Monument to 1200 guardsmen in Kaliningrad - a memorial , mass grave and a monument to the soldiers of the 11th Guards Army who died during the assault on Koenigsberg (now Kaliningrad ). The monument to 1200 guardsmen in Kaliningrad was unveiled on September 30, 1945 and became one of the first memorials erected in honor of the fallen and in honor of the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War .
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| Monument to 1200 Guardsmen | |
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| Status |  An object of cultural heritage of the peoples of the Russian Federation of federal significance. Reg. No. 391610572650006 ( EGROKN ). (Wikigid database) |
Architects - I. D. Melchakov and S. S. Nanushyan, sculptors - P. Vaivada , B. Petrauskas, B. Pundzius , R. Jakimavičius , K. Yaroshchunas, Konstantinas Bogdanas , who worked under the direction of Juozas Mikenas .
The memorial is located on the section of Guards Avenue, closed to traffic. The avenue section adjacent to the monument is a traditional venue for military parades .
Content
History
According to Soviet data, the total losses of the troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front from April 1 to 10, 1945, which conducted active hostilities during this period during the assault on Koenigsberg - 3,700 people were killed [1] .
In Königsberg, which had not yet cooled down from the fighting, the construction of the monument began, which was to adequately exalt the feat of soldiers and become the eternal memory of the grateful Motherland about its defenders who went into immortality. The Military Council of the 11th Guards Army, on the initiative of Colonel General Colonel K. N. Galitsky, decided to erect a monument. Former architects, sculptors, painters, poets were selected from units of yesterday’s infantrymen, tankmen , artillerymen , sappers .
They were entrusted with a responsible task: to think over what a monument should be, to select expressive means that would fully glorify the courage of Soviet soldiers in their just, heroic struggle against fascism . They drew sketches, built mock-ups, wrote lines of epitaph full of pride and sadness. Created by them served as the basis for further work on the monument.
To finalize the project, Moscow architects I. Melchakov and F. Narushyan were invited, as well as a group of Lithuanian sculptors led by Yu. Mykenas. Arriving immediately connected to work. The intense creative process went in close contact with the direct participants in the battle.
Given the tight deadlines, it was decided to apply both classical architectural elements and the new that appeared in monumental art, while making maximum use of nearby objects and topographic elements of the area.
In the final version of the project, three components of the memorial were identified: an obelisk , two sculptural groups and a memorial wall. They were supplemented by bas-reliefs, epitaphs, gravestones, wreaths, busts. The construction acquired the character of an architectural and sculptural ensemble. After a lot of preparatory work, on the eve of Victory Day, May 8, 1945, the commander of the 11th Guards Army issued an order saying: “In order to perpetuate the memory of soldiers and commanders who died in battles with Nazi invaders outside the city of Konigsberg, to build according to the approved sketches, a monument and reburial of soldiers ... ". The Guard of Colonel M.S. Bevzo was appointed the head of construction, the chief engineer - engineer-captain N.M. Zakhvatkin. The general leadership, control and assistance in the construction was entrusted to Colonel M.G. Grigorenko, Chief of the Army Engineering Troops, Hero of the Soviet Union Guard, who had to solve many technical problems associated with the construction of the memorial, including conducting hydrological research of the area. A site was chosen for the monument, located away from noisy highways, quiet, calm, with dense green outfit, less affected by the fighting than others.
The monument to 1200 guardsmen [2] became the first Soviet monument in Königsberg (which had not yet been renamed Kaliningrad ) and, in general, the first memorial commemorating the feat of Soviet soldiers who fell in the Great Patriotic War . The decision to create it was made by the military council of the 11th Guards Army in early May 1945 . The order for the reburial of the fallen soldiers in the mass grave was signed on May 8, 1945, by Colonel General K. N. Galitsky [3] . The grand opening of the monument took place on September 30, 1945. In 1946, the sculptural groups "Storm" and "Victory" were installed.
On May 9, 1960, an eternal flame was lit in front of the obelisk.
In 1961 , after the 20th Congress of the CPSU , the image of I. Stalin (it was present on the drawing of the medal “For Victory over Germany ”) was obstructed from the obelisk and replaced with a depiction of the reverse of the medal. Also, the name of Stalin was removed under his quote "Our cause is just, we won."
In preparation for the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Victory in World War II, in 1995, an Orthodox chapel was built in memory of the dead Soviet soldiers on the cover of the Ausfal Gate (located in the immediate vicinity of the monument) [4] .
In 2000, behind the monument, where there was another military burial site, a small Victory Park was built, and in 2005, as part of the federal target program for the development of the Kaliningrad region , the monument was restored , during which the profile of Stalin and his last name were returned to their original place .
Currently, by order of the Agency of the main manager of the budget funds of the Kaliningrad region, the second phase of Victory Park is being created.
Monument composition
The monument is an oval-shaped square adjacent to the Guards Avenue. Closer to the center of the square, the dominant of the monument is installed - an obelisk with a base in the shape of a five-pointed star . There are seven stone belts with epitaphs on the obelisk. In front of the obelisk, the Eternal Flame burns. On three sides not adjacent to the avenue, the area is bordered by a low wall of rusted granite blocks, along it are four white marble tombstones with the names of the buried soldiers. In a row with marble tombstones on the wall on pedestals are bronze busts of Heroes of the Soviet Union S. S. Guryev and S. I. Poletsky [5] and two commemorative obelisks in honor of the Hero of the Soviet Union A. A. Sergeyev and nurse E. B Kovalchuk . Sixteen bas - reliefs and marble slabs with the names of the fallen are placed on the wall. From both ends there are pedestals adjoining the wall, on which the sculptural compositions “Storm” and “Victory” are installed, bronze , 1946 (the sculptor Yu. Mikenas was awarded the Stalin Prize for the sculptural composition “Victory”).
The obelisk is 26 meters high. The obelisk is pentahedral, its faces are covered with reliefs with images of orders and medals , weapons, battle scenes [6] .
Notes
- ↑ Alexander Katerusha. Storm of Koenigsberg in numbers: They won not by number, but by skill . Komsomolskaya Pravda (May 10, 2012). Date of treatment January 7, 2013. Archived January 20, 2013.
- ↑ Actually, in the mass graves at the memorial and behind the bridge connecting the main memorial with its second part, much more than 1,200 people were buried. The remains of some soldiers moved to this memorial in the post-war period in connection with the discovery of unaccounted burials or the abolition of some small burials (for example, with the burial in the courtyard of secondary school No. 16).
- ↑ Monuments to the fallen soldiers of other armies participating in the assault on Koenigsberg are located in other places of the city. In front of one of them, on Komsomolskaya Street, an eternal flame also burns.
- ↑ Avenir Ovsyanov. "In the casemates of the royal fort." Kaliningrad Amber Tale Publishing House, 1999.
- ↑ Sergey Ivanovich Poletsky was born in 1907 in the Moldavian city of Bender . In the army since 1928, he graduated from the Odessa Artillery School. At the front since 1941 . Colonel , commander of artillery of the 16th Guards Rifle Corps of the 11th Guards Army. Awarded 4 orders. Died May 15, 1945 from wounds received in Pillau . He was buried at the memorial to 1200 guardsmen, a street in Kaliningrad was named after him.
- ↑ Ilyina, Tatyana Valerianovna. Soviet art of the mid 40s - late 50s // Art History: Domestic Art. The textbook . - 3. - M .: Higher. school, 2000 .-- 405 s. - (Art History). - ISBN 5060037053 .