The People's Feat: Monuments of the Great Patriotic War

Discussion in 'Soviet' started by Zoya, Apr 4, 2008.

  1. Zoya

    Zoya Partisan

    From the exhibition: THE ANNALS OF THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR REFLECTED IN WAR MEMORIALS

    "YOUR NAME IS UNKNOWN, BUT YOUR FEAT IS IMMORTAL"
    [​IMG]

    The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier near the Kremlin wall. Here the remains of an Unknown Soldier, transferred from a common grave 41 km down the Moscow-Leningrad highway, were put to rest. A dozen of marble urns contain sacred earth from the hero-cities and from the fortress of Brest. The memorial was unveiled on May 8, 1967. The authors are sculptor N. Tomsky and architects D. Burdin, V. Klimov, Y. Rabayev and M. Shvekhman.

    "THIRST"
    [​IMG]

    The Great Patriotic War broke out on June 22, 1941 at the ancient fortress of Brest. Here fierce battles flared on for about a month before the fortress fell to the superior enemy. Within hours after Nazi troops crossed the Soviet border, the fortress's 3.5-thousand-strong defenders were surrounded by Germans. Despite lack of food, water, medicines and ammunition, they managed to hold back a whole division supported by artillery, tanks and combat aviation. They rebuffed the enemy attacks and launched successful counterattacks. In 1970 the fortress was transformed into a war magnificent memorial. Avove is Thirst - a sculptural composition depicting one of the episodes of the fortress's defense. The sculptors are A. Kibalnikov, A. Bembel.

    "MOTHERLAND WILL NEVER FORGET HER SONS"
    [​IMG]

    Dominating the entry to Zelenograd 41 km away from Moscow is a war memorial to Moscow defenders. The monumental bronze wreath bears an inscription: "Motherland will never forget her sons". Architects are I. Pokrovsky and Y. Sverdlovsky, and sculptors A. Shteiman and E. Shteiman-Derevyanko.

    More to come...
     
  2. Zoya

    Zoya Partisan

    [​IMG]

    During the battle for Moscow, Political instructor Vasily Klochkov-Diev tied a rope of grenades round his waist and saying "Russia is large, but there is no place to retreat. Moscow is behind us." threw himself under one of the tanks. Other soldiers followed suit. When the battle was over, there were only 5 survivors.
    30 years later their feat was immortalized in war a memorial: 6 soldiers of different nationalities stand amid a vast field. In front of them is a band of concrete slabs symbolizing a cordon the enemy was unable to cross. Sculptors: N. Lyubimov, A. Postol, and V. Fedorov, architects: V. Datyuk, Y. Krivuschenko and I. Stepanov, and engineer: S. Khajibaronov.

    ANTI-TANK HEDGEHOGS
    [​IMG]

    a memorial to Moscow defenders. Erected in 1966 on the 23-d km down the Leningrad highway. Architects A. Mikhe, A. Agafonov, I. Yermishin, and engineer K. Mikhailov.

    A TRIBUTE TO LENINGRAD'S DEFENDERS
    [​IMG]

    A memorial to Leningrad's defenders on Victory Square. Erected on May 9, 1975. Sculptor: M. Anikushin, and architects: S. Speransky and V. Kamensky.
     
    tovarisch likes this.
  3. PaulE

    PaulE Senior Member

    The biggest and most impressive statue / monument i've ever seen " The Motherland " on the Mamayev Kurgan , Stalingrad.
     

    Attached Files:

  4. PaulE

    PaulE Senior Member

    Another one of Motherland and yes those ants at her feet are people !!! :)
     

    Attached Files:

  5. Zoya

    Zoya Partisan

    How did they make something so big???
    Magnificent!
     
  6. Zoya

    Zoya Partisan

    "THE SOLDIERS' FIELD"
    [​IMG]

    A memorial complex was erected near the Volgograd-Moscow highway. The remains of the soldiers killed in the fighting, which were found during the clearing operations, were buried in a communal grace. The shell hole next to the grave was filled with fragments of mines, shells, and grenades picked on the field. sculptors: L. Levin and A. Krivolapov.

    THE HEROIC DEFENDERS OF THE CAUCASUS
    [​IMG]

    The battle for the Caucasus (July 25, 1942 - October 9, 1943) ended in the crushing defeat of a major enemy grouping and disrupted the enemy's plans to wipe out Soviet troops in the Caucasus, capture the rich grain regions and oil deposits and penetrate the Middle East. In 1975 a monument was unveiled at the Elkhotovo Gates in honor of their defenders. Architect: Z. Kazbekov and sculptor: V. Totiev.

    TO THE HEROES OF THE BATTLE OF KURSK
    [​IMG]

    All along the line of fighting in 1943, between Oryol and Belgorod, stand monuments and obelisks to military glory. In 1954, on the 624th kilometer of the Moscow-Simferopol highway, not far from the settlement of Prokhorovka in Belgorod Region, the famed Soviet T-34 tank was established on a postament to commemorate the heroic tankers who had participated in the Battle of Kursk. 1973 saw the opening of a memorial complex. Architect: A. Bozhko, artists: V. Kozak, V. Leous and A. Grebenyuk.
     
  7. PaulE

    PaulE Senior Member

    A few facts and figures " Motherland " is 52 metres high and 5,500 tons of concrete and 2,400 tons of metal were used to build it, it was designed by scultor Yevgeni Vuchetich and took 8 years to build 1959 -1967.

    It is the high point " literally " of the memorial complex on the Mamayev Kurgan.

    Other monuments are

    Fight to the death and Generations will remember

    Paul
     

    Attached Files:

  8. Zoya

    Zoya Partisan

    They're great Paul!
    You've got to admit, the Soviets do these memorials so magnificently!
    Sometimes it seems we (as in the UK) are ashamed as a nation to be so patriotic in honouring our war dead :(
     
  9. Zoya

    Zoya Partisan

    TO THE HEROIC SOLDIERS WHO CRUSHED THE ENEMY ON THE DNIEPER RIVER
    [​IMG]

    During the battle for the Dnieper, in August-December 1943, the main units of the Nazi South army groups and part of the Center army groups suffered a crushing defeat. On November 26-29, 1943, Soviet troops forced a crossing over the Dnieper . On October 14, 1968, a monument - an eight-meter figure of a warrior on a pedestal imitating a log raft - was erected on the site where the crossing began. Sculptor: B. Rappoport and architect: Yu. Yegorov.

    LENINGRAD VICTIMS OF FAMINE
    [​IMG]

    The Piskaryovo memorial cemetery of St Petersburg, formerly known as Leningrad, is where more than 470,000 civilian victims of frost and famine, as well as Soviet troops, were buried in common graves in 1942 and 1943.

    ZHODINO MONUMENT
    [​IMG]

    I find this one really sad. A monument in the village of Zhodino which lies by the Moscow-Minsk highway honors Anastasiya Fominichna Kupriyanova who went down this highway to see five sons off to the front and waited there in vain to welcome them back home. The youngest of her sons - Pyotr - covered with his body the embrasure of an enemy fire emplacement. It is the youngest son who is looking back at his mother. Soviet troops who went to free Europe from the Nazi invasion took that same highway in 1944.
     
  10. PaulE

    PaulE Senior Member

    Yes the Russians do know how to do a monument and aren't afraid to make them as big as possible to remember the GPW.

    Over here in modern Britain we are to pc and frightened if we remember our dead we might offend somebody !!! The Russians clearly don't and have never given a fig for that sort of nonsense !!
     
  11. Za Rodinu

    Za Rodinu Hot air manufacturer

    A few facts and figures " Motherland " is 52 metres high and 5,500 tons of concrete and 2,400 tons of metal were used to build it, it was designed by scultor Yevgeni Vuchetich and took 8 years to build 1959 -1967.

    Steiner, that first photo you show is actually Marshal V.I.Chuikov's tomb, the only MSU awarded the honour to be buried elsewhere than the Kremlin's Wall, at the place of his victory.
     
  12. tovarisch

    tovarisch Discharged

    Zoya, my hat goes off to you. You've created a wonderful thread, I was starting to think nobody would take on the task of listing the memorials of the Great Patriotic War. Each and every one of them is a work of art, and a irremovable part of my country's national heritage.

    I've seen many of them, 'Rodina-Mat' on Mamayev Kurgan literally changed my life. As soon as I walked into the whole memorial complex I was in some sort of trance, in awe of not only the architectural feat, but the history and memory that the memorial was dedicated to. It was then and there that my interest for the Great Patriotic War really kicked off. Not many people in my country tend to take an interest in the war, the youth in particular, which I'm part of. Nobody wants to discuss it even briefly. They just want to forget... But by forgetting they'll dishonour the deeds of their grandfathers.

    "For our tomorrow they gave their today" probably sums it all up. By forgetting they forget 27 million Soviet lives that are now lying at peace in the fields of Europe and Russia. By forgetting they'll forget the sacrifice committed by the 'greatest generation'. The list just goes on..

    It's due to those memorials that the nation remembers and honours the GPW, the deeds and memory of the servicemen and civilians which fell victim to one man's insane theories and ambitions.

    Thank you so very, very much.
     
  13. James Daly

    James Daly Senior Member

    Great thread. I'll never forget visiting the Soviet War Memorial in Treptower Park in Berlin. It really impressed on me how secular monuments can be incredibly moving - I think there is something about Communist art, sculpture, architecture etc that really puts across the scale of things. The Soviets sure knew how to build monuments and memorials.
     
  14. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    Seems a good place to re-post my photos of the Soviet Memorial in Budapest.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  15. tovarisch

    tovarisch Discharged

    Did you take the pics yourself? They're really good quality photos, so I was just wondering.
     
  16. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

  17. tovarisch

    tovarisch Discharged

    That's a really good park, that. I love the way they integrated the hammer and sickle into the logo, and they made a playground around the artillery guns :) I'd love to go there, but it's in Lithuania :) Highly unlikely :)
     
  18. civvie

    civvie Member

    It's very pleasing to see these photos and, to my eye, great to see artists and architects producing genuinely heroic works in the service of their society.

    But I understand from the UK's BBC and The Guardian newspaper that 'Motherland' - the world's biggest statue of a person - is starting to lean and may be in danger of collapse. The problem was said to arise from changing groundwater conditions beneath the statue which simply rests on its plinth. Are these reports correct and, if so, are engineers trying to find a solution?
     
  19. tovarisch

    tovarisch Discharged

    The Guardian was, obviously, correct. The statue has started inclining since 1966, and the total lean now is about 21 cm. The original architect said that the maximum incline cannot go past 27 cm. There's still a while to go before it reaches that kind of tilt, but geodesic experts are already cracking away at the problem. They've got plenty of time before it reaches a critical stage.

    They say they've already found 2 or 3 possible solutions, however, there will be a problem in financing the repairs. The government shelled out 162 million roubles for the renewal of the whole memorial complex back in 2008, and a contractor was already hired for the execution of various repairs.

    Everything was going well, until the director of the contracting firm overpriced the granite needed for rebuilding the base of the statue, and made a tidy profit of 3 900 000 roubles.

    The actual fundament restructuring will start in 2012. Approximately 220 million roubles will be needed for the whole job to be done, and a year before work on the project starts a complex geodesic, hydrogeologic and engineering analysis has to be carried out. It is still in progress, it started in the summer of 2009.

    Does that answer your question :D
     
  20. civvie

    civvie Member

    Yes, almost to the last shovel of concrete - thank you:)

    Here in the UK our war memorials are generally small-scale, conservative in style and carefully integrated into their environment. The British memorials I know of have a kind of quietness and none of the epic drama of 'Motherland'. The only UK statue I know of with a faintly comparable impact is Antony Gormley's 20-metre 'Angel of The North' on a Tyneside hill-top, but it's a memorial to our former industrial north-east and not a war memorial.

    I would have thought that, if money is a problem, 'Motherland's restoration would be a suitable cause for an international appeal fund.
     

Share This Page