The Great Patriotic War left an indelible mark on the history of Russia. The victory in it, achieved over a strong, skillful and cruel enemy, is rightfully our national pride. At the same time, recalling these difficult years, honoring war veterans, we bow our heads to the blessed memory of the great many of its victims. Indeed, during the war there were practically no families left that did not lose a loved one.
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Of course, in many cities and villages of Russia, monuments have been erected to perpetuate the feat of our people. Among them there are grandiose monumental complexes, which are a real masterpiece of art, and modest monuments on the mass graves of soldiers. They remind new generations for whom the war has a long history, at what cost the great Victory was won.
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Perhaps the most famous war memorial not only in Russia but throughout the world is the monumental complex "Tomb of the Unknown Soldier" in the Alexander Garden of Moscow near the Kremlin walls. It is not the largest, but executed with impeccable harmonious rigor. The eternal flame escaping from the center of the five-pointed star, behind it is a granite pedestal on which lie a banner inclined as a sign of grief, a soldier's helmet and a laurel branch. To the left of the eternal flame is a wall with the inscription: "To the fallen for their homeland." The dates of the beginning and end of the war are also indicated there. On the right is a majestic granite alley on which stone blocks with the name of hero cities are installed at regular intervals. Each of these blocks contains a capsule with the earth brought from the hero city. A continuation of the alley is a red granite stele on which the names of cities of military glory are immortalized.
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A monument of grand scale and grandeur is located in the hero city of Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad), where one of the greatest battles of the war took place. Its main element, mounted on the Mamaev Kurgan, is a huge figure of a woman with a raised sword in her right hand. The height of the figure is 52 meters, the length of the sword is 33 meters. This sculpture is called "Motherland Calls." At its foot, according to the will, the former commander of the 62nd Army, who bore the brunt of the fighting in the city - V.I. Chuykov.
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The feat of warriors and residents of besieged Leningrad, who survived the most terrible trials that can be imagined, is commemorated by the memorial complex at Piskarevsky cemetery in present-day St. Petersburg. The exact number of victims buried in mass graves at the Piskarevsky cemetery is still unknown, but most historians believe that there were about half a million people.
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The center of the architectural and sculptural ensemble is a bronze figure of a woman symbolizing the Motherland. A mourning stele with high reliefs stretches on both sides of it, which depicts the most dramatic episodes of the blockade of the city.
