Monuments of victory in the cities of heroes. Monuments to those who died in the Great Patriotic War. Is it worth remembering

75 years ago, on June 22, 1941, the Great Patriotic War began. The victory in it became the greatest test and the greatest pride for our people. Memory dead soldiers, home front workers and civilians is immortalized in numerous memorials on the territory of our country. Today you can visit each of these memorials, lay flowers and remember your heroes, who are in every Russian family.

1. Monument-ensemble "Heroes Battle of Stalingrad", Mamaev Kurgan, Volgograd. This is perhaps the most famous memorial dedicated to the Great Patriotic War majestic and symbolic. It was built for 8.5 years: from 1959 to 1967. The chief architect is Evgeny Vuchetich.

200 steps lead from the foot to the top of the mound. This number was not chosen by chance: it was how many days the Battle of Stalingrad lasted, which put an end to the offensive of the Nazi troops. The center of the memorial is the sculpture "The Motherland Calls!" - for many years it was the tallest statue in the world: the height is 52 meters. This is 1.5 times the size of the Statue of Liberty in New York. "Motherland" is a unique engineering structure made of iron and concrete, with thin walls (25-30 cm), which maintains balance thanks to amazingly accurate calculations. In addition to it, the memorial complex includes the Square of those who stood to death, the Hall of Military Glory, the Square of Sorrow, and the Ruined Walls. When visiting the ruin walls and the Hall of Military Glory, you can hear the voice of the legendary Soviet announcer Yuri Levitan and sound fragments specially recorded for the memorial. In 1965, on Mamaev Kurgan, a capsule was laid for the participants in the war to descendants, which should be opened on May 9, 2045, on the day of the centenary of the Victory. Since 2014, Mamaev Kurgan has been a candidate for inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

2. Museum-reserve "Prokhorovskoye field", Belgorod region, Prokhorovka settlement. On July 12, 1943, the vicinity of the Prokhorovka railway station became the site of the largest tank battle in history.

Aeronautics Federation of Belogorye / belaero.ru

More than 1,500 tanks of the Red Army and fascist invaders fought in it. This battle turned the tide of the Battle of Kursk and the war as a whole. In memory of the Battle of Prokhorovka, the Prokhorovka Field Museum-Reserve was created. An observation post has been reconstructed here, from which General Pavel Rotmistrov, commander of the 5th Guards Tank Army, gave orders. A memorial sign in the bend of the Psel River was erected in honor of the feat of Senior Lieutenant Pavel Shpetny. All nine people who were part of his platoon, while knocking out seven enemy tanks. In 2010, the museum of military glory "The Third Military Field of Russia" was opened in Prokhorovka. The main monument of the memorial is the 59-meter Belfry with a bell that strikes three times an hour, recalling the historical role of the three military fields: Kulikovsky, Borodinsky and Prokhorovsky. And the architectural dominant of the complex is the temple in the name of the holy supreme apostles Peter and Paul, on the walls of which the names of 7382 soldiers who died in these bloody battles are inscribed

3. Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Moscow. The memorial was opened in May 1967 after the burial of the ashes of an unknown soldier who died in the battle for Moscow near the Kremlin wall.

Brian Jeffery Beggerly / flickr.com

The remains were transferred from the mass grave to 41 km of the Leningrad highway. The monument consists of a tombstone covered with a bronze battle banner, on which lie a soldier's helmet and a laurel branch. And in the center burns the Eternal Flame of Glory. He was brought in 1967 from the Champ de Mars. At the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the fire was lit by Leonid Brezhnev, Secretary General of the CPSU Central Committee, having received a torch from the hands of the legendary pilot Alexei Maresyev. Nearby is the inscription "Your name is unknown, your feat is immortal." In 1997, by decree of the President of the Russian Federation, a guard of honor was established at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. And in 2014, the All-Russian Day of the Unknown Soldier appeared, which is celebrated on December 3.

4. Krivtsov memorial, Oryol region . At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, a stronghold of a group of fascist troops was located in the region. In 1942, the Bolkhov operation was carried out, with the bloodiest battle in the Krivtsovo-Chagodaevo-Gorodishche area.

After the offensive, the Soviet troops were able to advance 20 km, but then they stopped. This did not allow the enemy to transfer forces to the Battle of Stalingrad. During the Bolkhov operation, more than 21 thousand soldiers and officers were killed, and more than 47 thousand were injured. The Krivtsov Memorial is located in the "Valley of Death" - this is almost the official name of the valleys of the Oka and Zusha rivers. The memorial ensemble consists of two parts: a monument to the fallen soldiers, in the form of a 15-meter pyramid, and a square of mourning ceremonies with two mass graves, on which the monument "Eternal Flame of Glory" and a 9-meter obelisk are installed.

5. Murmansk "Alyosha" - a monument to "Defenders of the Soviet Arctic during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945." It was founded in 1969 on the Zeleny Mys hill, where anti-aircraft batteries were located, which defended the city from air raids.

The Murmansk region is the only region where the enemy did not pass more than 30 km from the state border. And the most fierce fighting took place on the right bank of the Western Litsa River, later renamed the Valley of Glory. Alyosha's gaze is directed precisely there. Until now, there is no exact data on the number of deaths in the defense of the region. Murmansk "Alyosha" is the highest monument in Russia after Mamaev Kurgan. Its height together with the pedestal is 42.5 meters. The ensemble of the memorial includes the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Eternal Flame, a granite stele to the Defenders of the Arctic. Two capsules are immured at the foot of the monument - one with sea water from the site of the death of the ship "Fog", the second - with land from the Valley of Glory and the battle area at the Verman line.

6. Rear to front, Magnitogorsk. This is the first part of a triptych of monuments, including "The Motherland Calls" in Volgograd and "Warrior-Liberator" in Berlin.

As conceived by the authors, the sword, forged by home front workers in the Urals, is raised by the Motherland on Mamayev Kurgan, and is already lowering it after the victory of the soldiers in Berlin. The monument is located on a hill, its height is 15 meters. In the center of the monument there are two figures - a warrior and a worker. The worker looks towards the metallurgical plant, and the warrior - to the west, where the hostilities took place. Nearby is an eternal flame. The monument was made in Leningrad, and then erected on a fortified hill in Magnitogorsk. Later, on granite trapezes, the names of the city residents who received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in World War II and died were carved - more than 14 thousand in total.

7. Monument to the Sailor and the Soldier, Sevastopol . A 40-meter monument with a difficult fate. The decision to build a memorial complex at Cape Khrustalny was made back in the 70s of the last century, but construction began only decades later.

Nanak26/flickr.com

Construction proceeded slowly, then it was mothballed, as the project was recognized as unsuccessful, and in the late 80s the possibility of dismantling the monument was seriously discussed. Subsequently, the supporters of the monument won, and money was allocated for the restoration, but it was not possible to complete the initially approved project. Now the monument to the Soldier and the Sailor is a must-visit place for tourist groups, although there are many of its critics among the locals.

8. Poklonnaya Hill, Moscow. For the first time in 1942, on the site of a hill between the Setun and Filka rivers, it was proposed to erect a monument to the national feat of 1812. However, in the difficult conditions of the Great Patriotic War, it was not possible to implement the project.

Victory Park on Poklonnaya Hill

Subsequently, a sign was installed on Poklonnaya Hill promising that a monument to the Victory would appear on this site. A park was laid out around it, which also received a similar name. The construction of the memorial began in 1984, and was completed only 11 years later: the complex was inaugurated on May 9, 1995, on the 50th anniversary of the war. The ceremony was attended by the heads of 55 states. On the territory of Victory Park there are temples of three confessions (Orthodox, a mosque and a synagogue), which symbolize the multinationality of the liberators' army. The Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War has a unique collection, including 1.5 thousand volumes of the "Book of Memory" and its electronic counterpart, which record the fate of Soviet soldiers who defended their country from the Nazis. There is also an exhibition in the park. military equipment. Well, the center of the monument is the Victory Monument.

9. Piskarevsky Memorial Cemetery, St. Petersburg . This is the largest burial place for the victims of the Second World War, in 186 mass graves about 420 thousand residents of besieged Leningrad who died of hunger, cold and disease, 70 thousand soldiers who fought heroically for the northern capital were buried.

Taryn/flickr.com

The grand opening of the memorial took place on May 9, 1960. The dominant of the ensemble is the monument "Motherland" with a granite stele on which Olga Bergholz's epitaph with the famous line "No one is forgotten and nothing is forgotten" is engraved. The poetess wrote this poem specifically for the opening of the Piskarevsky memorial. From "Motherland" there is a 300-meter alley, on which red roses are planted. It ends at the Eternal Flame. Here, at the Piskarevsky cemetery in the military museum, there is a diary of Tanya Savicheva.

10. Cranes, Saratov. Yuri Menyakin, the creator of the memorial complex in memory of the Saratov people who died in the war, was inspired by the song "Cranes" to the verses of Rasul Gamzatov.

Therefore, the main theme of the monument was bright memory and bright sadness. A wedge of 12 silvery cranes flying west symbolizes the souls of fallen soldiers. In the center of the monument are three five-pointed stars covered with gold leaf, made by analogy with the highest award USSR - Hero Soviet Union. Five flights of stairs lead to the monument, on which cities are carved, in the protection and liberation of which Saratov residents took part. The area around the complex is paved with paving stones. It symbolizes the beginning of the war, when the soldiers from the parade on Red Square went straight to the front.

AiF.ru has collected stories of destroyed and forgotten monuments of the Great Patriotic War: extinguished "eternal" lights and monuments buried in garbage.

Non-eternal "eternal" fire

Photo: AiF / Ekaterina Grebenkova

Every weekend and holidays, a guard of honor from schoolchildren comes to Freedom Square in the center of Staraya Sarepta, a district of Volgograd. More than three thousand Soviet soldiers who died during the Great Patriotic War are buried here.

The obelisk, 18 meters high, was opened here in 1958. And about 14 years ago, the mechanism of the Eternal Flame was also arranged, which does not work today.

Photo: AiF / Nadezhda Kuzmina

As explained in the administration of the Krasnoarmeisky district, the Eternal Flame is lit only at “protocol events” - only a few times a year. The reason is the lack of funding. On such days, and these are May 9, August 23 (the day the most destructive bombing of Stalingrad began), February 2 (the defeat of the Nazi troops near Stalingrad), sponsors bring a liquefied gas cylinder to the memorial, which is connected to the "eternal fire". On ordinary days, the obelisk on the mass grave is decorated only with wreaths and fresh flowers.

Zakamsk: "eternal" according to the schedule

The symbol of the Great Victory in Zakamsk is turned on only once a year for a few hours. The Rear to Front memorial, one of the unspoken symbols of the city, is located in a cozy park. Families with children often come here for a walk.

The memorial "Rear to the Front" is one of the unspoken symbols of Zakamsk. Photo: AiF / Dmitry Ovchinnikov

There are drawings on half of the monuments, rubbish is scattered everywhere. Tiles are cracked in some places. In the extinct Eternal Flame, along with dirty foliage and candy wrappers, there is a plastic bottle.

A plastic bottle is lying in the extinct Eternal Flame. Photo: AiF / Dmitry Ovchinnikov

In the municipal budget institution“Improvement of the Kirovsky District” was told that here the Eternal Flame burns only on Victory Day: from 9 am to 10 pm. On other days, the gas is turned off - no money is found.

Maintenance of the monument, including restoration, takes place annually according to the schedule. Photo: AiF / Dmitry Ovchinnikov

Cases with a monument to workers and employees shipyard who died during the Great Patriotic War, the situation is even worse than with the memorial "Rear to the Front". The sculpture is owned by the factory, which should take care of the pedestal, installed in 1975.

Monument to the workers and employees of the shipyard, who died during the Great Patriotic War. Photo: AiF / Dmitry Ovchinnikov

For 40 years, the monument has never been repaired. The green paint is peeling off on all sides. The eternal flame, the frame for which is made in the form of a five-pointed star, has not been burning for a long time. Candy wrappers, cigarette butts and even a gnawed bone are lying nearby.

The eternal flame, made in the form of a five-pointed star, does not burn. Photo: AiF / Dmitry Ovchinnikov

Before the holiday, they promise to bring the monument into its proper form: they will eliminate defects, touch up. On Victory Day, according to tradition, residents of the city will come here. Flowers will be laid at the memorial. Fiery patriotic speeches will again be heard from the impromptu stage, and a field kitchen will unfold next to the monument. They promise to light an eternal flame. For this, a special gas bottle will be brought. But after the holiday, the symbol of eternal memory will be extinguished again - until next year.

Mila's tragedy

Even sadder is the fate of the monument to the girl Mila, which was erected on the Soldier's Field in Volgograd in 1975. In January, the sculpture of a girl with a flower was destroyed by vandals. As the investigation established, a local resident pushed the monument off the pedestal in order to remove surface layer metal and hand it over to the collection point.

Photo: AiF / Nadezhda Kuzmina

The sculpture of Mila did not appear on the Soldiers' Field by chance. Fierce battles were going on in the Gorodishchensky district. A small detachment of Soviet soldiers took up defense here, having orders to stop the enemy offensive at any cost.

Memorial Soldier's field. Photo: press service of the government of the Volgograd region

From here, before the battle, Major of the Soviet Army Dmitry Petrakov wrote a letter to his daughter Mila, the lines of which are engraved on a granite triangle: “My black-eyed Mila! I am sending you a cornflower. Imagine: there is a battle, enemy shells are exploding around, funnels are all around and a flower is growing here. And suddenly another explosion - the cornflower is torn off. I picked it up and put it in my tunic pocket. The flower grew, reached for the sun, but it was torn off by an explosive wave, and if I had not picked it up, it would have been trampled. This is how the fascists act in the occupied settlements where they kill guys. Mila! Papa Dima will fight the fascists to the last breath, so that the fascists do not treat you the same way as with this flower ... "

Photo: AiF / Nadezhda Kuzmina

Today, instead of cornflowers, weeds grow on the Soldier's field, the asphalt pavement has crumbled and cracked, the symbolic plowshares that plowed the field have rusted. And the mass grave, in which the urn with the ashes of the fallen soldiers was buried, was overgrown with thick grass.

The monument to the girl Mila was recently restored. But when the work to care for the Soldier's Field will be established, it is still unknown.

The "log of death" is buried in garbage

Photo: AiF / Nadezhda Kuzmina

The mass grave, in which the soldiers of the 95th Infantry Division, along with their commander, are buried, is located right on the banks of the Volga. There were fierce battles here, when the river literally burned, and its waters turned blood red. Today it is not easy to find this obelisk. There are no signs, and not all residents of the Krasnooktyabrsky district know about the existence of the monument.

Photo: AiF / Nadezhda Kuzmina

It was here, in the Glubokaya Balka ravine, that the front line of the division's defense passed. The beam was shot through by the Germans to the Volga itself, the losses were huge, for which the area got its name - "Death Log".

Today, the monument is surrounded by debris. Broken bricks, fragments, bottles, packages. Judging by the huge garbage bags, residents bring and dump garbage here on purpose, not wanting to bother with waste removal.

Chelyabinsk: a monument among the stalls

IN Soviet time schoolchildren knew by heart the names of 23 Chelyabinsk motorists who became Heroes of the Soviet Union and full holders of the Order of Glory. In Chelyabinsk, two monuments were erected to soldiers-motorists. One of them is located on the territory of a liquidated military school, it is hidden from human eyes by a high fence and a strict checkpoint. The school is closed, the monument is "liquidated" along with it.

The second monument to soldiers-motorists has always been honored and respected. Here, in the courtyard of Bazhov Street, they led excursions and laid flowers. Today the monument is forgotten, abandoned, crumbling from old age. The place has long been chosen by the owners of retail outlets.

Monument to soldiers-motorists in Chelyabinsk. Photo: AiF / Nadezhda Uvarova

“I was still small. In the 80s, she ran here with her friends to play hide and seek, - says Elena Kulumbeeva, a resident of a neighboring house. - In the nineties, the monument miraculously disappeared. We took a closer look - and it was fenced off, as it were, with a fence. To reach, it was necessary to try. And everyone forgot how so?

Behind the fence grew a shopping center. The monument on its background was completely lost. To reach the monument, you need to walk three hundred meters from the road through mud that is impassable at any time of the year. The situation is worsened by construction debris: a trailer with workers is located nearby, who now and then bring building materials right here, to the foot of the monument.

Photo: AiF / Nadezhda Uvarova

Near the monument - not wreaths and bouquets of fresh flowers, but an old broken chair and the same antediluvian table. This is where builders go for a smoke break.

Photo: AiF / Nadezhda Uvarova

It seems that, apart from them, no one has been interested in the monument for a long time. The red star on the stela had long since faded and almost merged with the gray concrete. The decoration of the monument crumbles and falls off in pieces. From the white marble fence, only rickety pieces of square tiles remained. Rusty iron bars protrude around the monument. Once there was an inscription here: "No one is forgotten and nothing is forgotten."

But nearby there is a construction of multi-apartment, multi-colored, bright houses. A stream of buyers stretches towards the shopping complex, who do not even know that on the reverse side, in a wasteland, just a few meters away, a monument rests.

Photo: AiF / Nadezhda Uvarova

St. Petersburg: a monument behind the hangar

Last winter in St. Petersburg, one of the members of the Living City social movement discovered behind the hangars of the Lenta hypermarket an abandoned monument to the heroes of the Great Patriotic War. The cast-iron figure of a soldier, littered with snow, stood in the industrial zone, on the territory of the former plant of lifting transport equipment named after. Kirov. Next to the blue fence enclosing the industrial zone, there is a stele on which more than five hundred names of the dead employees of the plant are engraved. On the stele is written “1941 - 1945. No one is forgotten and nothing is forgotten. Eternal glory to the heroes. Together with the Fatherland, you all won the Victory. We have kept you in our hearts."

An abandoned monument to WWII veterans was found behind the hangars of a hypermarket. Photo: Living City Movement

Contrary to the inscription, the memory of the heroes who gave their lives for Great Victory, not saved. These photos were taken almost a year and a half ago - in the winter of 2013. During this time, the blue fence was replaced with a concrete fence with barbed wire. Now there is no way to get to the monument at all. To the question of an AiF.ru correspondent, one of the workers of the industrial zone, who was passing by, answered: “I don’t know any monument. Go away, you can't take pictures here." Most likely, the monument to the heroes of the War has already been dismantled.

Now there is no way to get to the monument at all. Photo: AiF / Yana Khvatova

Few people know that one of the most famous and high Soviet sculptures - "The Motherland Calls!", Which is installed in Volgograd on Mamaev Kurgan, is only the second part of the composition, which consists of three elements at once. This triptych (a work of art, consisting of three parts and united by a common idea) also includes the monuments: “Rear to Front”, which is installed in Magnitogorsk and “Warrior-Liberator”, located in Treptow Park in Berlin. All three sculptures are united by one common element- Sword of Victory.

Two of the three monuments of the triptych - "The Warrior-Liberator" and "The Motherland Calls!" - belong to the hand of one master, monumental sculptor Evgeny Viktorovich Vuchetich, who three times in his work addressed the theme of the sword. The third Vuchetich monument, which does not belong to this series, was installed in New York in front of the UN headquarters. The composition entitled "Let's beat swords into plowshares" shows us a worker who turns a sword into a plow. The sculpture itself was supposed to symbolize the desire of all the people of the world to fight for disarmament and the triumph of peace on Earth.

The first part of the trilogy "Rear to Front", located in Magnitogorsk, symbolizes Soviet rear, which provided the country with victory in that terrible war. In the sculpture, a worker hands over a sword to a Soviet soldier. It is understood that this is the Sword of Victory, which was forged and raised in the Urals, later it was raised by the "Motherland" in Stalingrad. The city in which there was a radical turning point in the war, and Nazi Germany suffered one of its most significant defeats. The third monument of the "Liberator Warrior" series lowers the Sword of Victory in the very lair of the enemy - in Berlin.

The reasons why Magnitogorsk had such an honor - to become the first Russian city, in which a monument to home front workers was erected, should not surprise anyone. According to statistics, every second tank and every third shell during the war years was fired from Magnitogorsk steel. Hence the symbolism of this monument - a worker of a defense plant, standing in the East, hands over a forged sword to a front-line soldier who is sent to the West. Where the trouble came from.

Later, this sword forged in the rear will lift up in Stalingrad on Mamaev Kurgan "Motherland". The place where the turning point in the war took place. And already at the end of the composition, the "Warrior-Liberator" will lower the sword on the swastika in the very center of Germany, in Berlin, completing the defeat of the fascist regime. A beautiful, concise and very logical composition that combines the three most famous Soviet monument dedicated to the Great Patriotic War.

Despite the fact that the Sword of Victory began its journey in the Urals and ended it in Berlin, the triptych monuments were built in the reverse order. So the monument "Warrior-Liberator" was installed in Berlin in the spring of 1949, the construction of the monument "Motherland Calls!" ended in the fall of 1967. And the first monument of the Rear to the Front series was completed only in the summer of 1979.

"Rear - Front"

Monument "Rear - Front"

The authors of this monument were the sculptor Lev Golovnitsky and the architect Yakov Belopolsky. Two main materials were used to create the monument - granite and bronze. The height of the monument is 15 meters, while outwardly it looks much more impressive. This effect is created by the fact that the monument is located on a high hill. The central part of the monument is a composition that consists of two figures: a worker and a soldier. The worker is oriented to the east (in the direction where the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works was located), and the warrior looks to the west. Where the main events took place fighting during the Great Patriotic War. The rest of the monument in Magnitogorsk is an eternal flame, which was made in the form of a flower star made of granite.

An artificial hill was erected on the bank of the river to install the monument, the height of which was 18 meters (the base of the hill was specially reinforced with reinforced concrete piles so that it could withstand the weight of the erected monument and not collapse over time). The monument was made in Leningrad, and in 1979 it was installed on the spot. The monument was also supplemented with two man-height trapeziums, on which the names of the inhabitants of Magnitogorsk, who received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union during the war years, were listed. In 2005, another part of the monument was opened. This time the composition was supplemented with two triangles, on which you can read the names of all the inhabitants of Magnitogorsk who died during the hostilities in 1941-1945 (a little more than 14 thousand names are listed in total).

"Rear - Front"

Monument "Motherland is calling!"

Monument "Motherland is calling!" is located in the city of Volgograd and is the compositional center of the monument-ensemble "To the Heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad", which is located on Mamayev Kurgan. This statue is considered one of the highest on the planet. Today she ranks 11th in the Guinness Book of Records. At night, the monument is effectively illuminated by spotlights. This sculpture was designed by sculptor E. V. Vuchetich and engineer N. V. Nikitin. The sculpture on Mamaev Kurgan is a figure of a woman standing with a sword raised up. This monument is a collective allegorical image of the Motherland, which calls on everyone to unite in order to defeat the enemy.

Drawing some analogy, we can compare the statue "Motherland is calling!" with the ancient goddess of victory, Nike of Samothrace, who also called on her children to repel the forces of the invaders. Subsequently, the silhouette of the sculpture "Motherland is calling!" was placed on the emblem and flag of the Volgograd region. It is worth noting that the peak for the construction of the monument was created artificially. Prior to this, the highest point of the Mamaev Kurgan in Volgograd was the territory, which was located 200 meters from the current peak. Currently, there is the Church of All Saints.

"Motherland is calling!"

The creation of the monument in Volgograd, excluding the pedestal, took 2,400 tons of metal structures and 5,500 tons of concrete. At the same time, the total height of the sculptural composition was 85 meters (according to other sources, 87 meters). Before starting the construction of the monument, a foundation was dug on Mamayev Kurgan for a statue 16 meters deep, and a two-meter slab was installed on this foundation. The height of the 8000-ton statue itself was 52 meters. In order to ensure the necessary rigidity of the frame of the statue, 99 metal cables were used, which are in constant tension. The thickness of the walls of the monument, made of reinforced concrete, does not exceed 30 cm, the inner surface of the monument consists of separate chambers that resemble the structures of a residential building.

Initially, the 33-meter sword, which weighed 14 tons, was made of stainless steel in a titanium sheath. But the huge size of the statue led to a strong swaying of the sword, this was especially noticeable in windy weather. As a result of such impacts, the structure gradually deformed, the sheets of titanium plating began to shift, and when the structure swayed, an unpleasant metal rattle appeared. To eliminate this phenomenon, in 1972 the reconstruction of the monument was organized. In the course of the work, the blade of the sword was replaced with another one, which was made of fluorinated steel, with holes made in the upper part, which were supposed to reduce the effect of the windage of the structure.

"Motherland is calling!"

One day, the main sculptor of the monument, Yevgeny Vuchetich, told Andrei Sakharov about his most famous sculpture, “The Motherland Calls!” “The bosses often asked me why a woman’s mouth was open, it’s ugly,” Vuchetich said. The famous sculptor answered this question: “And she screams - for the Motherland ... your mother!”

Monument "Warrior-Liberator"

May 8, 1949, on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany took place in Berlin grand opening monument to Soviet soldiers who died during the storming of the German capital. The Warrior-Liberator monument was erected in Berlin's Treptow Park. Its sculptor was E. V. Vuchetich, and the architect was Ya. B. Belopolsky. The monument was opened on May 8, 1949, the height of the warrior sculpture itself was 12 meters, its weight is 70 tons. This monument has become a symbol of the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War, it also personifies the liberation of all European peoples from fascism.

The sculpture of a soldier with a total weight of approximately 70 tons was produced in the spring of 1949 in Leningrad at the Monumental Sculpture factory, it consisted of 6 parts, which were then transported to Germany. Work on the creation of the memorial complex in Berlin was completed in May 1949. On May 8, 1949, the memorial was solemnly opened by the Soviet commandant of Berlin, Major General A. G. Kotikov. In September 1949, all responsibilities for the care and maintenance of the monument were transferred by the Soviet military commandant's office to the magistrate of Greater Berlin.

"Warrior Liberator"

The centerpiece of the Berlin composition is a bronze figure of a Soviet soldier standing on the ruins of a Nazi swastika. In one of his hands he holds a lowered sword, and with the other hand he supports the rescued German girl. It is assumed that the real Soviet soldier Nikolai Maslov, a native of the village of Voznesenka, Tisulsky district, Kemerovo region, served as a prototype for this sculpture. During the storming of the German capital in April 1945, he saved a German girl. Vuchetich himself created the monument "Warrior - Liberator" from the Soviet paratrooper Ivan Odarenko from Tambov. And for the girl, 3-year-old Svetlana Kotikova, who was the daughter of the commandant of the Soviet sector of Berlin, posed for the sculpture. It is curious that on the sketch of the monument, the soldier held a machine gun in his free hand, but at the suggestion of Stalin, the sculptor Vuchetich replaced the machine gun with a sword.

The monument, like all three monuments of the triptych, is located on a mound, a staircase leads to the pedestal. Inside the pedestal is a round hall. Its walls were decorated with mosaic panels (author - artist A. V. Gorpenko). The panels depicted representatives of various peoples, including the peoples Central Asia and the Caucasus, who lay wreaths at the grave of Soviet soldiers. Over their heads in Russian and German It is written: “Now everyone recognizes that the Soviet people, by their selfless struggle, saved the civilization of Europe from fascist pogromists. This is the great merit of the Soviet people to mankind. In the center of the hall was a cubic-shaped pedestal made of black polished stone, on which was placed a golden casket with a parchment book bound in red morocco. The names of the heroes who fell in the battles for the German capital and were buried in mass graves were inscribed in this book. The dome of the hall was decorated with a chandelier with a diameter of 2.5 meters, which is made of crystal and rubies, the chandelier reproduces the Order of Victory.

"Warrior Liberator"

In the fall of 2003, the sculpture of the "Warrior-Liberator" was dismantled and sent for restoration work. In the spring of 2004, the restored monument returned to its rightful place. Today, this complex is the center of commemorative celebrations.

Sources of information:
http://ribalych.ru/2014/08/04/unikalnyj-triptix
http://www.pravda34.info/?page_id=1237
http://defendingrussia.ru/love/pamyatniki_pobedy
http://www.tgt.ru/menu-ver/encyclopedia/tourism/countries/dostoprimechatelnosti/dostoprimechatelnosti_155.html
https://en.wikipedia.org

Memorial of Glory.
(Orsk)
The Glory Memorial is located in the Leninsky district on Victory Square near Prospekt Mira.
Opened May 9, 1965. In 1967, the Eternal Flame was lit. The memorial was erected on the mass grave of soldiers Soviet army who died during the Great Patriotic War in Orsk hospitals (1941-1945). On April 27, 1965, the remains of 216 soldiers were reburied from the closed city cemetery at the site of the future memorial in 12 urns. Initially, a block of unpolished Orsk multi-colored jasper and a bronze plaque were installed, on which a monument to a Soviet soldier in Berlin's Treptow Park was depicted in relief. A bowl with Eternal Flame was placed in front of the stone. The entire structure was placed on a concrete pedestal. The authors of the monument are Orsk architects E.Ya. Markov, B.G. Zavodovsky, A.N. Silin. In 1975, the monument was reconstructed: the mass grave was faced with polished red Orsk jasper.
In its center is the Eternal Flame, over which hangs a bronze wreath of Glory. Behind the grave there is a wall of black stone with an inscription "Motherland! The Russian land, irrigated with the blood of its soldiers, honors their memory forever". Behind the wall - ate. The authors are Orsk architects P.P. Priymak, G.I. Sokolov, V.N. Yakimov. During the reconstruction of the memorial in 1988, the lining of the military grave was replaced with a green-black serpentine, marble slabs with the names of soldiers who died in Orsk hospitals, Orchans who died on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, and those who died in Afghanistan were installed around the perimeter of the memorial.
The black stone inscription was transferred to white marble slabs in the center of the memorial.
In 1995, additional memorial pylons were installed with the names of the Orchans who died in 1941-1945, in the Afghan war of 1979-1989, in the hot spots of Russia (North Caucasus) in the 1990s.
In April - August 2000, the Square of Glory was reconstructed, a second line of pylons was installed, where more than 8,000 names of Orchans who died in hostilities were added. The main part of the memorial complex is equipped with lawns, flower beds and plantings of deciduous and coniferous trees.
On May 8, 2008, on the eve of Victory Day, the Alley of Heroes was opened on the territory of the Square of Glory. The memorial is changing its appearance for the fourth time, becoming better and more significant.
The idea of this project appeared in the eighties of the last century. Then, taking into account the wishes of war veterans, the chief artist of Orsk, P. Priymak, worked on a project for the reconstruction of the square and provided for the opening of the Alley of Heroes. But it was only now that nine bronze busts of Heroes of the Soviet Union and two Heroes of Russia were installed, thanks to the decision of the current head of the city.
Preparations for the implementation of the alley project began in 2008, when the necessary photographic materials were sent to Chelyabinsk. The busts of the heroes of Orchan were sculpted by a creative group of Chelyabinsk sculptors led by the chairman of the Chelyabinsk branch of the Union of Artists of Russia E. Vargot. Professionals managed to convey not only the external similarity of the defenders of the Motherland, but also their character. As the sculptors themselves assure, the images were created based on the personal history of each hero. Bronze busts weighing about 2 tons each were installed on granite pedestals by specialists from MUP "Requiem".
On the pylons erected on both sides of the alley, the names of the heroes of the Orsk land, who won the Victory and defended the freedom of not only Russians, but also other peoples, are placed.

Literature

Memorial of Glory // Orsk City Encyclopedia. - Orenburg, 2007. - S. 219.
Post number 1 // Orsk City Encyclopedia. - Orenburg, 2007. - S. 234 - 235.
Memorial of Glory: photo // Orsk: photo album. - M. 1995. - S. 87.
Ivanov, A. The bust of the Hero added to the Walk of Fame / A. Ivanov // Orsk newspaper. - 2008. - September 5. - S. 2.
Svetushkova, L. "Heritage" - to the city / L. Svetushkova // Orsk Chronicle. - 2008. - September 5. - S. 2.
Goncharenko, V. Ten busts of War Heroes are mounted on columns / V. Goncharenko // Orsk Chronicle. - 2008. - April 22. - S. 1, 2.
Rezepkina, N. It is necessary for the living / N. Rezepkina // New Vedomosti. - 2007. - May 9. - p. 3.
Efimova, T. There is no future without the past / T. Efimova // Orsk Chronicle. - 2000. - August 31. - S. 2.
Karandeev, A. Orchans laid flowers at the renovated memorial / A. Karandeev // Orsk Chronicle. - 2000. - May 13. - S. 2.

According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the human losses of the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War amounted to 26.6 million people. In memory of the fallen soldiers, major victories of the Army and the heroic deed of the Soviet people in the war, numerous war memorials and monuments have been erected not only in Russia, but also abroad.
Here are photos of the monuments of the Second World War, which I took during our travels since 2007. to 2015

1. Russian Federation, Volgograd. The main element of the ensemble "To the Heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad" on Mamaev Kurgan is the sculpture "The Motherland Calls!"

2. Russian Federation, Volgograd. The Gerhardt Mill is a building destroyed during the Great Patriotic War, left in ruins as a memory to the descendants of the brutal battles of the Battle of Stalingrad

3. Russian Federation, Vladivostok. Monument to the sailors of the merchant fleet 1941-1945.

4. Russian Federation, Veliky Novgorod. "Victory Monument" installed on "Catherine Hill" in memory of the victory of the Soviet Union over the fascist invaders

5. Russian Federation, Republic of Tatarstan, Yelabuga. On the Square of Memory there is a bust of the Marshal of the Soviet Union - Leonid Alexandrovich Govorov.

6. Russian Federation, Moscow region, Odintsovo district. d. Troitskoye. Monument to the fallen Soviet soldiers who defended the approaches to Moscow. The names of the fallen soldiers are carved on the slabs of the memorial, among which is the name of my husband's great-uncle.

7. Russian Federation, Moscow region, Zvenigorod. Memorial to those who died in the Great Patriotic War.

8. Russian Federation, Kaliningrad region, Baltiysk. Mass grave on the street. Red Army.

9. Russian Federation, Kaliningrad region, Zelenogradsk. The grave of the Hero of the USSR Tkachenko I.F.

10. Russian Federation, Republic of Karelia, Medvezhyegorsk. Burial of Soviet soldiers.

11. Russian Federation, Republic of Karelia, Medvezhyegorsk region. Mass grave 9 km from the village of Povenets.

12. Russian Federation, Republic of Karelia, Medvezhyegorsk region. d. Kadmaselga. Brotherly grave.

13. Russian Federation, Kaluga region, Kondrovo. Monument to the heroes of the Great Patriotic War

14. Russian Federation, Kaluga region, regional center Przemysl. Monument to Soviet soldiers who died in the Great Patriotic War.

15. Russian Federation, Kaluga region, Ugra National Park, Sukovsky bridgehead.

16. Russian Federation, Kaluga region, Yukhnov. Monument to the soldiers who died in the battles for the Motherland

17. Russian Federation, Kaluga region, Yukhnov. Monument to prisoners of Nazi concentration camps

18. Russian Federation, Kaluga region, Kozelsk. Memorial Complex the square of Heroes of Kozelsk, a monument to the Motherland.

19. RF, Voronezh region, from. Kochetovka. War memorial"Memory", mass grave No. 305

20. Russian Federation, Moscow region, Kubinka. Memorial in the military-historical Museum of armored weapons and equipment of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.

21. RF. Moscow region, Dmitrov. Monument to the line of counteroffensive

22. Russian Federation, Vladimir region. Murom. Alley of Heroes of the USSR in Oka Park.

23. Russian Federation, Nizhny Novgorod. Memorial "Gorky front"

24. Russian Federation, Rostov-on-Don. Memorial complex "To soldiers for the liberation of the city from Nazi invaders"

25. RF, Yaroslavl region, Rybinsk. Memorial complex "Fire of Glory"

26. Russian Federation, Smolensk.

27. Russian Federation, Pskov. The monument-tank symbolizes the military glory of the tankers participating in the liberation of Pskov in 1944

28. Poland. Auschwitz-Birkenau (Auschwitz) concentration camp and death camp

29. Slovakia. Bratislava. Mount "Slavin" - a monument erected in honor of Soviet soldiers who died in battles with the Nazis for Bratislava in 1945

30. Belarus. Brest. Brest Fortress. Sculpture "Thirst"

31. Hungary. Budapest. "Monument to the Soviet soldiers-liberators"

32. Poland, Warsaw. Monument to the Heroes of Warsaw

33. Lithuania. Klaipeda city. Monument to fallen soldiers

34. Estonia. city of Narva. Obelisk dedicated to the soldiers of the Soviet Army who fell in the Second World War

35. Bulgaria. town of Nessebar.

36. Norway. The grave of seven unknown soldiers of the Soviet army, near the town of Nesna.

37. Estonia. Tallinn. bronze soldier