Monuments in honor of the Patriotic War. Monuments of the Great Patriotic War in Russian Hero Cities. National Memorial of Military Glory

Of course, the Great Patriotic War left a huge mark in the history of our Motherland. For the past 68 years, we have annually honored the memory of those who died on May 9th. We all know that huge numbers of monuments to the Great Patriotic War were built in the vastness of Russia. Below in the article we will consider the most famous of them, which are located in the hero cities of Russia: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Murmansk, Tula, Volgograd, Novorossiysk and Smolensk. It was these cities that became most famous for their brave defense during the hostilities of 1941-43.

Let's start with Moscow. All Muscovites will certainly say that the most significant for this city is Poklonnaya Gora on which Victory Park is located. The park was solemnly opened on May 9, 1995 during the celebration of Victory Day. The monuments of the Great Patriotic War located here include exhibitions military equipment, museums of the Second World War and the Holocaust, a memorial mosque and a synagogue, as well as a temple. In addition to these monuments, there are other minor structures that can be seen throughout Moscow.

Next, let's move on to St. Petersburg. Like in the capital, the "Northern Venice" also has a Victory Park, but here it is presented in duplicate: Primorsky, which is dedicated to naval victories, and Moscow, which is built as a holistic memory of the victory. The first one does not stand out in any way, but the latter has on its territory a large number of buildings that are monuments to the soldiers of the Great Patriotic War. Among them, the monuments-busts of twice Heroes of Socialist Labor, natives of the city, stand out in particular. Also of note is the Rotunda monument, commemorative crosses and plaques, various sculptures and the "Temporary" chapel. In addition to these parks, it is worth mentioning the museum-reserve "Breakthrough of the Siege of Leningrad", as well as the memorial museum "Defense and Siege of Leningrad", in which the entire severity of the battles and the "pulling out" of victory from the Nazi invaders are highlighted.

Tula is not particularly replete with monuments, however, it is worth noting the monument to the defenders of Tula in the Second World War, which is located on as well as the mound of Immortality in the city of Efremov, built at the own expense of residents.

Undoubtedly, one of the greatest cities that showed a heroic defense and no less heroic counteroffensive is Volgograd. On the most famous hill, where bloody battles took place from September 1942 until the next January - Mamaev Kurgan, there is an architectural ensemble of monuments dedicated to the Second World War. It includes, perhaps, the most famous monument of the Great Patriotic War of Russia "The Motherland Calls!", Which, by the way, is one of 3 squares (Sorrow Square, Heroes Square, Square of Those who stood to death), Monumental relief, high relief "Memory of Generations" , Military cemetery, Ruined walls. Construction, during which many architects were involved, lasted almost 10 years, from 1959 to 1967.

Next, we will briefly examine the monuments of the Great Patriotic War in Smolensk. The Mound of Immortality is located in the Readovka park, which was built by the Smolensk people in memory of the soldiers who died during the Second World War and ordinary people. It was solemnly opened on September 25, 1970. Not far from the Kurgan you can see the Eternal Flame, and in the park itself it was also built where thousands of soldiers are buried. Among other monuments of Smolensk, the monument of the Great Patriotic War "Bayonet", which was erected in memory of the soldiers of the legendary 16th Army, who defended the city in July 1941, is worthy of mention.

Hello dear.
On the eve of the holiday, let us recall some of the famous monuments
So...
"Warrior Liberator"- a monument in Berlin's Treptow Park.
Sculptor E. V. Vuchetich, architect Ya. B. Belopolsky, artist A. V. Gorpenko, engineer S. S. Valerius.
Opened May 8, 1949.
Height - 12 meters. Weight - 70 tons.

"Motherland" (Batkivshchyna-mother)
The author of the memorial is Yevgeny Vuchetich;
After Vuchetich's death, the Ukrainian sculptor Vasily Borodai took charge of the project;
Sculptors: Fried Sagoyan, Vasily Vinaykin. Architects: Victor Elizarov, Georgy Kisly, Nikolay Feshchenko.
Opened as part of the museum complex in 1981 on Victory Day.
The height of the Motherland sculpture (from the pedestal to the tip of the sword) is 62 meters.
The total height with the pedestal is 102 meters.
In one hand, the statue holds a 16-meter sword weighing 9 tons, in the other - a shield measuring 13 × 8 meters with the coat of arms of the USSR (weighing 13 tons).
The entire structure is all-welded and weighs 450 tons.
The frame itself begins at a depth of 17.8 meters (from the entrance to the museum). A concrete well with a diameter of 34 meters goes to this depth.

"Motherland is calling!"— Volgograd.
The monument is the central part of the triptych, which also consists of the monuments "Rear to Front" in Magnitogorsk and "Warrior-Liberator" in Treptow Park in Berlin. It is understood that the sword, forged on the banks of the Urals, was then raised by the Motherland in Stalingrad and lowered after the Victory in Berlin
Sculptor - E. V. Vuchetich. Engineer N. V. Nikitin
The sculpture is made of prestressed concrete - 5500 tons of concrete and 2400 tons of metal structures (without the base on which it stands).
The total height of the monument is 85 meters (the sculpture itself) - 87 meters (the sculpture with the mounting plate). It is installed on a concrete foundation 16 meters deep. The height of the female figure without the sword is 52 meters. The mass of the monument is over 8 thousand tons.
The statue stands on a 2-meter-high slab, which rests on the main foundation. This foundation is 16 meters high, but it is almost invisible - most of it is hidden underground.

Monument "Rear to front". Magnitogorsk. It is considered the first part of the triptych, which also consists of the Motherland monuments on Mamaev Kurgan in Volgograd and the Liberator Warrior in Treptow Park in Berlin.
Sculptor - Lev Nikolaevich Golovnitsky, architect - Yakov Borisovich Belopolsky.
Material - bronze, granite. Height - 15 meters.

Monument to the heroic defenders of Leningrad on Victory Square in St. Petersburg
Sculptor: M. K. Anikushin. Architects: V. A. Kamensky, S. B. Speransky
Construction 1974-1975
Height 48 m
Material: bronze, granite

"Motherland"- in St. Petersburg at the Piskarevsky memorial cemetery.
The authors of the ensemble are architects A. V. Vasiliev, E. A. Levinson, sculptors V. V. Isaeva and R. K. Taurit (“Motherland” and reliefs on the side walls), M. A. Vainman, B. E Kaplyansky, A. L. Malahin, M. M. Kharlamova (high reliefs on the central stele).

"Alyosha"- a monument to the Soviet soldier-liberator, in the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv on the hill Bunardzhik ("Hill of the Liberators").
Sculptors V. Radoslavov and others, architects N. Marangozov and others.
Height 10 meters
The prototype of the monument is an ordinary consolidated company of the 3rd Ukrainian Front Alexei Ivanovich Skurlatov, a former shooter of the 10th separate ski battalion 922 rifle regiment, transferred due to a severe wound to signalmen. In 1944 he restored the Plovdiv-Sofia telephone line. In Plovdiv, Aleksey Ivanovich became friends with a telephone exchange worker, Metodi Vitanov, a member of the Bulgarian Resistance. Metodi Vitanov gave the photo of Alexei to the sculptor Vasil Rodoslavov, who created the monument based on this image

Memorial - "Brest fortress is a hero"
The memorial "Brest Hero Fortress" was built according to the designs of the sculptor Alexander Pavlovich Kibalnikov.

Sculpture "Unbowed Man" in Khatyn
Architects: Yu. Gradov, V. Zankovich, L. Levin. Sculptor S. Selikhanov. Grand opening memorial complex"Khatyn" took place on July 5, 1969.

Broken ring.(Kokkarevo, Leningrad region)
Architect V. G. Filippov. Sculptor K. M. Simun, Design engineer I. A. Rybin;

Have a nice time of the day.

They keep the memory of the little people of the war. And even about God's little creatures - camels, donkeys and doves that helped to fight. These are monuments to courage and a broken world. And hope, of course.

"We'll all come back to you"

Praskovya Eremeevna Volodichkina had nine sons go to the front with one appeal. Six died in the war, three died of wounds, barely returning home. And then Praskovya Eremeevna herself left - she could not stand the grief that she inherited. And with her youngest son, Nikolai, she did not even say goodbye. He was finishing active service in Transbaikalia, they were already waiting for him to go home, but some of them were immediately taken to the front. When he was passing the Volga, he threw a note rolled up in a tube out of the window of the car: “Mom, dear mother. Don't grieve, don't grieve. Do not worry. We're going to the front. We will defeat the Nazis and we will all return to you. Wait. Your Kolka.

Isn't the movie Saving Private Ryan about a similar impossible story? Such cruel coincidences, in which people try not to believe (“The bomb does not fall into the same funnel a second time!”) Reveal the cruelty of time and fate. This is what - too. But in Russia there were several such families, we just do not know about all of them. Here, in Alekseevka, a suburb of Samara, circumstances developed in a certain way. In the 1980s, schoolteacher Nina Kosareva, who works at the same school where the Volodichkin brothers once studied, created their former home amateur memorial museum. And the initiative to build the monument belongs to working group Regional Book of Memory.

And on the street of the former Krasnoarmeyskaya, and now the Volodichkin Brothers, a monument appeared - Praskovya Eremeevna, Alexander, Andrey, Peter, Ivan, Vasily, Mikhail, Konstantin, Fedor and Nikolai.

Monument to the crying horse

It is called the "Monument to the Weeping Horse". The orphaned, exhausted bronze horse bowed its head, mourning its rider, master, friend. Fortunately, we rarely see crying horses these days. There were many of them in the Great Patriotic War. Unfortunately, the cavalrymen were practically doomed to certain death. AT civil war, which ended (relative to the beginning of the Great Patriotic War) relatively recently - just some twenty years ago, it was the cavalry that formed the basis of the army. But between the 20s and 40s of the last century, progress, including military progress, developed at a rapid pace - much faster than army administration. And as a result, many horsemen went to the front, who were helpless in front of enemy tanks and aircraft. Ossetians have always been excellent riders. It is not surprising that among them were many dead cavalry soldiers.

Postman

Triangles of front-line letters. One of the symbols of the Great Patriotic War. They were read by the whole family, and in the villages - and sometimes by the whole street, they were kept in caskets, rivers of tears were shed over them - tears of faith, hope, love. The symbol is more rear than front. Nevertheless, corporal Ivan Leontiev, forwarder-postman of the 33rd Infantry Regiment of the 6th Red Banner Rifle Division, immortalized on this monument, died in 1944 just at the front. He was delivering mail to the front line and came under enemy artillery fire. The last letter that Ivan Leontiev himself sent home was dated January 1944. Postman Leontiev was not a special hero - and he was, of course. But he became a symbol of the profession because his military fate was typical. He was awarded a medal- like many of his fellow army postmen; many times under fire he brought letters from his relatives to the soldiers in the trenches; they were waiting for him, along with his bag full of letters - and the weight of a front-line postman's bag was on average equal to the weight of a machine gun. So said at the opening ceremony employees, veterans, heads of departments of the Russian Post - everyone who participated in thinking about and discussing the monument. The monument was created with the participation of the Russian Post.

Bear and Masha

The hardships of wartime are when steppe Astrakhan camels are used as a draft force. And after all was and such. In particular, the camels Mishka and Mashka participated in the legendary Battle of Stalingrad and reached from the Lower Volga region to Berlin. Now they are cast in bronze, in their usual surroundings - next to a military gun and a soldier with a machine gun on his knees, who sat down to rest. And one of the camels, without hesitation, followed his example. Tired.

fashion magazine bronze page

A wide bronze stele, and on it - as if on an ordinary clothes hanger, on hooks, hangs women's clothing. Only 17 sets, like on a bronze page from a fashion magazine. There is only one difference, and it is very significant - these are not fashionable toilets, but the uniforms of women who participated in the Second World War. These are work overalls, driver's overalls, protective clothing for a welder, medical uniforms ... Helmets, jackets, riding breeches. This monument is called very simply - Women in World War II.

The war has changed the lives of seven million British housewives. They replaced men - and became firefighters, air defense fighters, workers in the "women's land army" and defense factories, drivers and mechanics. And the inscription on the monument used a font from food cards of the war era.

This monument was created in 1997 by retired Major David McNally Robertson. The idea was supported by the speaker of the House of Commons, Baroness Betty Boothroyd, who became the patroness of the project and raised money for it on the TV show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? About 1 million pounds was given by Queen Elizabeth II, who herself worked as a driver during the war. The rest of the funds were provided by various charitable foundations.

Quay of Bronze Shoes

Flowers are placed not only in crystal vases, but also in bronze shoes, tightly screwed to the Danube embankment. Only 60 pairs - men's, children's and women's, new, elegant, downtrodden, old-fashioned. In 1944-1945, there were also many pairs of shoes here, only not bronze ones, but real ones - both worn out and sewn in the latest fashion of the forties. Made to last a long time to their owners, to make them beautiful and elegant, to make them comfortable to walk. But the fate of these shoes - and the whole world - was different. Before the execution, people driven to the banks of the Danube were forced to take off their shoes - so that the shoes would not be lost. She did not disappear - people disappeared.

All donkeys go to heaven

Fought and died - not only people. This monument is dedicated to animals, participants of the Second World War. Not surprisingly, he appeared in England - a country where there is a medal of Maria Deakin, the highest military award for animals. It depicts carrier pigeons, a dog, camels, horses, a mule, an elephant, a wolf, a cow and a cat. And the medal - it was first awarded in 1942 - was awarded to 60 animals: just dogs, pigeons, donkeys, and an elephant, and one cat.

The cat awarded the highest award, named Simon (circa 1947 - November 28, 1948). He was ship's cat from the sloop-of-war "Amethyst" of the Royal Navy of Great Britain. Was awarded "for boosting the morale" of the sailors during the Yangtze River Incident and for keeping the ship's supplies from rats. During the clash, the cat was wounded.

The inscription "They had no choice" is concise and more than eloquent. The monument was erected with private donations.

Terkin - who is he?

The most famous fictional front-line soldier is Vasily Terkin, invented and sung by Alexander Tvardovsky. Both of them - both the author and his hero - are sitting on a bivouac in the center of Smolensk - Tvardovsky's homeland - and are joking merrily about something. Thus, Vasily Terkin, as it were, was embodied, from what he had invented, he became real - a symbol of a well-aimed word, consolation, stamina, humility and good spirits - everything that is so necessary in a war.

pigeons

Vitya Cherevichkin lived in Rostov,

He did well in school.

And in the free hour is always usually

He released his beloved pigeons.

This song was sung by the entire post-war country. During the occupation of Rostov-on-Don, the Germans strictly forbade civilians to breed pigeons, equating them with radio transmitters - they were afraid of using pigeon mail. The feat of the teenager Vitya Cherevichkin was that he, being an avid pigeon house, drew layout diagrams German units in the city, and with pigeons he transported them to his brother in Bataysk. For this he was shot. According to another version, he simply defended his own dovecote from the invaders. And this does not detract from his merits - you need to have great courage to protect your dovecote from the enemy.

The most faithful friend

And yet man's most faithful friend is a dog. Everywhere - and in warmth, and in trouble, and in sorrow, and in joy. Including at the front. There is nothing to add here.

Doll and teapot

Three children are warmly and very uncomfortablely dressed. The girl is holding an old, ugly, beloved doll. The boy is holding a big teapot. He is the eldest in this group, he needs to take care of the others. These are the children of besieged Leningrad. And the monument itself stands in Omsk. Why? This is evidenced by the signature on the pedestal: "More than 17 thousand children were evacuated from the besieged Leningrad to the Omsk region." That's how they brought them - exhausted, pulled out of their family (if the family was still intact, alive), saved. They were taken out along the legendary Road of Life and at the risk of this very life that had just begun.

Lidice

And again - children, children, children. In total - eighty-two children; their figures are cast in bronze in full size. That is how many children - 40 boys and 42 girls were killed by the Nazis in 1942 in the Czech mining village of Lidice. The village itself was completely destroyed. This is a very laconic, very simple, strong monument.

There is no family in Russia where you will not be told about the tragic loss loved one during the Great Patriotic War. We owe those events not only terrible losses, but also an unprecedented rise in national self-consciousness. Grief and suffering have always made people sensitive to injustice. Remember the movies post-war years- Hollywood with its exorbitant budgets will never come close to those masterpieces with their truthfulness and nobility.

The way a country lying in ruins rose from its knees in a matter of years inspired justified fear in geopolitical enemies, and friends in the socialist camp - respect and admiration. History has not preserved such collective feats. And every evidence of those years, every monument of the Great Patriotic War revives the genetic memory of those who are not indifferent, forcing noble, as in a song, rage to boil from the spectacle of impudent adversaries trying to belittle the contribution of the Russian people to the victory over world evil.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

The legendary Eternal Flame, sung in hundreds of creations, burning in the Alexander Garden, personifies all those millions of nameless lives thrown into this symbolic flame of war. And the fact that this is the most famous of all the memorials, that it is located in the heart of the country, that modern heroes guard it around the clock, speaks of the significance of the sacrifice and the gratitude of the survivors.

And how many feelings a short inscription evokes - "Your name is unknown, your feat is immortal." When you read these words, everything freezes inside - this heart responds, remembering the great grief, feelings become numb, imagining the scale of the tragedy, and the imagination draws pictures of burned villages and roads lined with bodies - the corpses of those whose names will never be known. Monuments dedicated to the Great Patriotic War have this effect on all the descendants of those terrible days. That is why it is hard to look at the bloody events in fraternal Ukraine and at all the unjust conflicts in the world, of which there are frighteningly many.

Mamaev Kurgan - monumental monument of the Great Patriotic War

Height 102 - this is how those who shed blood on the Stalingrad front remember this strategic point on the officer's tablet. Named in times no less difficult, Mamaev Kurgan served as a stronghold for the defenders of their native land even during the invasion of the Tatars. And as if created to be a stronghold of defense, the mound confirmed its calling during the years of the new invasion of evil spirits.

The dry military language, along with the thunder of cannons, is a thing of the past, and Hill 102 has become the Mound of Glory. Why don't modern monuments dedicated to the Great Patriotic War evoke the awe and reverence that one captures when looking at the creations of the period of the country's recovery from the fascist invasion? Might have to get over it historical event, with its pain, death and inevitability, in order to be able to convey the significance of the war and the phenomenon of general unification.

Motherland

The central figure on Mamayev Kurgan is the colossal figure of a mother leading the sons and daughters of the war into battle. Something less grandiose would not be worthy to serve as a reminder of more than half a year of battle and 34.5 thousand fallen. This monument of the Great Patriotic War reaches a height of 85 m, and its weight fluctuates within 8 thousand tons. But not only the scale of the architecture makes you respectfully freeze at a height of 102. Something in the faces and figures of the statues does not allow you to raise your voice, and thoughts cannot routinely sort out domestic problems - unusual thoughts of heroism and self-sacrifice come into your head.

Tribute to the fallen on the Kursk Bulge

And although it is difficult to create a monument the way an artist who has passed through the battlefields will do, this does not mean that you need to forget about new creations that glorify the exploits of the fathers. Especially when it comes to such an event as the Battle of Kursk. For a month and a half in the bloody year of 1943, Russia and Ukraine fought together for survival in the Kursk region. With the number of incredible losses, the command managed to put the enemy to flight.

And do not listen to those who talk about the unpreparedness of the generals and that so many victims could have been avoided. We opposed superior, excellently trained units, with the best equipment and weapons. We were attacked surreptitiously, stabbed in the back, and we single-handedly dealt with the monster. No one has the right to judge us as long as we remember and build new monuments to the heroes of the Great Patriotic War.

Despite strange attempts to distort history and whitewash Nazism, we remember the heroes and build them new monuments of the Great Patriotic War. Children and adults, everyone who follows us, will be left with a majestic arch crowned with the figure of St. George the Victorious. Together with the statue of Zhukov and the grave of the unknown soldier Kursk land it will keep the sacrifices of the victors in the hearts of their children for hundreds of years.

Victory Park on Poklonnaya Hill

No matter how they scold our memory of the years of the war, there are countless monuments about those times in Russia. Although I would like more such outstanding ones as the Victory Park on Poklonnaya Hill in Moscow. This monument of the Great Patriotic War occupies 135 hectares, including a museum dedicated to the exploits of soldiers, a Victory Monument and three churches. The main attraction is an obelisk 141.8 m high. This figure has a sacred meaning - the most terrible and bloody war in history continued for 1481 days. The obelisk is accompanied by the figures of Nike, the goddess of victory, and George the Victorious by the hand of Z. Tsereteli.

Marshal Pokryshkin

The rich history of monuments to the heroes of the Great Patriotic War includes hundreds of figures and busts dedicated to specific individuals who contributed to the cause of victory. One of them is a bust of a thrice Hero Soviet Union, Air Marshal Alexander Ivanovich Pokryshkin, installed in his homeland - in Novosibirsk. Having started the war as a young lieutenant, on August 19, 1944, Pokryshkin becomes the first three-time hero of the country.

Monument to Zhukov in Moscow

The most famous and repeatedly imprinted in stone commander was the unbending Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov. Marshal of the Soviet Union, four times a war hero and holder of two orders of victory, he was not just a commander - the soldiers called him Batya. He could live in the trenches with ordinary soldiers, steadfastly, as in the charter, enduring all hardships. Like no one, often to the detriment of his comforts, he took care of the rank and file, which often caused the discontent of the officers.

A monument to the Great Patriotic War dedicated to Zhukov can be found in almost every city in Russia. Is this not evidence of his merits and popular respect? But the most impressive and famous is located on Manezhnaya Square in Moscow. This is a majestic figure of the master Klykov's hand. It is not surprising that such a person as Zhukov was honored that so often the name of the monuments of the Great Patriotic War contains this legendary surname.

Is it worth remembering

The history of the monuments of the Great Patriotic War makes a map of the losses and sufferings of mankind. Wars have always been everyday life for a person, and the fact that today only those countries that can be guaranteed to be erased from the map of the enemy with atomic weapons are safe, suggests that peace is a myth. Good things get used to quickly. But, as history shows, war is necessary for development - the greatest upsurges in the development of nations occur at times of greatest tension. And countless monuments to the heroes of the Great Patriotic War serve the best reminder and warning.

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, 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 accident. Fierce battles were going on in the Gorodishchensky district. small squad 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 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 times, 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 also 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