- Sougné-Remouchamps
- Sprimont (Dotsenko Monument)
- Stal-Koersel
- Tessenderlo
- Trois Ponts
- Westvleteren
- Zolder
Trois Ponts
At the municipal cemetery of Trois Ponts, Ivan Kulkov is buried. The stone headboard has an embossed Red Army star and an inscription in French: “Here rests the valiant son of the USSR, Russian partisan Kulikov [Kulkov] Ivan, born on 1924 in Kuybyshev. Tragically died on December 9, 1943, during the execution of partisan operation.” The text is reproduced in Russian on a separate stone slab lying on the grave.
Biography
Ivan Aleksandrovich KULKOV was born in 1923 in a peasant family in the village of Dubovy Umet, Kuybyshev region. The end of high school coincided with the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. In March 1942 he was called up for military service and sent to courses for aircraft radio gunners. In 1943, his course was transferred to Stalingrad, where in June of the same year, a common soldier Ivan Kulkov at the age of 19 was reported missing.
However, I. Kulkov was not killed in Stalingrad, he was captured. After the transfer from camp to camp, he found himself on the quarries just outside the town of Liège. He unsuccessfully attempted to escape twice. After the second attempt he was severely beaten and miraculously survived. In captivity, he was cared for by Dmitry Dremlyuk, who treated Ivan as a son. The third time they escaped together. Having jumped on a freight train, and they managed to leave for the mountainous region of Belgium, the Ardennes. Then they got to the house of the train operator who was driving this train and whose son was with the partisans. So they both appeared in one of partisan units under the general superintendence of the communist Jean-François Kollar. In this area, there were several partisan units containing Soviet partisans, including a unit under the superintendence of the legendary Evgeniy Dotsenko.
On December 9, 1943, a partisan group with the participation of Ivan Kulkov, Dmitriy Dremlyuk and a Belgian Joseph Piron blasted a railway bridge. Then it raided the house of a police provocateur, where it was ambushed. Ivan Kulkov was mortally wounded in action. He was only 20 years old.
Annual memorial ceremonies
2023
2021
2020
2019
2018
2014
2013
2012
2011
Dear visitors,
We would like to draw your attention to the fact that spelling of the names, surnames and places of birth of Soviet citizens buried in Belgium may be distorted due to the fact that they are quite often written only in Flemish and French in registration books and on monuments.
We thank the Brussels-Belgian Archdiocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, the organizations of Russian compatriots and Russian foreign institutions accredited in Belgium for providing photos and their efforts to preserve the memory of the heroism of the Soviet soldiers who fell in the Great Patriotic War.
The Embassy will be grateful for providing any information and photos of Soviet military graves of the Second World War in Belgium and the ceremonies held on them. Please send material to the email address of the Embassy amrusbel@skynet.be with the note «War Graves».