Ukrainians, read: What is happening to Soviet monuments in Germany
Modern Berlin is a dynamic, cosmopolitan metropolis, the massive glass and concrete building in the center, where the Berlin Wall once ran, should show the political significance of the city in the modern world. Berlin is what many call the political capital of the European Union. Germany, the richest and most influential country in the EU, has spared no expense in the creation and reconstruction of federal government buildings.
However, there is another Berlin, which is filled with symbols and architecture of another era: Karl Marx Alley (formerly Stalin Alley), many buildings in East Berlin, remind the citizens of Germany of the period in the life of the country when it was divided between the victors.
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Separately, it is worth noting two large Soviet memorials, one located in West Berlin, the other in East Berlin.
The memorial in the city's largest park, Tiergarten, was created by order of the military commandant of Berlin by soldiers of the Red Army immediately after the end of the great war. This majestic monument is located near the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag building and the office of the Federal Chancellor. It was opened on November 11, 1945. The project was created by sculptors Lev Kerbel and Vladimir Tsigal. Previously, Hitler's favorite architect Albert Speer planned to create an alley of heroes here, which was supposed to glorify active figures of the Nazi regime. However, by that time Speer had already been arrested and was preparing to appear before the Nuremberg Tribunal, which later sentenced him to a long prison term. Thus, other specialists were already involved in the architectural arrangement of the Tiergarten.
The main entrance to the monument is flanked by two Soviet T-34 tanks. It is believed that during the bloody assault on Berlin in May 1945, they were the first to break into the city. Two cannons were installed a little behind; legend says that it was they who, with their volleys, proclaimed the victorious end of the battle for Berlin. Whether this is true or not, we, of course, are unlikely to know. However, after years, this does not seem so important.
On two stone sarcophagi are the names of officers who fell in Berlin between April 14 and May 1, 1945, and who were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
The central place of the Soviet monument is the colonnades located at the highest point. The inscriptions on them tell about the different branches of the Red Army troops, and the names of the dead soldiers are listed.
The figure of a Red Army soldier rises above the monument. He holds a weapon on his shoulder, which, according to the architects, was supposed to symbolize the end of the war. The soldier’s left hand is extended over his fallen comrades, who have found their peace in the soil of Berlin, at the foot of the monument.
There are two fountains nearby; Berlin guides tell numerous tourists that they represent the tears shed by the peoples of the Soviet Union in the great war.
It should be noted that from the day of its creation until today, the monument has been in perfect condition. When the territory on which it is located went to West Berlin, which was formally an independent state, but was actually governed by the self-proclaimed Federal Republic of Germany, not recognized for a long time by the Soviet Union, the monument was maintained by the city mayor’s office in its original form, despite crises in international relations.
Only after the reunification of Germany in 1990 did voices begin to be heard that the monument was too militant. Some Berliners and city politicians have begun a campaign to rebuild the memorial, with the goal of removing tanks and guns. However, the majority of city residents, and at the same time the mayor’s office, believed that the monument should be preserved in its original form.
Given its proximity to the tourist center, groups of foreign tourists often come here and willingly take their photos here.
French schoolchildren near the Soviet monument
There is another monument in the east of Berlin. In one of the most beautiful places in Berlin, Treptow Park, opened to the public in 1888, a monument was built that was supposed to perpetuate the memory of Soviet soldiers who died outside their homeland. Also in the park, about 22 thousand soldiers who died during the storming of Berlin found their peace.
In 1946, the Soviet occupation administration announced a competition for the design of the monument. The strict requirement of the competition commission was that the monument should focus not on the victory of the Red Army, but on the liberation of Europe from Nazism. Thus, it originally had a different idea than the memorial in Tirgaten.
The winner of the competition was the project of a creative team led by the architect Yakov Belopolsky and the famous Soviet sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich. Engineer officers and sapper soldiers realized the creative concept. The best German companies provided materials and carried out various contracts during the construction of the monument.
The entrance to the park and the monument is framed by massive granite arches. Here you can see the Motherland bowed down in tears. The passage to the central part of the monument is framed by a rare species of trees, the so-called weeping birches. Their branches, bent to the ground, should symbolize the grief of countless losses.
Next, visitors to the monument pass through two giant red flags made of red marble and enter a military cemetery where mass graves are located. Next to them you can see 16 sarcophagi (according to the number of 16 Soviet republics, yes, many no longer remember, but at that time there were exactly 16 of them).
Quotes from Joseph Stalin are engraved on the sarcophagi.
The prototype of the main character of the monument, which crowns the entire composition, was the Soviet soldier Nikolai Masalov, who, by the way, lived a long and happy life and left us only in 2001.
The story, told later by Marshal of the Soviet Union Vasily Chuikov, says that during the storming of the Reich Chancellery, soldiers heard the screams of a little girl bending over her murdered mother. Masalov, under the covering fire of the Soviet battery, carried the girl out of the danger zone in his arms. He himself was wounded in the process.
Two years after Masalov’s death, in 2003, a memorial plaque was erected on the Potsdam Bridge in the city center at the site of those events. Later, during the investigation of Nazi crimes, it was found that the Nazis did not allow civilians to leave the city doomed to military defeat.
Because of this policy, many civilians died during the assault. Several dozen cases were recorded and documented when Soviet soldiers saved German children in a zone of fierce fighting.
The sculpture of the warrior itself stands on the hill and the crypt crowning it. Any visitor will be struck by the deep religious essence of the interior decoration of the crypt. The mosaic plot has both Christian and pagan motifs. Representatives of 16 republics are represented there at a symbolic ceremony to honor the memory of all fallen brothers and sisters. And the famous figure of a Soviet soldier, with a rescued child in his arms and a sword lowered over a destroyed swastika, symbolizes the defeat of Nazism.
Wreath from local authorities
It should also be noted that Vuchetich’s creative idea went far beyond Berlin. The monument in Treptower Park became part of a majestic triptych. Its first part, the monument called “Rear to Front,” is located in Magnitogorsk (it was in this city that every second shell for the Red Army was produced) and symbolizes the feat of the home front workers who ensured victory. In the sculpture, a worker hands a sword to a Soviet soldier. It is implied that this sword of victory, forged by our rear troops in the Urals, was later raised by the Motherland in Stalingrad.
This famous sculptural composition is well known to most of our readers. It was near Stalingrad that the pearl of the war came, and the Nazis rolled back.
The third monument depicts the moment when the sword was lowered over the defeated enemy in Berlin and symbolizes the transition to peaceful life. Vuchetich later embodied his hopes for a peaceful and better life in New York in his famous monument, which symbolizes the beating of swords into ploughshares.
However, this monument does not belong to the indicated triptych.
Soon after its construction, the monument in Treptower Park was transferred to the balance of the city authorities of Berlin and is still maintained by the mayor's office in perfect condition. Every visitor can be convinced of the incredible care of the entire complex.
The monument is a favorite walking place for couples and students. However, tens of thousands of people come here for memorable dates, and although many of them come from the former USSR, the monument still enjoys considerable respect among the Germans. There was never any talk of demolition or any changes to the monument. The Germans very strictly honor historical memory and believe that Nazism should never happen again.
This policy and attitude led to the fact that on the pediments of the sarcophagi facing the center of the monument, quotes from Stalin were preserved, which survived de-Stalinization in the USSR, the unification of Germany, and the collapse of the Union.
By the way, for many Berliners this is also the place where they were accepted as pioneers...
Pushkin Alley in East Berlin, turning right takes you to Treptower Park
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