<P> Armenia was spared the devastation and destruction that wrought most of the western Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War of World War II . The Nazis never reached the South Caucasus . Armenia had a population of 1,320,000 at the beginning of the war in 1939 and an estimated 300,000--500,000 Armenians served in the war, almost half of whom did not return . </P> <P> A total of 117 citizens of Armenia including 10 non ethnic Armenians were awarded Hero of the Soviet Union . Of these, 36 had been killed in action and were awarded this title posthumously. 27 Armenian soldiers and sergeants were also awarded the Order of Glory, and a total of 66,802 participants from Armenia were awarded orders and medals of the Soviet Union . Armenians living in the areas occupied regions of the Soviet Union formed partisan groups to combat the Germans . Over sixty Armenians were promoted to the rank of general, and with an additional four eventually achieving the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union . Hovhannes Bagramyan was both the first non-Slavic Marshal and commander to hold the position of front commander when he was assigned to be the commander of the First Baltic Front in 1943 . Admiral Ivan Isakov became the second Admiral of the fleet of the Soviet Union . Hamazasp Babadzhanian was the second of only two Chief Marshal of the Tank and Armored Troops . Sergei Khudyakov had been among the third to be Marshal of Aviation . </P> <P> Six special military divisions were formed in Soviet Armenia in 1941--42, partly because so many draftees from the republic could not understand Russian . These six divisions alone had more than 67,000 soldiers . Five of them, the 89th, 409th, 408th, 390th, and 76th Divisions, would have a distinguished war record, while the sixth was ordered to stay in Armenia to guard the republic's western borders against a possible incursion by neighboring Turkey . The 89th Tamanyan Division, composed of ethnic Armenians, distinguished itself during the war . Led by Major General Nver Safaryan, it fought in the Battle of Berlin and entered Berlin . Many Armenian soldiers also served in two other multi-ethnic divisions . They came not only from Soviet Armenia, but also from the other Soviet republics and other countries with considerable Armenian minorities . </P> <P> The Armenian SSR provided weapons and rebuilt broken airplanes . Workers donated to the Defense Fund 216,000,000 rubles . Armenia, as a gift, sent to the front 45 wagons of provisions . Armenian communities in the Middle East and the West also donated considerable sums of money to the Soviet government to help construct a series of tanks for the Red Army . These tanks were named after David of Sasun, the hero of an Armenian medieval epic, and Marshal Bagramyan . </P>

Who was on what side in world war 2