WWII monument in Berlin. Liberator warrior in Berlin

Berlin's second largest park is a witness to many events that took place in Germany and Europe during the century. Situated on the river bank of the Spree, it remembers the calm, halcyon times, and the exciting rallies of anti-fascists, the inspired speeches of Clara Zetkin, the brutal episodes of the Second World War and the collapse of Hitler’s plans. Now Treptower Park in the imagination of the whole world is associated with the Memorial to Soviet soldiers who liberated Europe from the fascist plague.

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Even F.I. Tyutchev, while in the diplomatic service in Germany, noted how much attention the Germans pay to gardens and other green spaces, how carefully they preserve the flora and increase it. This was Gustav Mayer, according to whose design Treptower Park was created on the site of the former Boucher apple orchard. A talented designer, who cares about the prosperity of the city, planned the unique territory of the future park and put a lot of effort into bringing the project to life. He did not live to see the opening of the park in 1888, taking part only in its foundation, but Mayer’s landscape design was completely preserved. Already in the 50s of the 20th century, a magnificent garden of roses (25 thousand bushes) and sunflowers was laid out.

Treptower Park – a favorite leisure spot

Beautiful alleys, ponds, fountains, a rose garden, and sports grounds are located here in accordance with the design of the landscape engineer. As a sign of grateful memory, his bust, with his head raised, as if peering into the park perspective, was installed under the canopy of trees, in a cozy corner of one of the alleys. After the opening, the townspeople immediately fell in love with the park, where you can stroll under the shade of spreading linden and oak trees, ride boats along the Spree, eat ice cream in a cafe, and feed the fish in the pond. Various competitions and competitions were organized on sports grounds. Revolutionary fighters for freedom and justice gathered here, speeches by German Marxists were heard, and the feminist-minded Clara Zetkin proclaimed the idea of holding Women's Day.

It is no coincidence that this place was chosen to perpetuate the grateful memory of the Soviet liberating soldiers who cleansed Europe of the vices of fascism.

Soldiers' Memorial

Created by the joint efforts of architects, sculptors and designers, the memorial complex in honor of the Russian soldier is the largest and most majestic military monument outside of Russia. In terms of worldwide fame and scale, it is not inferior to the Mamayev Kurgan memorial in Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad). Treptower Park is a sacred place for both Russians and Europeans, because almost 7,000 Soviet soldiers who died in the battles for Berlin are buried in its soil. Where, if not here, above the sacrificial ashes of the saviors of a foreign country, is destined to stand a grandiose structure, personifying in granite the ideas of humanism and the victory of good over evil?!

A brief history of the creation of the Treptower Park Memorial

When the site of the complex was approved, the government of the USSR promulgated a decree on the competitive creation of the best project, which resulted in the work of the architect Yakov Belopoltsev and the young sculptor Evgeniy Vuchetich. Large-scale work has begun on the selected site of the park and on the sculptural creations of the memorial. 60 German sculptors, 200 stonemasons, and 1,200 ordinary workers were mobilized. Granite from the former Hitler's Reich Chancellery was widely used in the construction of the memorial. For the main sculpture of a Soviet warrior, with a sword in one hand and a little girl in the other, among the SA soldiers, Vuchetich chose the prototype of a warrior in the person of Sergeant Nikolai Masalov, who in fact saved a German girl who found herself in a tragic situation during shelling.

History of the monument to the Soldier-Liberator

A three-year-old child cried over his murdered mother, and the soldiers heard this sad cry coming from the destroyed house in the intervals between artillery salvos. Masalov, according to the memoirs of Marshal Chuikov, risking being killed, rushed into the ruins and pulled out the trembling girl. During the rescue operation he was injured. In the memoirs of the soldiers who liberated Berlin, similar incidents were mentioned more than once, so an impressive monument to the warrior-savior of children is fully justified. Two more athletic men served as models for the sculptor: Ivan Odarchenko and Viktor Gunaz, a German girl and the daughter of the commandant of Berlin, Sveta Kotikova, who later replaced her.

Sculptural symbols of the main monument

The Memorial to the Soldier-Liberator is a symbol of a courageous soldier, a generalized image of a humane defender who is ready to sacrifice his life for the sake of a child’s life. The gesture of the soldier who nailed the fascist swastika with his sword is also symbolic, like St. George piercing the insidious Serpent with a spear. Moreover, the sculptor sculpted the sword by analogy with the authentic sword of Prince Vsevolod of Pskov, who won many victories over his enemies. On his sword, which has survived to this day, is embossed the inscription: “I will not yield my honor to anyone.” Vuchetich chose the prince’s sword, despite objections, as a symbol of Russian weapons, reliable defense of his native land, remembering the catchphrase: “Whoever comes to us with a sword will die by the sword.” The defenseless figure of a girl is also symbolic, trustingly clinging to the broad chest of a mighty warrior, designed to ensure the cloudless happiness of all children, regardless of nationality.

The monument is installed on a burial mound, on a high white pedestal, with a Memory and Grief Room located inside, in which there is a parchment folio in a scarlet velvet binding with the names of all those buried in the mass grave.

Unique interiors of the Memorial Room

The walls of the memorial room are covered with mosaic paintings depicting representatives of the fraternal republics laying memorial wreaths at the graves of fallen soldiers of different nationalities. But the room is always full of natural wreaths and flowers brought by Russian tourists and emigrants. The ceiling is decorated with a real work of applied art - a symbolic chandelier - the Order of Victory, made of magnificent rubies and rock crystal crystals sparkling with a diamond shine.

Sculptures-monuments of the memorial complex

A memorial field with 5 mass graves and marble sarcophagi opens up to the gaze of the granite warrior; with the Eternal Flame burning in granite bowls. The sad sarcophagi are engraved with excerpts from the statements of Stalin, the commander of the great Victory, which later caused objections from German officials. But their demand was considered unfounded and, according to the framework of the agreement, the words of the “father of nations” forever remained a spiritual part of the memorial.

At the entrance there is a symbolic gate in the form of two half-mast banners made of red granite, under which there are sculptural images of a young and an old soldier frozen in a mournful kneeling pose.

In front of the entrance there is an expressive sculpture “Grieving Mother”, when looking at it tears come to your eyes: so much hopeless grief and maternal love is captured in the stunningly alive figure of a woman with her head bowed mournfully. She “sits” with one hand pressed to her heart and the other leaning on the pedestal, as if looking for support in order to adequately endure the sad loss of her sons. The soul-disturbing “granite mother” symbolizes all the mothers of the world whose sons died in wars. An alley of Russian birch trees stretches on both sides of the memorial to the Soldier-Liberator as a symbolic connection between mother and soldier-son.

The sculpture of a mourning Soviet soldier is located on a pedestal of white granite slabs against the backdrop of an obelisk made of red granite. In the bronze figure of a warrior kneeling; in the lowered head and the removed helmet one can feel sadness for the fallen comrades and a mournful protest against the cruel senselessness of the war. But in the firm gesture of his hand, squeezing the lowered machine gun, in his entire courageous figure and inner restraint, one can feel the potential of a force that can be reborn if necessary.

Status of the Memorial

The grand opening of the grandiose Memorial complex took place on the eve of Victory Day on May 9, 1949 in the presence of representatives of the official authorities of the Soviet Union and Germany, participants in the liberation of Berlin. Hundreds of Berliners came to Treptower Park on this day to worship the ingenious sculptural sculptures that embodied the tragedy of the war and the greatness of the Victory. Soon, an agreement was concluded between the states without a statute of limitations, according to which the memorial was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Berlin authorities.

The agreements oblige them to maintain proper order, carry out the necessary restoration work, and not change anything on the memorial square without agreement with representatives of the USSR. Not long ago, the monument to the soldier-liberator was restored, and perfect order is maintained around. Nowadays, mostly Russians, Jews living in Germany, Russian tourists and anti-fascists from all over the world come here on memorable dates. When visiting the Memorial, the words of Robert Rozhdestvensky come to mind: “People, remember, in years, in centuries, remember, so that this never happens again, remember!”

Treptower Park today

It continues to live its measured life: in spring, summer and early autumn, attractions still operate here, tourists and local audiences stroll along the cozy alleys. Parents come with their children, for whom there is a playground with dizzying slides, entertaining towers and other attractions. There are many people who want to take boat trips on the water surface of the Spree: boats are rented at the park’s boat station.

Archenhold Observatory

and Berliners enjoy visiting the local Archenhold Observatory, where a powerful telescope with strong lenses is installed. This is the oldest and largest public observatory in Berlin, the opening of which was timed to coincide with the traveling industrial exhibition on May 1, 1896. At first it was a wooden building with a telescope housed in it. In 1908, the dilapidated building was removed and an impressively sized, solid building of classical architecture was built.

Einstein gave his first report on the theory of relativity on June 2, 1915. Later, the observatory turned into a whole complex equipped with modern equipment due to the attached buildings of the planetarium, lecture hall and educational buildings. Together with the German Technical Museum, the observatory holds educational and entertainment events, public lectures, and extramural planetary trips.

Previously, the famous monument in Berlin's Treptow Park was written about in the material: “A warrior with a child in his arms.” There will also be an addition about the soldier who became the prototype of this monument, about his combat biography, and how his post-war fate developed. And also a little about how the search for information about the rescued German girl ended.

Nikolai Masalov was born in 1922 in the village of Voznesenka, Tisulsky district. He was born into a family of eternal workers of the land, immigrants from the Kursk province, who moved to Siberia in search of a better life. Nikolai Masalov’s grandfather, great-grandfather and father were hereditary blacksmiths, whose skills were highly valued throughout the area. The family had many children, so when the time came to defend the Motherland, four Masalov brothers went to war. Andrei reached Europe with heavy artillery, Vasily became a tank driver, Mikhail fought in the border troops on the northern fronts, Nikolai was a gunner at Stalingrad in a mortar company. Nikolai was drafted by the Tisulsky district military registration and enlistment office of the Tomsk district of the Novosibirsk region in December 1941. Masalov like many Tisul conscripts, he ended up in the 1045th Infantry Regiment. Here he underwent combat training in the military specialty of mortar operator. On March 16, 1942, the 284th Rifle Division began moving into the defense zone of the Bryansk Front. From April 16 to May 18, 1942, the division's formations were located at the line in the area of the village. Melevoye (now the border territories of the Pokrovsky and Verkhovsky districts of the Oryol region. At the end of May, the division was transferred to the area of the city of Kastornoye, where it began creating an anti-tank unit. In total, as of July 1, 1942, the division had 84 mortars of 50-mm, 82-mm calibers mm and 120-mm mortarman Nikolai Masalov received his baptism of fire in the area of the Kastornaya station in the Kursk region from July 1 to July 5, 1942. After July 5, units of the division made their way from the encirclement in columns and small groups to the north, to Yelets, for more than a week. July Masalov N.I. was wounded for the first time. On the 20th of July, units of the division fought at the Perekopovka-Ozerki line, 80 km from Voronezh.

From August 2 to September 17, the 284th Infantry Division was in reserve in the city of Krasnoufimsk, Sverdlovsk Region, where it was staffed with Pacific sailors and reserves. On September 17, the 284th Infantry Division was included in the 62nd Army. On the night of September 20-21, Masalov crossed the Volga to Stalingrad. The regiments' task was to capture the railway station opposite Gogol Street. As a result of fierce battles, the 1045th cavalry regiment took up positions in the Krutoy ravine area. On November 11-15, 1942, the 1045th rifle regiment fought in the southern part of the Barrikady plant. From the end of November 1942 to mid-January 1943, he fought on Mamayev Kurgan, where on January 21, 1943 he received his second wound. For the battles in Stalingrad, by Decree of December 22, 1942, Masalov, among other soldiers, was awarded the medal “For the Defense of Stalingrad.”

On March 1, 1943, the 284th Infantry Division was given the honorary name of the Guards and it became known as the 79th Guards. Red Banner Division. The division's formations received guards numbering on April 05. The 1045th joint venture became known as the 220th Guards. During this period, N.I. Masalov applied for admission to the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). Participated in all operations involving the 79th Guards Infantry Division. Corporal Masalov N.I. received his second award - the medal “For Courage” - who was loading a mortar battery of a battery of 120-mm guard mortars by order of the 220th Guards Regiment of January 29, 1944 with the wording “... in the battles for the settlement of Sofievka, Nikopol region, his crew destroyed : one heavy machine gun, two bunkers, two wagons with ammunition and up to 15 enemy soldiers. I killed 7 Nazis with my personal weapon—a rifle.” After the liberation of Odessa, in one of the battles near Lublin, on July 22, 1944, Masalov was wounded for the third and last time during the war. From July 1944 to January 1945, the 79th Guards Rifle Division was located at the Magnushevsky bridgehead south of Warsaw. During the Vistula-Oder operation of the 8th Guards. the army captured a bridgehead on the western bank of the river. Oder in the region of Küstrin (modern Kostrzyn, Polish). Masalov N.I. received maximum awards during the Berlin offensive operation. By order of the 220th Guards Regiment of April 20, 1945, senior sergeant Masalov, a machine gunner in a company of machine gunners of a guard regiment, was awarded the medal “For Military Merit.” The wording was as follows: “... when taking a settlement by storm. Sachsendorf April 15, 1945 Comrade. Masalov, with the regimental banner in his hands, walked ahead of the combat units going to attack the enemy, dragging the fighters along with him.” By order of the 79th Guards SD dated May 7, 1945, he was awarded the Order of Glory, 3rd degree. The award sheet stated: “...in the battles for the settlement. Sachsendorf on the western bank of the Oder River on April 16, 1945, acting as part of a rifle unit, during an assault on enemy trenches, he was one of the first to break into enemy trenches, where he threw grenades at the enemy machine gun crew, killing four German soldiers. Besides. killed 9 Nazis with a machine gun. In total, 13 Nazis were destroyed in this battle.”

Parents received soldier’s triangles from their sons: “Alive, healthy, I’m beating the fascist bastard. Don't worry". The boys even reported wounds and concussions after treatment in hospitals. Letters also came from the commanders of the units where the sons served, letters of gratitude. They were kept by their mother, and then, many years after the war, by Nikolai’s wife.

« Dear Ivan Efimovich!

Our guards unit is celebrating the third anniversary of its existence. During the years of the Patriotic War, we went through a long victorious battle path from the Volga to the Vistula, liberating thousands of villages and dozens of cities of our Soviet land from the Nazi monsters. The Motherland adequately appreciated our military merits, awarding our unit with three orders - the Order of Suvorov, the Red Banner, and Bogdan Khmelnitsky. We received a number of thanks from the Supreme Commander-in-Chief I.V. Stalin for skillful military actions to defeat the Nazi invaders. A direct participant in these glorious military affairs is a veteran of our unit, your son of the Guard, Senior Sergeant Nikolai Ivanovich Masalov. For the exemplary performance of combat missions of the command and the valor and courage shown at the same time, he was awarded the medals: “For the defense of Stalingrad”, “For courage”.

The command is proud of your son and greets you on the day of our anniversary, which we are now celebrating outside our Motherland on the approaches to the lair of the fascist beast. We wish you health and success in your work to help the front for the fastest and final defeat of the enemy. I shake your hand tightly.

Commander of the 39232nd Guard unit, Major General Vagin. 5.12.44».

In March 1942, the regiment in which Nikolai Masalov served received baptism of fire on the Bryansk Front, near Kastornaya.

The regiment escaped from the fiery ring of encirclement three times. We had to fight our way through with bayonets; we took care of every cartridge, every shell. The regiment did not run from the advancing enemy, it retreated slowly, unyieldingly responding fire to fire, blow to blow, in the Siberian style. The regiment emerged from encirclement in the Yelets area. In heavy battles, these warriors managed to preserve the banner that was handed to them in a distant Siberian city. However, the cost was human lives. Only five soldiers remained in Nikolai Masalov’s mortar company; all the rest died in the Bryansk forests.

After reorganization, the regiment became part of the legendary

62nd Army of General Chuikov. The Siberians steadfastly held their defense on Mamayev Kurgan. Nikolai Masalov's crew was twice covered with earth under the collapsed slopes of the dugout. Comrades found and dug them up.

N.I. Masalov recalls: “I defended Stalingrad from the first to the last day. The city turned to ashes from the bombings, and we fought in these ashes. Shells and bombs plowed everything around. Our dugout was covered with earth during the bombing. So we were buried alive. I can't breathe. We couldn’t get out on our own - a mountain had piled up on top. With all our strength we shout: “Battalion commander, dig it out!” At the entrance to the trench I shovel the earth under me, and the second one shovels further into the dugout. The dugout was more than half filled with earth, you could barely wring out your clothes, and the earth kept falling and falling on top. “There’s nowhere left to row,” the guy said, almost in a whisper, either to me or to himself. I stopped rowing and felt something cold crawling down my back. “It’s ridiculous how it turns out: after all, they’re alive and unharmed, even dying here like this. We couldn't come to terms with this. I pierce the ground with a ramrod, even higher. And so the ramrod went easily. "Saved, saved!" - I shout to my friend. Then the guys arrived and dug us out...”

For the battles in Stalingrad, the 220th Regiment received the Guards banner. At this time Nikolai Masalov was appointed assistant as a member of the banner platoon. Then he did not yet know that he, a guy from distant Siberia, would be destined to carry the battle flag all the way to Berlin.

And the regiment moved forward again. More and more soldiers came to replace the fallen soldiers. They crossed the Don, Northern Donets, Dnieper, and Dniester. Then there were the Vistula and Oder. The regiment won, but every victory was paid for at a high price, in the blood of Soviet soldiers. From the first regiment, only two entered Berlin: Sergeant Masalov, the regiment’s flag bearer, and Captain Stefanenko. During the war years, Nikolai Masalov had to look death in the eye more than once; he was wounded three times and shell-shocked twice. The soldier was especially seriously wounded near Lublin.

N.I. Masalov recalls: “...In an attack on a rye field, I fell under a heavy machine gun. He received two bullets in the leg and one in the chest. I’m lying deaf in the open sky, the sun is shining in my eyes, the little bread is nodding its head. It’s so quiet around, as if, exhausted from working on a tractor, I lay down to rest in my native field. It got dark. I think: they won’t find me here. He crawled as far as he could, stopping if his arms gave out. They picked me up in the morning.”

Overcoming the pain, he crawled all night, centimeter by centimeter approaching the location of his unit. A month and a half after the hospital, Nikolai Masalov was catching up with his regiment in passing vehicles, which was preparing to cross the Vistula. Here he was appointed flag bearer of the 220th Zaporozhye Guards Regiment, with whom he went through the entire war. For Nicholas and his comrades, the scarlet banner was more than just a banner, because it absorbed the blood of comrades shed in battles for the Motherland.

N.I. Masalov will remember: “On January 14, 1945, we went on the offensive. They broke through the Vistula with heavy fighting. We suffered heavy losses, but the enemy was knocked out of the trenches and driven west. Without stopping, we crossed the Polish-German border. They advanced day and night, without giving the enemy a moment's respite. We reached the Oder, immediately set up a pontoon crossing and moved on. However, on the approaches to the heavily fortified Seelow Heights, we got stuck.”

Before the decisive assault on Nazi fortifications, Nikolai Masalov received an order to carry the guards banner of the regiment through the trenches where the assault groups were concentrated. Under the cover of darkness, he walked solemnly, clearly imprinting his step. The heavy cloth fluttered in the wind. Soldiers rose towards the banner, saluting it. Bullets flew over the trench in a dense swarm, now in front of the standard bearer, now behind. Nikolai Masalov felt a heavy, ringing blow to his head. He swayed, but still, overcoming the pain, he walked on firmly and evenly. Already at the exit from the last trench, the standard bearer’s assistants fell, struck by enemy bullets... After the assault on the Seelow Heights, Nikolai Masalov was presented with the Order of Glory, he was awarded the next rank - senior sergeant. Marshal of the Soviet Union V.I. Chuikov in his book of memoirs “Assault” Berlin" wrote about Nikolai Masalov: "The combat biography of this warrior seems to reflect the entire combat path of the 8th Guards Army... It fell to his lot, like the lot of all army soldiers, to be on the main direction of attack of the German troops advancing to Stalingrad. Nikolai Masalov fought on the Mamayev Kurgan as a rifleman, then during the days of fighting on the Northern Donets he took up the trigger of a machine gun, during the crossing of the Dnieper he commanded a squad, and after the capture of Odessa he was appointed assistant commander of the commandant platoon. He was wounded at the Dniester bridgehead. And four months after crossing the Vistula, he walked to the Oder bridgehead with his head bandaged next to the banner.”

About the feat of saving a German girl.

IN APRIL 1945, the advanced units of the Soviet troops reached Berlin. The city found itself surrounded by fire. The 220th Guards Rifle Regiment advanced along the right bank of the Spree River, moving from house to house towards the imperial office. Street fighting went on day and night. Here the ordinary soldier in all his greatness rose to the pedestal of war.

An hour before the start of artillery preparation, Nikolai Masalov, accompanied by two assistants, brought the regiment’s banner to the Landwehr Canal. The guards knew that here, in Tiergarten, was the main bastion of the military garrison of the German capital. The fighters advanced to the attack line in small groups and individually. Some had to cross the canal by swimming using available means, others had to break through a barrage of fire through a mined bridge.

There were 50 minutes left before the attack began. There was silence - alarming and tense. Suddenly, through this ghostly silence, mixed with smoke and settling dust, a child's cry was heard. It came as if from somewhere underground, dull and inviting. The child, crying, uttered one word that everyone understood: “Mutter, mutter...”, because all children cry in the same language. Sergeant Masalov was the first to catch the child's voice. Leaving his assistants at the banner, he rose to almost his full height and ran straight to the headquarters - to the general.

- Let me save the child, I know where he is...

The general silently looked at the soldier who had appeared from nowhere.

- Just be sure to come back. “We must return, because this battle is the last,” the general warmly admonished him in a fatherly manner.

“I’ll be back,” said the guardsman and took the first step towards the canal.

The area in front of the bridge was covered with fire from machine guns and automatic cannons, not to mention the mines and land mines that densely littered all the approaches. Sergeant Masalov crawled, clinging to the asphalt, carefully passing the barely noticeable bumps of mines, feeling every crack with his hands. Very close by, machine-gun bursts rushed past, knocking out rocky crumbs. Death from above, death from below - and there is nowhere to hide from it. Dodging the deadly lead, Nikolai dived into the shell crater, as if into the waters of his native Siberian Barandatka.

In Berlin, Nikolai Masalov saw enough of the suffering of German children. In clean suits, they approached the soldiers and silently held out an empty tin can or simply an emaciated palm. And the Russian soldiers stuffed bread, lumps of sugar into these little hands, or seated a thin group around their bowlers...

Nikolai Masalov approached the canal inch by inch. Here he was, holding the machine gun, already rolling towards the concrete parapet. Fiery lead streams immediately lashed out, but the soldier had already managed to slide under the bridge.

The former commissar of the 220th regiment of the 79th Guards Division, I. Paderin, recalls: “And our Nikolai Ivanovich disappeared. He enjoyed great authority in the regiment, and I was afraid of a spontaneous attack. And a spontaneous attack, as a rule, means extra blood, especially at the very end of the war. And Masalov seemed to sense our anxiety. Suddenly a voice says: “I’m with the child. Machine gun on the right, house with balconies, shut his throat.” And the regiment, without any command, opened such fierce fire that, in my opinion, I have never seen such tension in the entire war. Under the cover of this fire, Nikolai Ivanovich came out with the girl. He was wounded in the leg, but did not say..."

N.I. Masalov recalls: “Under the bridge I saw a three-year-old girl sitting next to her murdered mother. The baby had blond hair that was slightly curly at the forehead. She kept tugging at her mother’s belt and calling: “Mutter, mutter!” There is no time to think here. I grab the girl and back again. And how she will scream! As I walk, I persuade her this way and that: shut up, they say, otherwise you will open me. Here the Nazis really started firing. Thanks to our guys - they helped us out and opened fire with all guns."

Guns, mortars, machine guns, and carbines covered Masalov with heavy fire. The guardsmen targeted enemy firing points. The Russian soldier stood over the concrete parapet, shielding the German girl from bullets. At that moment, a dazzling disk of the sun rose above the roof of the house with columns, scarred by fragments. Its rays hit the enemy shore, blinding the shooters for some time. At the same time, the cannons struck and artillery preparation began. It seemed that the entire front was saluting the feat of the Russian soldier, his humanity, which he did not lose on the roads of war.

N.I. Masalov recalls: “I crossed the neutral zone. I look into one or another entrance of the houses - so that, that means, hand over the child to the Germans, civilians. And it’s empty there—not a soul. Then I'll go straight to my headquarters. The comrades surrounded, laughing: “Show me what kind of “tongue you got.” And some of the biscuits themselves, some of them shove sugar into the girl, calm her down. He handed her over to the captain in a raincoat thrown over him, who gave her water from a flask. And then I returned to the banner."

How did the famous monument appear?.

A few days later, the sculptor E.V. Vuchetich arrived at the regiment and immediately found Masalov. Having made several sketches, he said goodbye, and it is unlikely that Nikolai Ivanovich at that moment had any idea why the artist needed him. It was no coincidence that Vuchetich drew attention to the Siberian warrior. The sculptor carried out an assignment from a front-line newspaper, looking for a type for a poster dedicated to the Victory of the Soviet people in the Patriotic War. These sketches and sketches were useful to Vuchetich later, when he began work on the project of the famous monument ensemble. After the Potsdam Conference, the heads of the Allied Powers Vuchetich was summoned by Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov and proposed to begin preparing a sculptural ensemble-monument dedicated to the Victory of the Soviet people over Nazi Germany. It was originally intended to be placed in the center of the composition

a majestic bronze figure of Stalin with an image of Europe or a globe hemisphere in his hands.

Sculptor E.V. Vuchetich: “The main figure of the ensemble was looked at by artists and sculptors. They praised and admired. But I felt dissatisfied. We need to look for another solution.

And then I remembered the Soviet soldiers who, during the storming of Berlin, carried German children out of the fire zone. He rushed to Berlin, visited Soviet soldiers, met with heroes, made sketches and hundreds of photographs - and a new, his own decision matured: a soldier with a child on his chest. He sculpted a figure of a meter-tall warrior. There is a fascist swastika under his feet, a machine gun in his right hand, and a three-year-old girl in his left hand.”

The time has come to demonstrate both projects under the light of the Kremlin chandeliers. In the foreground is a monument to the leader...

— Listen, Vuchetich, aren’t you tired of this guy with the mustache?

Stalin pointed the mouthpiece of his pipe towards the one and a half meter figure.

Vuchetich hastily removed the parchment from the soldier’s figure. Stalin examined him from all sides, smiled sparingly and said:

“We will place this soldier in the center of Berlin, on a high burial hill... Just you know, Vuchetich, the machine gun in the soldier’s hand must be replaced with something else.” A machine gun is a utilitarian object of our time, and the monument will stand for centuries. Give him something more symbolic. Well, let's say a sword. Weighty, solid. With this sword, the soldier cut the fascist swastika. The sword is lowered, but woe will be the one who forces the hero to raise this sword. We agree?

The fate of Sergeant Masalov after the war.

AFTER demobilization, Nikolai Masalov returned to his native place. The fate of the sons of the village blacksmith turned out to be happy - all four were waiting from the front. And there were probably no more joyful chores in the life of Anastasia Nikitichna Masalova than on that memorable day. As planned, a festive cake was placed on the table. Nikolai Masalov tried to sit behind the levers of the tractor, but it didn’t work, his front-line wounds took their toll. As soon as I worked on the tractor for an hour or two, unbearable pain began to toss and turn in my head. Doctors recommended changing profession. However, Nikolai Masalov could not imagine himself without the “iron horse”, without peasant labor, to which he dreamed of returning throughout the war. He often remembered his native fields, where during the hot harvest he worked until he sweated.

The soldier tried many professions before he found something he liked. After moving to Tyazhin, Nikolai Ivanovich began working as a caretaker in a kindergarten. Here he again felt needed and immediately managed to find a common language with the kids. Probably because he loved the kids very much, truly loved them. And they felt it.

Former student of the railway kindergarten S.P. Zamyatkina recalls: “Once correspondents from the magazine Ogonyok came to Tyazhin. They wanted to photograph Nikolai Ivanovich with a little girl in his arms. For some reason they chose me for this. To little children, Uncle Kolya seemed like a real giant - strong, but kind. Later I saw this photograph in a magazine, and it was very dear to me...”

In the mid-60s, Masalov became famous overnight. He was talked about in central Soviet newspapers and magazines, as well as in foreign media. At the same time, Soviet and German filmmakers shot a full-length documentary film “The Guy from the Legend.” On the eve of the 20th anniversary of the victory, N.I. Masalov visited the capital of the German Democratic Republic for the first time after the war. Then the bronze monument and its prototype were seen in person for the first time. In 1969 he was awarded a certificate of honorary citizen of Berlin.

Nikolai Masalov after the war with his wife and daughter.

And N.I. Masalov himself lived his entire life in his native village of Tyazhin, Kemerovo region, although at one time he was offered to move to live in Germany, since he was an honorary citizen of Berlin. In recent years, Nikolai Ivanovich did not get out of bed - the fragments of German shells remaining in his legs and chest were making themselves felt. His only daughter Valentina called an ambulance almost weekly, but doctors are not omnipotent... In December 2001, at the age of 79, he died and was buried in a local cemetery. And in the center of Tyazhin, during the soldier’s lifetime, the same monument as in Treptower Park was erected, only of a much smaller size. And there are always flowers near him. Alive...

What did the search for the rescued German girl yield?.

From a letter from M. Richter (GDR): “Yesterday in the newspaper Junge Welt I read an article about your rescue of a German girl. At that time, in the spring of 1945, I was only one year old. I was deeply shocked by this article. After all, the same thing that happened to that girl could happen to me. We will do everything to find the girl you saved.”

In July 1984, graduates of the Faculty of Journalism from the University of Berlin, the spouses Lutz and Sabina Dekvert, visited Nikolai Ivanovich Masalov. Then they managed to fulfill their long-time dream - to interview the legendary Russian soldier. German Komsomol members tried to find the girl saved by Nikolai Masalov in the last hours of the war. “The girl from the monument is wanted” - under this headline in July 1964, in a special Sunday edition of the GDR youth newspaper “Junge Welt”, a whole page was published about the feat of Nikolai Masalov. Journalists appealed to the population for help in finding the girl saved by a Soviet soldier. All central newspapers of the German Democratic Republic, as well as many local publications, published reports of the search announced by Komsomolskaya Pravda and Junge Welt. Letters were sent to the newspaper from all over the republic in which German citizens offered their help. People wanted to see the one for whom a citizen of the Soviet country risked his life in the last hours of the war.

German journalist Rudi Peschel recalls: “The whole summer passed in either joyful expectations or disappointments. Sometimes it seemed to me that I was on the hot trail, but then it turned out on the spot that it was just a misunderstanding. Later, I had more than just a trace in my hands. It was a photograph taken at the end of 1945 at the former youth camp site Ostrau. Almost all of the 45 children, boys and girls, depicted on it were rescued by soldiers of the Soviet Army. Thus, in this one small corner of the GDR, I found confirmation of what dozens of letters said. There were many, many children who owed their salvation to Russian boys.”

The editors of newspapers and magazines received messages, the authors of which sought to at least partially shed light on the events that took place in the center of Berlin on April 29, 1945. Then a letter arrived from Hera, suggesting that the girl's name was Christa. Another letter, based on weighty arguments, expressed the opinion that she had another name - Helga. In Berlin, we managed to find a family who adopted a three-year-old girl in 1945. In 1965, the girl turned twenty-one. Her name was Ingeborga Butt. During the fighting, her mother also died, and a Soviet soldier also saved her - he carried her in his arms to a safe shelter. There are many coincidences, except for one - this event took place in what was then East Prussia.

Another message came from Clara Hoffmann from the city of Leipzig. She wrote about a blond three-year-old girl she adopted in 1946. If this girl from Leipzig is exactly the one who was saved by Masalov in Berlin, then the question arises: how did she get to Leipzig? Therefore, of particular interest was a letter in which Frau Jacob, a resident of the city of Kamenets, talked about how on May 9, 1945, on the border with Czechoslovakia, somewhere near the city of Pirna, she met a motorized Soviet unit. In one of the cars, a soldier was holding a two or three-year-old blond girl, wrapped in a light green blanket. The woman asked:

-Where did you get your child from?

One of the Soviet soldiers replied:

“We found the girl in Berlin and took her with us to Prague to give her to a good family.

Was this the girl because of whom Masalov threw himself in front of the bullets? Why not? Further searches on this trail yielded contradictory results...

German journalist B. Zeiske said that then 198 people responded, who were saved from hunger, cold and bullets by Soviet soldiers in Berlin alone. Writer Boris Polevoy wrote about the feat of senior sergeant Trifon Lukyanovich. Day after day, with Masalov, he accomplished exactly the same feat - he saved a German child. However, on the way back he was overtaken by an enemy bullet.

In Berlin, in Treptower Park, a Russian soldier stands on a pedestal in a raincoat thrown over his shoulders, proudly raising his forelock head. Under his feet are the fallen fragments of a fascist swastika. A heavy double-edged sword is clutched in his right hand, and a little girl sits comfortably on his left hand, trustingly clinging to the soldier’s chest.

Eternal and Bright Memory to the Soviet soldiers who liberated the world from fascism!!!

On May 8, 1949, the “Warrior Liberator” monument was unveiled in Treptow Park in Berlin. One of three Soviet war memorials in Berlin. Sculptor E. V. Vuchetich, architect Ya. B. Belopolsky, artist A. V. Gorpenko, engineer S. S. Valerius. Opened on May 8, 1949. Height - 12 meters. Weight - 70 tons. The “Warrior Liberator” monument is a symbol of the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War and World War II, and the liberation of the peoples of Europe from Nazism.

The monument is the final part of a triptych, which also consists of the monuments “Rear to Front” in Magnitogorsk and “The Motherland Calls!” In Volgograd. It is implied that the sword, forged on the banks of the Urals, was then raised by the Motherland in Stalingrad and lowered after the Victory in Berlin.

The center of the composition is a bronze figure of a Soviet soldier standing on the ruins of a swastika. In one hand the soldier holds a lowered sword, and with the other he supports the German girl he saved.
Sculptor E. Vuchetich is working on creating a model of the “Warrior-Liberator” monument. In the sketch of the monument, the soldier held a machine gun in his free hand, but at the suggestion of I.V. Stalin, E.V. Vuchetich replaced the machine gun with a sword. The names of those who posed for the sculpture are also known. Thus, three-year-old Svetlana Kotikova (1945-1996), the daughter of the commandant of the Soviet sector of Berlin, Major General A.G. Kotikova, posed as a German girl held in the hands of a soldier. Later, S. Kotikova became an actress; her role as teacher Maryana Borisovna in the film “Oh, this Nastya!” is best known.

There are four versions of who exactly posed for the sculptor E.V. Vuchetich for the soldier’s monument. However, they do not contradict each other, since it is possible that at different times different people could pose for the sculptor.

According to the memoirs of retired colonel Viktor Mikhailovich Gunaza, in 1945 in the Austrian city of Mariazell, where Soviet units were stationed, he posed for the young Vuchetich. Initially, according to the memoirs of V. M. Gunaza, Vuchetich planned to sculpt a soldier holding a boy in his hands, and it was Gunaza who advised him to replace the boy with a girl.

According to other sources, for a year and a half in Berlin, Soviet army sergeant Ivan Stepanovich Odarchenko posed for the sculptor. Odarchenko also posed for the artist A. A. Gorpenko, who created a mosaic panel inside the pedestal of the monument. In this panel, Odarchenko is depicted twice - as a soldier with the sign of a Hero of the Soviet Union and a helmet in his hands, and also as a worker in blue overalls with his head bowed, holding a wreath. After demobilization, Ivan Odarchenko settled in Tambov and worked at a factory. He died in July 2013 at the age of 86.
According to an interview with Rafail’s father, the son-in-law of the commandant of Berlin A.G. Kotikov, who refers to the unpublished memoirs of his father-in-law, the cook of the Soviet commandant’s office in Berlin posed as a soldier. Later, upon returning to Moscow, this cook became the head chef of the Prague restaurant.

It is believed that the prototype of the figure of a soldier with a child was Sergeant Nikolai Masalov, who in April 1945 carried a German child from the shelling zone. In memory of the sergeant, a memorial plaque was installed on the Potsdamer Brücke Bridge in Berlin with the inscription: “During the battles for Berlin on April 30, 1945, near this bridge, risking his life, he saved a child caught between two fronts from the fire.” Another prototype is considered to be a native of the Logoisk district of the Minsk region, senior sergeant Trifon Lukyanovich, who also saved a girl during urban battles and died from wounds on April 29, 1945.

The memorial complex in Treptower Park was created after a competition in which 33 projects took part. The project of E.V. Vuchetich and Ya.B. Belopolsky won. The construction of the complex was carried out under the leadership of the 27th Directorate of Defense Constructions of the Soviet Army. About 1,200 German workers were involved in the work, as well as German companies - the Noack foundry, Puhl & Wagner mosaic and stained glass workshops, and Späth nursery. The sculpture of a soldier weighing about 70 tons was made in the spring of 1949 at the Leningrad plant “Monumental Sculpture” in the form of six parts, which were sent to Berlin. Work on the creation of the memorial was completed in May 1949. On May 8, 1949, the memorial was inaugurated by the Soviet commandant of Berlin, Major General A.G. Kotikov. In September 1949, responsibilities for the care and maintenance of the monument were transferred by the Soviet military commandant to the magistrate of Greater Berlin.

...And in Berlin on a holiday

Was erected to stand for centuries,

Monument to the Soviet soldier

With a rescued girl in her arms.

He stands as a symbol of our glory,

Like a beacon shining in the darkness.

This is him - a soldier of my state -

Protects peace throughout the world!

G. Rublev

On May 8, 1950, one of the most majestic symbols of the Great Victory was opened in Berlin's Treptower Park. The liberating warrior climbed to a height of many meters with a German girl in his arms. This 13-meter monument became epoch-making in its own way.

Millions of people visiting Berlin try to visit here to worship the great feat of the Soviet people. Not everyone knows that according to the original plan, in Treptow Park, where the ashes of more than 5 thousand Soviet soldiers and officers rest, there should have been a majestic figure of Comrade. Stalin. And this bronze idol was supposed to hold a globe in its hands. Like, “the whole world is in our hands.”

This is exactly what the first Soviet marshal, Kliment Voroshilov, imagined when he summoned the sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich immediately after the end of the Potsdam Conference of the Heads of the Allied Powers. But the front-line soldier, sculptor Vuchetich, prepared another option just in case - the pose should be an ordinary Russian soldier who tramped from the walls of Moscow to Berlin, saving a German girl. They say that the leader of all times and peoples, having looked at both proposed options, chose the second. And he only asked to replace the machine gun in the soldier’s hands with something more symbolic, for example, a sword. And so that he chops down the fascist swastika...

Why exactly the warrior and the girl? Evgeniy Vuchetich was familiar with the story of the feat of Sergeant Nikolai Masalov...

A few minutes before the start of a fierce attack on German positions, he suddenly heard, as if from underground, a child’s cry. Nikolai rushed to the commander: “I know how to find the child! Allow me!" And a second later he rushed to search. Crying came from under the bridge. However, it is better to give the floor to Masalov himself. Nikolai Ivanovich recalled this: “Under the bridge I saw a three-year-old girl sitting next to her murdered mother. The baby had blond hair that was slightly curly at the forehead. She kept tugging at her mother’s belt and calling: “Mutter, mutter!” There is no time to think here. I grab the girl and back. And how she will scream! As I walk, I persuade her this way and that: shut up, they say, otherwise you will open me. Here the Nazis really started firing. Thanks to our guys - they helped us out and opened fire with all guns.”

At this moment Nikolai was wounded in the leg. But he didn’t abandon the girl, he brought it to his people... And a few days later the sculptor Vuchetich appeared in the regiment, who made several sketches for his future sculpture...

This is the most common version that the historical prototype for the monument was soldier Nikolai Masalov (1921-2001). In 2003, a plaque was installed on the Potsdamer Bridge (Potsdamer Brücke) in Berlin in memory of the feat accomplished in this place.

The story is based primarily on the memoirs of Marshal Vasily Chuikov. The very fact of Masalov’s feat has been confirmed, but during the GDR, eyewitness accounts were collected about other similar cases throughout Berlin. There were several dozen of them. Before the assault, many residents remained in the city. The National Socialists did not allow the civilian population to leave, intending to defend the capital of the “Third Reich” to the last.

The names of the soldiers who posed for Vuchetich after the war are precisely known: Ivan Odarchenko and Viktor Gunaz. Odarchenko served in the Berlin commandant's office. The sculptor noticed him during a sports competition. After the opening of the memorial, Odarchenko happened to be on duty near the monument, and many visitors, who did not suspect anything, were surprised by the obvious portrait resemblance. By the way, at the beginning of work on the sculpture he was holding a German girl in his arms, but then she was replaced by the little daughter of the commandant of Berlin.

It is interesting that after the opening of the monument in Treptower Park, Ivan Odarchenko, who served in the Berlin commandant’s office, guarded the “bronze soldier” several times. People approached him, amazed at his resemblance to the liberating warrior. But modest Ivan never said that it was he who posed for the sculptor. And the fact that the original idea of holding a German girl in his arms, in the end, had to be abandoned.

The prototype of the child was 3-year-old Svetochka, the daughter of the commandant of Berlin, General Kotikov. By the way, the sword was not at all contrived, but an exact copy of the sword of the Pskov prince Gabriel, who, together with Alexander Nevsky, fought against the “dog knights”.

It is interesting that the sword in the hands of the “Warrior-Liberator” has a connection with other famous monuments: it is implied that the sword in the hands of the soldier is the same sword that the worker gives to the warrior depicted on the monument “Rear to Front” (Magnitogorsk), and which then the Motherland raises it on Mamayev Kurgan in Volgograd.

The “Supreme Commander-in-Chief” is reminded by his numerous quotes carved on symbolic sarcophagi in Russian and German. After the reunification of Germany, some German politicians demanded their removal, citing crimes committed during the Stalinist dictatorship, but the entire complex, according to interstate agreements, is under state protection. No changes are allowed here without the consent of Russia.

Reading quotes from Stalin these days evokes mixed feelings and emotions, making us remember and think about the fate of millions of people in both Germany and the former Soviet Union who died during Stalin's times. But in this case, quotes should not be taken out of the general context; they are a document of history, necessary for its comprehension.

After the Battle of Berlin, the sports park near Treptower Allee became a soldiers' cemetery. Mass graves are located under the alleys of the memory park.

The work began when Berliners, not yet divided by the wall, were rebuilding their city brick by brick from the ruins. Vuchetich was helped by German engineers. The widow of one of them, Helga Köpfstein, recalls: much in this project seemed unusual to them.

Helga Köpfstein, tour guide: “We asked why the soldier was holding a sword rather than a machine gun? They explained to us that the sword is a symbol. A Russian soldier defeated the Teutonic knights on Lake Peipus, and a few centuries later he reached Berlin and defeated Hitler.”

60 German sculptors and 200 stonemasons were involved in the production of sculptural elements according to Vuchetich’s sketches, and a total of 1,200 workers took part in the construction of the memorial. They all received additional allowances and food. German workshops also produced bowls for the eternal flame and mosaics in the mausoleum under the sculpture of the liberating warrior.

Work on the memorial was carried out for 3 years by the architect J. Belopolsky and sculptor E. Vuchetich. Interestingly, granite from Hitler's Reich Chancellery was used for construction. The 13-meter figure of the Liberator Warrior was made in St. Petersburg and weighed 72 tons. It was transported to Berlin in parts by water. According to Vuchetich’s story, after one of the best German foundries carefully examined the sculpture made in Leningrad and made sure that everything was done flawlessly, he approached the sculpture, kissed its base and said: “Yes, this is a Russian miracle!”

In addition to the memorial in Treptower Park, monuments to Soviet soldiers were erected in two other places immediately after the war. About 2,000 fallen soldiers are buried in Tiergarten Park, located in central Berlin. In the Schönholzer Heide park in Berlin's Pankow district there are more than 13 thousand.

During the times of the GDR, the memorial complex in Treptower Park served as a venue for various kinds of official events and had the status of one of the most important state monuments. On August 31, 1994, a ceremonial roll call dedicated to the memory of the fallen and the withdrawal of Russian troops from a united Germany was attended by one thousand Russian and six hundred German soldiers, and the parade was hosted by Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Russian President Boris Yeltsin.

The status of the monument and all Soviet military cemeteries is enshrined in a separate chapter of the treaty concluded between the Federal Republic of Germany, the German Democratic Republic and the victorious powers in World War II. According to this document, the memorial is guaranteed eternal status, and the German authorities are obliged to finance its maintenance and ensure its integrity and safety. Which is done in the best possible way.

It is impossible not to talk about the further fates of Nikolai Masalov and Ivan Odarchenko. After demobilization, Nikolai Ivanovich returned to his native village of Voznesenka, Tisulsky district, Kemerovo region. A unique case - his parents took four sons to the front and all four returned home victorious. Due to shell shock, Nikolai Ivanovich was unable to work on a tractor, and after moving to the city of Tyazhin, he got a job as a caretaker in a kindergarten. This is where journalists found him. 20 years after the end of the war, fame fell on Masalov, which, however, he treated with his characteristic modesty.

In 1969 he was awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of Berlin. But when talking about his heroic deed, Nikolai Ivanovich never tired of emphasizing: what he did was no feat; many would have done the same in his place. That's how it was in life. When German Komsomol members decided to find out about the fate of the rescued girl, they received hundreds of letters describing similar cases. And the rescue of at least 45 boys and girls by Soviet soldiers has been documented. Today Nikolai Ivanovich Masalov is no longer alive...

But Ivan Odarchenko still lives in Tambov (information for 2007). He worked at a factory, then retired. He buried his wife, but the veteran has frequent guests - his daughter and granddaughter. And at parades dedicated to the Great Victory, Ivan Stepanovich was often invited to portray a liberating warrior with a girl in his arms... And on the 60th anniversary of the Victory, the Memory Train even brought an 80-year-old veteran and his comrades to Berlin.

Last year, a scandal erupted in Germany around monuments to Soviet liberating soldiers erected in Berlin's Treptower Park and Tiergarten. In connection with the latest events in Ukraine, journalists from popular German publications sent letters to the Bundestag demanding the dismantling of the legendary monuments.

One of the publications that signed the openly provocative petition was the newspaper Bild. Journalists write that Russian tanks have no place near the famous Brandenburg Gate. “As long as Russian troops threaten the security of a free and democratic Europe, we do not want to see a single Russian tank in the center of Berlin,” write angry media workers. In addition to the authors of Bild, this document was also signed by representatives of the Berliner Tageszeitung.

German journalists believe that Russian military units stationed near the Ukrainian border threaten the independence of a sovereign state. “For the first time since the end of the Cold War, Russia is trying to suppress a peaceful revolution in Eastern Europe by force,” write German journalists.

The scandalous document was sent to the Bundestag. By law, German authorities must review it within two weeks.

This statement by German journalists caused a storm of indignation among readers of Bild and Berliner Tageszeitung. Many believe that newspapermen are deliberately escalating the situation around the Ukrainian issue.

Over the course of sixty years, this monument has truly become an integral part of Berlin. It was on postage stamps and coins; during the GDR, probably half of the population of East Berlin was accepted as pioneers. In the nineties, after the unification of the country, Berliners from the west and east held anti-fascist rallies here.

And neo-Nazis more than once smashed marble slabs and painted swastikas on obelisks. But each time the walls were washed, and the broken slabs were replaced with new ones. The Soviet soldier in Treptover Park is one of the most well-kept monuments in Berlin. Germany spent about three million euros on its reconstruction. Some people were very annoyed by this.

Hans Georg Büchner, architect, former member of the Berlin Senate: “What is there to hide, in the early nineties we had one member of the Berlin Senate. When your troops were withdrawing from Germany, this figure shouted - let them take this monument with them. Now no one even remembers his name.”

A monument can be called a national monument if people go to it not only on Victory Day. Sixty years have changed Germany greatly, but it has not changed the way Germans look at their history. Both in the old Gadeer guidebooks and on modern tourist sites, this is a monument to the “Soviet soldier-liberator.” To a simple man who came to Europe in peace.

Monument to the Soldier-Liberator in Berlin, history May 8th, 2009

Liberator Warrior- monument in Berlin's Treptower Park. Sculptor E. V. Vuchetich, architect Ya. B. Belopolsky. Opened on May 8, 1949. Height - 12 meters.

The bronze sculpture of a warrior is installed on a green hill - a stylized mound. On it, on a round pedestal, stands the figure of a soldier with a lowered sword and a little girl in his arms. Under the warrior’s feet is a fascist swastika he cut. The total height of the monument is 28.6 meters, the height of the sculpture itself is 12 meters.

Ivan GAPONENKO writes:

In 1990, I visited the GDR with a group of tourists. Berlin guide Albina Schweigel showed us Knizhnaya Street, which in April 1945 was the front line in the battle for Berlin. “On the left side there were Soviet soldiers in the houses, on the right there were selected SS units,” Albina explained.

We approached the red brick memorial sign. Albina translated for us the inscription written in German: “Trofim Andreevich Lukyanovich, senior sergeant of the Soviet Army, on April 29, 1945, saved a German child from SS bullets here. Five days after his heroic deed he died from severe wounds. Honor and glory to his memory."

Albina told what happened that day.

The battle for Berlin was raging, and civilians were hiding in the bomb shelter - old people, women, children. When there was a lull between the battles, a five-year-old girl, disobeying her mother, went outside. Noticing her daughter's absence, the mother rushed outside. And suddenly, from the window of the house where the SS men were holed up, a burst of machine gun fire crackled - a woman, bleeding, collapsed dead on the pavement. The daughter, seeing her dead mother, burst into tears. Hearing the child's cry, Lukyanovich rushed to save the girl. He crawled over, picked him up, and crawled back. When he had already reached his own people and handed the child over to his comrades, a shot rang out from the German side. An SS sniper's bullet mortally wounded the hero. In the medical battalion he came to his senses. He told his comrades that he was born in 1919 in Belarus, into a working-class family. He worked as a foreman at the Minsk Watch Factory. At the beginning of the war, a German air bomb hit the house where Lukyanovich’s family lived. The mother, wife, two daughters and mother-in-law died.

Doctors fought long and hard for the hero’s life, but could not save him...

And the German girl, saved by a Soviet soldier, was taken in by Frau Silke, whose husband died at Stalingrad.

—What happened to the girl? - we asked Albina. She smiled and replied: “It’s me...”

She said that she graduated from the Faculty of Foreign Languages at Berlin College and works as a guide-instructor at the city department of Intourist.

And in Berlin's Treptower Park, 5,000 Soviet soldiers who died during the liberation of the city sleep in eternal sleep. Red carnations lie on the gravestones, and nearby white Russian birches rustle in the wind, reminiscent of their distant homeland. On a bronze pedestal stands a 13-meter tall figure of a Soviet liberator warrior with a girl in his arms, whom he saved.

Memorial Complex

The memorial is located in a park in the former East Berlin. The total area of the majestic structure is 280 thousand square meters.

The memorial was created by order of the SVAG (Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Military Administration) number 139 dated June 3/4, 1947 “On the construction of monuments in the Treptow and Pankowski parks of the city of Berlin to the fallen Soviet soldiers.”

The authors of the complex are sculptor Evgeniy Vuchetich, architect Yakov Belopolsky, engineer Sarah Varelius and artist Alexander Gorpenko. Work on the creation of the memorial from June 1947 to May 1949 was carried out by 7 thousand builders. At the same time, the remains of soldiers from other areas of Berlin were reburied.

The complex has two entrances in the form of arches with inscriptions in Russian and German. The inscription reads: “Eternal glory to the heroes who fell in battles for the freedom and independence of the socialist Motherland.” The alleys from the entrances lead to the three-meter stone sculpture “Motherland”. And already from the sculpture there is a view of the entire memorial and the 12-meter monument.

The granite from which the memorial was created was taken from the ruins of the Reich Chancellery.

The entrance to the memorial cemetery is framed on the right and left by 13-meter granite banners. On both sides, near the banners, kneeling warriors are sculptured. From the terraced entrance, a staircase descends to the central part of the architectural complex. Along its main axis there are five mass graves, and on both sides of the main axis there are 16 sarcophagi (eight each on the right and left) with bas-reliefs.

Of the 7.2 thousand, the names of 2.77 thousand people are known.

Restoration of the sculpture

Large-scale restoration of the sculpture, which lasted more than a year, was completed in 2004. The bronze soldier was dismantled and transported to the island of Rügen. There, the 45-ton sculpture's support structure was strengthened and the metal was cleaned. The work was carried out by Metallbau. Other parts of the memorial were also restored.

The monument is managed by the urban development department of the Berlin Senate. The restoration cost the department 5.3 million euros; 1.35 million euros were spent on work directly related to the sculpture.

Eternal glory to our heroes! Happy Victory Day!