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Monument "Tragedy of Nations"
"Tragedy of Nations"
The monument “Tragedy of Nations” is located on Poklonnaya Hill. It was installed in 1997 in memory of the victims of the fascist extermination of people. The author of the monument is an academician of the Russian Academy of Arts
A gray, endless, continuous and doomed line of naked men, women, old and young, children who are going to their death. It was their turn: the woman covered the child’s eyes with her hand so that he would not see the horror of death, the man protected his chest with a huge palm, this is a desperate and hopeless attempt to protect the child from death. The monument “Tragedy of Nations” is a sad memory of countless executions and shootings committed by the Nazis. On the ground lies the clothes taken off by the executioners, things - orphaned witnesses
pre-war life, and naked people, thin and fragile, rise to the sky in dark silhouettes. The figures turn into stones, fragments of stones; merge with granite steles, on which the same commemorative inscription is carved in the languages of the peoples of the USSR: “May the memory of them be sacred, may it be preserved for centuries.” Captured in stone and bronze, the moment of transition from life to death is forever stopped.
The “Tragedy of Nations” monument is intended to remind people of the price at which the Victory was achieved.
Alina Belyaeva
1st year student at Polytechnic College No. 39. I am studying in the specialty "Rational use of environmental complexes." I take part in various projects and competitions. Favorite subjects are chemistry, physics, history, ecology and literature. In addition to studying, I love active recreation.
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Arch. M. Posokhin, V. Bogdanov, sculptors Y. Alexandrov, V. Klykov, O. Komov;
1979
Interesting information about the history of the design of the Victory Monument on Polkonnaya Hill is presented in his memoirs by V.V. Grishin, who was in 1967-85. First secretary of the Moscow city party committee. I will give an excerpt from his book, supplementing the narrative with projects I collected from various sources.
"The decision to build a monument in honor of the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 and a museum was made by the USSR Government in September 1952. An open competition for the development of the project was then held. The project proposed by the architect L. Rudnev was recognized as the best. Internal part of the Museum of the Patriotic War was completed by the architect Y. Chernyakhovsky. However, their proposal was not accepted. In 1957, the USSR Ministry of Culture, the USSR State Construction Committee and the Moscow City Executive Committee announced a new competition for the best design of the Victory Monument in accordance with the resolution of the CPSU Central Committee and the USSR Council of Ministers on February 23, 1958. year, in a solemn ceremony, the laying of a monument took place on Poklonnaya Hill (more precisely, near this mountain), in which, together with representatives of party and public organizations, the working people of Moscow, the soldiers of the Moscow garrison, as well as the famous military leaders - Marshals of the Soviet Union R.Ya. Malinovsky, took part. I.S. Konev, V.D. Sokolovsky, S.M. Budyonny, Air Marshal K.A. Vershinin, Admiral of the USSR Fleet S.G. Gorshkov and others. Muscovites carried out work to plant trees and shrubs in the future Victory Park. 
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At the Second All-Union Competition of Victory Monument Projects, 153 proposals with drawings and drawings were submitted, which were exhibited for public viewing and discussion in the Exhibition Hall of the Pavilion of the Central Park of Culture and Leisure named after. Gorky. The competition jury, which included prominent artists, sculptors, architects, public and military figures (E.V. Vuchetich, I.S. Konev, etc.), determined that none of the submitted projects could be accepted. In subsequent years, many (about 20) all-Union and Moscow open, custom, closed and other competitions for the best Victory monument were held. But all of them did not produce results.
In 1980, another exhibition of competitive monument projects was held in the Manege Exhibition Hall. It was inspected by many people, representatives of Moscow labor collectives. Support was received by projects completed by architects, sculptors and artists M. Posokhin, B. Bogdanov, Y. Alexandrov, N. Tomsky, L. Golubovsky, E. Rusakov, V. Klykov and others. Based on the results of consideration of the projects by the jury, the Ministry of Culture of the USSR, the State Construction Committee of the USSR, and the Moscow City Executive Committee assigned two groups of architects and sculptors, headed by M. Posokhin and N. Tomsky, to finalize the selected project. The finalized project was approved by the jury, the USSR Ministry of Culture, the USSR State Construction Committee, and the Moscow City Executive Committee. It was agreed upon with the Unions of Artists, Architects, and other competent organizations, reviewed and approved by representatives of workers' collectives and submitted for approval to the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR.
Project of the Victory Monument on Poklonnaya Hill;
Sculptor N. Tomsky, architect. L. Golubovsky, A. Korabelnikov, artist Yu. Korolev, sculptor V. Edunov;
1979
On February 11, 1983, after reviewing the project by members of the Politburo of the Central Committee and members of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers, the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee approved the design proposal for the Victory Monument by sculptor N. Tomsky and architect M. Posokhin. The monument complex included: the main Victory Monument (theme “The Soviet people under the Red Banner of V.I. Lenin, under the leadership of the Communist Party won the Great Victory in the Patriotic War against German fascism”). Next is the Museum of the Patriotic War with the Hall of Glory and, finally, Victory Park. The construction site is near Poklonnaya Gora.
Then two resolutions of the USSR Council of Ministers dated April 21, 1983 No. 349 and September 14, 1984 No. 972 were adopted. (And before them came two decisions of the CPSU Central Committee dated February 11, 1983 and April 14, 1983). These resolutions approved the design of the Victory Monument. The USSR Ministry of Culture and the Moscow City Executive Committee were entrusted with the construction of the monument. The completion date for construction was set at 1989. The project of the Victory Monument was repeatedly considered at joint meetings of the Moscow City Planning Council, the Artistic Expert Council of the USSR Ministry of Culture, the Union of Artists of the USSR, the Union of Architects of the USSR, the Ministry of Defense and others. It has been approved and approved by these organizations. The monument project was exhibited in the Manege, at the Exhibition Complex on the Crimean Embankment, published in newspapers, shown on television, and was widely discussed by residents of Moscow and other regions of the country.
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About 150 leaders and representatives of creative organizations took part in the discussion and approval of the monument project, including the Chairman of the Board of the Union of Architects A.G. Rochegov, Chairman of the State Civil Engineering Committee I.N. Ponomarev, President of the Academy of Arts B.S. Ugarov, first secretary of the board of the Union of Artists of the USSR N.A. Ponomarev, secretaries of the board of the Union of Artists of the USSR Vol. Salakhov, A.E. Kovalev, I.P. Abrosov, V.V. Goryainov, Chairman of the Board of the Union of Artists of the RSFSR S.P. Tkachev, secretaries of the Union of Artists V.M. Sidorov, O.K. Komov, M.N. Smirnov, People's Artists of the USSR L.E. Kerbel, Yu.K. Korolev, Director of the Institute of Military History of the USSR Ministry of Defense P.A. Zhilin and many others.
At the beginning of 1984, construction work began on the construction of the Victory Monument using funds earned by Moscow workers on communist subbotniks and voluntary contributions from citizens (about 200 million rubles in total).
In 1986, at the Congress of USSR Writers, the poet Voznesensky made a scathing speech about the monument under construction (“I will drive at night along the Minsk Highway and will see a black ax on Poklonnaya Hill...”) Then widespread criticism of the monument project was organized on the pages of newspapers and magazines (“Soviet Russia”, “Moskovskaya Pravda”, “Ogonyok”). In the exhibition hall on the Krymskaya embankment, design materials and a model of the main monument were again exhibited. Radio, television, and the press strongly encouraged people to visit the exhibition and express their negative attitude towards the project. During the exhibition, all negative reviews about the project were collected. The criticism was openly fueled by a group of interested parties and representatives of the media. With these efforts, the monument project was overwhelmed. Central and Moscow governing bodies decided to suspend construction of the complex. 
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In the fall of 1986, an open All-Union competition for the monument to the Victory Monument was announced. Then the project proposals were exhibited for review in the Manege. During the review and discussion of proposals, due to incorrect and tendentious information, proposals were made to “restore” Poklonnaya Hill, allegedly razed during the construction of the Victory Monument, to restore Victory Park as if destroyed by the builders, to dismantle everything that had already been built, and the like - extremist and provocative demands. Particularly active in this matter were members of the so-called “Memory” association, journalists and writers - Voznesensky, Korotich, Roy Medvedev and the like, as well as the newspaper “Moscow News”, the magazine “Ogonyok” and others. The irresponsibility of these statements is obvious. Construction of the Victory Monument began on one of the high-rise buildings (with mark 170.5), located a kilometer from Poklonnaya Gora. The ground on which construction began was not torn down (on the contrary, soil was added). There was no Victory Park as such. A stunted tree nursery for growing planting material was organized there.
As a result of the 1986-1987 competition, not a single proposal for the monument was accepted. A new competition was announced. The Moscow City Executive Committee, under pressure from extremist “subversives,” decided to stop construction work on the monument. 
Victory Monument on Poklonnaya Hill;
Sculptors N. Tomsky, O. Kiryukhin, Yu. Chernov; arch. Y. Belopolsky, L. Golubovsky, A. Polyansky, B. Rubanenko; muralist Yu. Korolev;
Project proposal, 1983-86
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By this time, 32 million rubles had been invested in the construction of the monument. In addition, 13 million rubles from the Moscow City Council were spent on expanding the Minsk Highway and constructing passing lanes at different levels in Fili. The museum building was 86% complete. Work on the construction of a number of structures in the administrative and economic zone was nearing completion. A large amount of work has been completed on paving the main and other alleys of the park, laying collectors for heat and electricity supply to the facility. Work was carried out to plant valuable tree species. The ongoing project of the Victory Monument did not raise any objections among many people, especially war veterans. During the discussion of the project and construction of the complex, city organizations received many letters, there were many publications approving the designed and constructed monument and requests to speed up its construction. 
The main monument is the Victory Monument in Moscow. Competition project;
Arch. E. Rozanov, V. Shestopalov, E. Shumov, sculptor L. Kerbel;
1986
The cessation of construction of the monument caused great indignation, especially among war veterans. On this occasion, many letters were sent to central and Moscow party and Soviet bodies. For example, a large group of war veterans, representing 4.5 thousand people, addressed the Central Committee of the Party and the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU with a letter, which said: “The cessation of the construction of the monument, which is demanded by individuals, is a blow primarily to veterans, war invalids and labor..." They asked to complete the construction of the monument to the 45th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. 183 veterans of the 1st Guards Tank Army in a letter asked the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU not to freeze the construction of the Victory Monument and thereby give the veterans the opportunity to see the memorial while they are alive. 28 war veterans, participants in military parades on Red Square in Moscow in 1941 and 1945, wrote: “We must speed up the construction (and not stop) of the Victory Memorial Complex...” A large group of World War II veterans wrote in the newspaper “Soviet Russia” on April 1, 1987 year: “30 years lost. But it's not just time. After all, the Soviet people won victory with their blood... Is it really possible that none of those who defended their Motherland and the whole world from the brown plague will ever be able to see a nationwide monument in honor of our Victory?.. We believe that the party bodies of Moscow and creative unions should make every effort to rectify the situation and open a memorial for the forty-fifth anniversary of the Victory.” These and many other letters are in the Museum of the Great Patriotic War.
So, the museum complex of Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 in Moscow, which was planned to be built and opened for the 45th anniversary of the Victory, as a result of the malicious efforts of a number of individuals, the desire of them and others to discredit everything that was done in the 70s and 80s years, was not built on time..."
From the book: Victor Grishin. Catastrophe. From Khrushchev to Gorbachev." M.: Algorithm: Eksmo, 2010. - 272 pp. (
On January 4, sculptor Zurab Tsereteli turns 82 years old. The foreman celebrates his birthday at the construction site. On the shores of the Atlantic Ocean in Puerto Rico, where the final stage of construction of the tallest monument to man on Earth begins. The world has yet to hear about this monument, but we decided to recall the 10 most famous works of Zurab Konstantinovich.
1. Monument “Friendship of Peoples”
In 1983, in honor of the 200th anniversary of the reunification of Georgia with Russia, a “paired” monument was erected in Moscow - the “Friendship of Peoples” monument. This is one of Tsereteli’s most famous early works.
2. Monument “Good conquers Evil”
The sculpture was installed in front of the UN building in New York in 1990 and symbolizes the end of the Cold War.
3. Victory Monument
This stele was erected as part of a memorial complex on Poklonnaya Hill in Moscow, opened in 1995. The height of the obelisk is 141.8 meters - 1 decimeter for each day of the war.
4. Statue of St. George the Victorious on Poklonnaya Hill
At the foot of the Victory Monument there is another work by Zurab Tsereteli - the statue of St. George the Victorious, one of the important symbols in the sculptor’s work.
In the city of Seville in 1995, one of the most famous works of Tsereteli in the world was installed - the monument “The Birth of a New Man”, reaching a height of 45 meters. A smaller copy of this sculpture is located in Paris.
6. Monument to Peter I
Erected in 1997 by order of the Moscow Government on an artificial island at the fork of the Moscow River and the Vodootvodny Canal. The total height of the monument is 98 meters.
7. “Saint George the Victorious”
This sculpture is installed on a 30-meter column on Freedom Square in Tbilisi - St. George is the patron saint of Georgia. The monument was opened in April 2006.
8. "Tear of Sorrow"
On September 11, 2006, the “Tear of Sorrow” monument was unveiled in the United States - a gift to the American people in memory of the victims of September 11. The opening ceremony was attended by US President Bill Clinton and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In 2010, at the intersection of Solyanka Street and Podkokolny Lane, a monument was erected in honor of those killed during the siege of a school in Beslan in 2004.
Installed near the Tbilisi Sea. The composition consists of three rows of 35-meter columns, on which Georgian kings and poets are depicted in the form of bas-reliefs. Work on it continues.
Victory Park is located in the west of Moscow, between Kutuzovsky Prospekt and the branch of the Moscow Railway in the Kyiv direction.
During the walk we will see the Triumphal Gate, Poklonnaya Hill with a flower clock, the Temple of St. George the Victorious, as well as the multi-meter stele Victory Monument.
And if we turn back, we will see the arch of the Triumphal Gate, located on Kutuzovsky Prospekt.
We will definitely return to it, but first we will go to Victory Park.
Now it is difficult to imagine the capital without the memorial complex on Poklonnaya Hill, but it appeared relatively recently, in 1995, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Victory. Before this, Victory Park, founded in 1958, was one of the many garden and park areas of the city.
Poklonnaya Mountain is part of the Tatarovskaya Upland, which also includes the Krylatsky Hills and the heights of the Filevsky Forest Park. Previously, Poklonnaya Hill was much higher and larger in area; it offered a panoramic view of the city and its surroundings. Travelers stopped here to look at the city and worship its churches, which is where the name of the mountain came from. Guests of the city were solemnly welcomed here. Knowing this fact, it was on Poklonnaya Hill that Napoleon Bonaparte waited for the keys to Moscow in 1812.
In 1966, most of Poklonnaya Hill was razed. All that remains of it is a small hill located in the eastern part of Victory Park, directly at the exit from the metro.
The hill is decorated with a flower clock - the only one in Moscow. They were built in 2001 and were listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest in the world. But due to the fact that the technical elements of the clock system are constantly exposed to conditions of high humidity and pollution, they do not always work; at times they are just a large flower garden.
At the top of the hill you can see a small wooden cross. It was installed in 1991 in honor of all Orthodox soldiers who took part in the Great Patriotic War, preceding the construction of the Church of St. George the Victorious, erected in 1995.
It is not necessary to climb the hill itself, since there are no steps or any other devices; you will have to climb directly on the grass, and if in winter, then on the snow. But if you are confident in your abilities, then you can rise. From the top of the mountain there is a good view of the city.
The “Years of War” alley is decorated with a fountain complex of the same name. It consists of 15 bowls, each with 15 jets, thus forming the number 255 - the number of weeks the war lasted. At night, the fountains are illuminated, the illumination is made in red tones, for which the fountains are sometimes even called “bloody fountains.”
On the left side of the fountains there is a sculptural ensemble consisting of 15 columns dedicated to the fronts and other units of the Soviet army.
From a distance, the sculptures look the same: a column mounted on a granite pedestal, the top adorned with a five-pointed star and military banners.
And at the base of each of the columns there is a bas-relief dedicated to one of the divisions.
This is in turn: Home front workers; Partisans and underground fighters; Black Sea, Baltic and Northern fleets; 3rd, 2nd, 4th and 1st Ukrainian Fronts; 1st, 2nd and 3rd Belorussian Fronts; 1st Baltic Front; Leningrad Front.
From the alley “Years of War” we turn left to the Church of St. George the Victorious. It, like most of the monuments included in the memorial complex, was erected in 1995, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Victory.
The facade of the Temple is decorated with bas-reliefs with the faces of the Savior, the Virgin Mary and St. George.
Near the entrance to the Temple, we will see a sculpture depicting a wounded soldier. This is the Monument to Missing Soldiers without Graves. It was brought as a gift to Moscow by the Republic of Ukraine.
From the Temple you can return to the main alley of the park, or, if we have already seen everything there, go straight up to the Victory Monument. The staircase starts immediately from the monument to the missing.
The architectural complex, including the Victory Monument and the majestic building of the Museum of the Great Patriotic War, makes an indelible impression. The stela is one of the tallest monuments in Moscow, its height is 142 meters. The top is crowned with a sculpture of the goddess of victory Nike.
And at its base there is a monument to St. George the Victorious slaying the dragon - a symbol of the victory of good over evil, taken from Orthodoxy.
If we digress a little from the military theme and look around, we will see that from the hill on which the monument is located there is a magnificent view of the city. On the left are the high-rise buildings of the Moscow City Business Center.
On the right is one of the famous Stalinist skyscrapers - the Main Building of Moscow State University on Vorobyovy Gory.
Between the Monument and the entrance to the museum the Eternal Flame burns.
It appeared in Victory Park relatively recently, much later than the construction of the sculptural ensemble of Poklonnaya Gora. In December 2009, the Eternal Flame from the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was moved here. Engineering and technical communications were being repaired in the Alexander Garden, and since the Eternal Flame should not go out for a minute, it was decided to temporarily move it. And in April 2010, on the eve of the celebration of the 65th anniversary of the Victory, by decree of the President of the Russian Federation, the Eternal Flame entered the Victory Park memorial on a permanent basis, becoming the third in the capital after the lights in the Alexander Garden and at the Preobrazhenskoye Cemetery.
Having passed the Eternal Flame, we approach the Museum of the Great Patriotic War. Inspecting the museum’s exhibits can take a whole day, so we won’t go inside today, leaving the visit to the museum for another day. Having seen the artillery pieces from the times of the Great Patriotic War located at the entrance, we will head into the passage between the columns of the building.
Let's go to the right wing of the building. Here is located the Front Dog Monument, erected in memory of the four-legged soldiers who helped soldiers during the war. The dogs served in the medical troops (distributing medicines, and sometimes pulling the wounded out of the battlefields), guard duty, found explosives, and helped scouts. Demolition dogs, hung with explosives, threw themselves under enemy tanks. About 350 units of military equipment were destroyed in this way.
Behind the trees we will see another monument. Even from a distance it makes a depressing impression.
As we come closer, we will be convinced that our emotions are correct. This sculptural composition is called “Tragedy of Nations”, it is dedicated to all the victims of Nazi concentration camps.
In the center are sculptures of emaciated people without clothes, and to the right and left are books, children's toys, clothes, shoes and other household items, scattered in a chaotic manner.
On the right side of the composition there is a granite slab, on which is engraved the inscription “Let the memory of them be sacred, may it be preserved for centuries.”
And if we come closer and pass through the narrow passage between the fragments of the monument, we will see that there are many such slabs. The same words are written on them in different languages - Ukrainian, Tatar, Armenian, Hebrew, etc., symbolizing the multinationality of the victims of fascism.
Next to the “Tragedy of Nations” there is another memorial sign, a small granite plaque with a bronze bas-relief located directly on the ground, called “Spirit of the Elbe”. It is dedicated to the meeting of Soviet and American troops on the Elbe River in April 1945.
Passing by the rear facade, in the distance we will see another monument, located with its back to us.
We will definitely come to it, but later. If we go there now, we may get off the route and miss other equally important attractions.
Entrance to the territory is paid, however, the price is purely symbolic (70 rubles). You can also walk along the exhibition fence; it is made of metal rods, through which most of the exhibits can be viewed without entering the museum territory, but moving along the fence.
The first part of the exhibition, located at the main entrance, presents a reconstruction of the battle from the beginning of the war, when the Soviet army defended its own territories. On one side of the conventional front line there are tanks, artillery installations of the Nazi army,
on the other - Soviet technology.
The front line is represented by trenches, anti-tank hedgehogs and other defensive structures. You can go down into the trench to look at the exhibition from the bottom up, as soldiers had to do sitting in the trenches.
Artillery pieces:
Railway equipment:
And even aviation.
The collection features not only small fighters, but also more powerful winged aircraft.
From a distance, the territory fenced off from outsiders looks like a scrap metal dump, but when we get closer, we see that these are parts of military equipment found on battlefields, from which exhibits are assembled. After all, there is not a single dummy in the exhibition; all the equipment presented actually took part in the battles of the Great Patriotic War.
After going through the main part of the exhibition, we will find ourselves in a small forest. A model of a partisan camp has been set up here: dugouts, a watchtower and other wooden structures.
The next part of the exhibition is dedicated to the navy: there are ship engines, guns, and a submarine wheelhouse:
And even entire parts of ships:
At the exit from the exhibition area there is a collection of military equipment from one of the main German allies - Japan.
From the exhibition area you can clearly see the oriental-style building with crescent moons on the domes. This is a memorial mosque in honor of Muslim soldiers who died in the Great Patriotic War.
Once outside the exhibition gates, we will find ourselves at a crossroads, from which four roads diverge in different directions. In the center there is a small monument made in the style of a Catholic chapel.
The association, created during the Second World War to confront Nazi Germany and its satellites (primarily Italy and Japan), by 1945 consisted of 53 states. Some actually took part in the hostilities, others helped with food and weapons. The greatest contribution to the victory was, of course, made by the USSR, and from other countries it is customary to single out the armies of the USA, Great Britain and France. Therefore, against the background of a granite stele topped with a gilded UN symbol, there are four figures of soldiers in the uniform of the armies of these particular countries.
Let's return from the monument back to the intersection. Standing with our back to the WWII Museum and facing the exhibition of military equipment, we turn left, deep into the park. After walking a few tens of meters, we will see another sculptural composition.
In its center is a sculpture of Soviet soldiers Egorov and Kantaria hoisting the Victory Banner over the Reichstag. The pedestal under the sculpture is also made in the spirit of the walls of the destroyed Reichstag; it is painted with the names of various cities of the Soviet Union: Yerevan, Dushanbe, Tbilisi, Tashkent, etc. On the sides of the pedestal there are two bronze bas-reliefs. One depicts the triumph of Soviet soldiers against the backdrop of the same Reichstag:
On the other - the Victory Parade on Red Square in 1945 with the burning of fascist regalia.
And on the granite slab behind the monument are the words: “We were together in the fight against fascism!”
This sculptural composition appeared in Victory Park in 2010. The impetus for its creation was the notorious events in Georgia a year earlier, when a similar monument was destroyed in the city of Kutaisi.
The monument is intended to symbolize that only thanks to the unity and cohesion of people of different nationalities and concessions, our country won this Great Victory. Its creation is a call to the fact that even today fraternal peoples should live in peace.
From the monument we can see a construction site surrounded by a fence behind the trees. There is nothing interesting here yet, but this phenomenon is temporary. Here, the construction of the chapel of the Armenian Apostolic Church in honor of the Armenian soldiers who participated in the Great Patriotic War is in full swing.
Let's return to the intersection again and follow the remaining of the four roads, which leads to Kutuzovsky Prospekt (it can already be seen in the distance). Walking along it, we will come to an unusual building with a triangular dome decorated with a six-pointed Star of David. This is a Jewish memorial synagogue, also erected in memory of the Great Patriotic War.
If we remember all the religious objects that we saw on our way, we can state that almost all the main religions of the peoples who participated in the Great Patriotic War are represented in Victory Park: the Orthodox Church of St. George the Victorious, an Islamic mosque, a Catholic chapel and a Jewish synagogue.
At the exit from the park there is a sculpture depicting a Soviet soldier. If you look closely, you can see even from afar that the shape on it is much more modern than that one. What they wore during the Great Patriotic War. The monument is dedicated to the internationalist soldiers who died in Afghanistan.
The monument was erected in 2004, and five years later another one appeared next to it: a BMD-1 self-propelled gun (Airborne Combat Vehicle) was installed right on the park alley.
A commemorative plaque on the armor states that two anniversaries took place in 2009: the 20th anniversary of the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, as well as the 100th anniversary of the birth of V.F. Margelov, a Soviet military leader considered the founding father of modern airborne troops. There is even a widespread joke among the paratroopers themselves that the abbreviation “VDV” does not mean “Airborne Forces”, but “Uncle Vasya’s Troops” - in honor of Vasily Margelov.
Leaving the territory of Victory Park, we will find ourselves on Kutuzovsky Prospekt. However, let’s first turn not to the right, towards the metro, but to the left. After walking a couple of tens of meters, we will see another monument located on a small hill. The composition consists of three figures of warriors from different eras: an ancient Russian hero, a grenadier of the Patriotic War of 1812 and a soldier of the Soviet army.
The monument is called “Heroes of the Russian Land” and symbolizes the connection of times and the inevitability of victory in the war, if this war is of a liberation nature.
At this point our walk is almost over, but we were quite far from the metro. If you are not tired and the weather permits, you can return back to the park and simply stroll along one of the alleys running parallel to Kutuzovsky Prospekt. Or you can take any public transport running along the avenue and get to the Park Pobedy metro station, from where we started our walk.
Here it is worth paying attention to the monument that at the beginning of the journey we saw only from afar - the Triumphal Gate. The arch, located directly above Kutuzovsky Prospect (cars drive between its columns) was installed in honor of the victory in the Patriotic War of 1812.
The tradition of installing triumphal gates has existed since ancient times. In 1814, such gates, then still wooden, were installed at the Tverskaya Zastava. It was along the Tver road that Russian troops entered the city, returning from Europe after the victory over Napoleon. In 1834 they were replaced by stone ones.
In 1936, during the execution of the General Plan for the reconstruction of the center of Moscow, the Triumphal Gate was dismantled, its components were placed in the Museum of Architecture, located on the territory of the Donskoy Monastery. According to the plan, upon completion of the reconstruction of Tverskaya Zastava Square, the gate was planned to be returned to its original location. However, for a number of reasons this was not done, and the monument remained in storage for half a century. Only in 1966 it was decided to install it on Kutuzovsky Prospekt, not far from the Battle of Borodino Panorama Museum. So, by 1968, the Triumphal Gate appeared on Kutuzovsky Prospekt.
In 2012, during the anniversary celebrations of the 200th anniversary of Victory in the Patriotic War of 1812, the gate underwent a major reconstruction, so today it looks great.
This concludes our walk.