Tragedy of nations

The sculptural composition was created by Zurab Tsereteli and installed in Victory Park near the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War in 1997.

The construction of the memorial began in 1996, when the first sculpture of a man appeared. The work was carried out openly for public viewing, and critical press opinions immediately appeared from those to whom the memorial seemed scary and inappropriate. However, the work continued and was completed by May 9, 1996. However, before the installation of the monument was completed, people began to bear flowers at its foot, and on the eve of Victory Day, ambassadors of the states formerly former Soviet republics laid flowers at the monument.

Nevertheless, a campaign was launched against the memorial in the press, which ultimately led to the dismantling of the sculpture composition and moving it to another place - to the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War. Here in 1997 the monument was solemnly opened.

In September 2014, an action of grief took place near the memorial, related to the discovery in Donbas of the mass burial of civilians who died during the war in Eastern Ukraine ^[1]

The composition is a gray endless string of people made of granite: men, women, old people and young people, children. They are all alike, bare, with shaven heads and hands doomed with their hands down in line for death. The first three figures: mother, father and teenage son, whose time to die has already come, but the woman closes the child's eyes, and the man tries to protect his chest with a palm. Behind them are other figures waiting for their fate. The following figures in the string are depicted more and more schematically, they are rolled back further merge with stones and granite steles, as if turning into gravestones. On these steles in the languages ​​of the peoples of the USSR one inscription is carved:

May the memory of them be sacred, may it continue for ages

Nearby on the ground are various household items taken from prisoners: clothes, shoes, books, toys.

• M. Chegodaeva. Zurab Tsereteli "The Tragedy of the Nations" (Rus.) . Russian Academy of Arts. The appeal date is July 31, 2016.
• Monument The Tragedy of the Nations on Poklonnaya Hill (Rus.) . MosGid. The appeal date is July 31, 2016.
• Leo Kolodny. Heart on the palette - Artist Zurab Tsereteli. 10. “TRAGEDY OF PEOPLES” (Rus.) . Library nnre.ru. The appeal date is July 31, 2016.