|
Entrance Square, sizes of which are 24x138 meters and 3312 sq.m, sides with Lenin Avenue. It is fenced with flower lawns and granite stairs, there are pedestals filled with the holy soil from the hero-cities of USSR. Historical memorial complex begins with the introductory composition – multifigured sculpture “Memory of the Generations” being an integral part of a people’s procession with flowers, wreaths and half-masted banners in honor of those who has fought for life an freedom.
Once we’re at the Entrance Square, wide granite stairs (10m) lead us to the Alley of Pyramidal Poplars (the granite covering as wide as 10 m and as long as 223m is raised above the Entrance Square on the height of 10 m). Pyramidal poplars and bushes are placed on the both sides of the stairs, and on the left there is a memorial park. Using the three-marched granite stairs we leave the Alley of Poplars and find ourselves at the Square of “Those who Fought to Death”, which has a square shape sized 65x65m (4225 sq.m) and is covered with granite. In the center of the square there is a round water pool, diameter of which is 35,2 m, with a central monumental sculpture piece “Stand to Death” symbolizing the most difficult period of Stalingrad Battle and representing deeply emotional image of our people, who have won over the terrible and treacherous enemy. The height of the sculpture is 16,5 m.
At the feet of the sculpture there is a number of slogans such as “Not a single step back!”, “Stand to death!”, “There is no ground for us behind the Volga!”, “Let us not shame the holy memories!”
The height of the square above the Alley of Poplars is 6 m. From the Square of Those who Fought to Death to the Square of the Heroes there are wide (40m) granite stairs slowly narrowing up to 18m. Two ruined walls frame these five-marched stairs. The authors of this project had an idea of building two huge walls forming a corner and joining in perspective – so imagined ruins of the constructions demolished under the long firing and numerous bombing, damaged by the mines and automatic shooting – these walls witnessed the vigorous battles of the winter of 1942-1943. The spirit of the Stalingrad Battle and emotional mood of its participants are expressed in the images of the ruins and sculptural compositions. The length of the walls is 46m, and the height goes up to 18m.
Theme of the left wall shows the oath of the Stalingrad Defenders – “Not a single step back!” and the theme of the right wall is the Stalingrad Battle itself – “Moving only forward!” Ruined walls are equipped with the sound system, which plays songs of the period of war, news from the front line and reports of the information bureau. It is highly impossible to mention everything that has been reflected on the Ruined Walls – so much has been portrayed here.
In front, the Square of the Heroes is framed by a huge supporting wall with a strongly carved drawings on the topic of heroic battle of soviet soldiers and celebration of the victory over the invaders. The size of the wall is 125x10m. The Square of the Heroes is finished by the supportive wall, which has a memorial gravestone with an inscription: “ Here on the 9th of May, 1970, on the day of the Victory of the soviet people over the fascist Germany the capsule, containing a message from the veterans and citizens of the city-hero to the future generations, was buried. It should be opened on the 9th of May, 2045 on the day of 100th jubilee of the victory over the fascist Germany.”
This is a cylindrical building, the diameter of which is 40m and the height of the walls is 13,5m. The roof of the building has a hole, diameter of which is 8m. In the middle of the hall there is a hand holding a torch of the Eternal Fire surrounded by the speakers, delivering the sounds of the mourning melody of “Dreams” by Schuman. Along the wall of the Hall there is a gradually rising path the length of which is two meters. The walls of the Hall are decorated with mosaics made of golden glass. On the wall there are 43 mourning mosaic banners made out of the red basalt and they symbolize all the killed in Stalingrad Battle. The names of the passed away defenders of the city are engraved on these banners (there are 7200 names there). The Hall is guarded by the Honor Guards.
The top of the Hall is crowned with a guards’ ribbon, which has the following inscription: “Yes, we were just usual mortal humans, and there are very few of us alive, but all of us have paid our patriotic debt to Mother Russia.” On the ceiling of the Hall there are models of Soviet Orders and Medals. Gradually walking up the stairs of the Hall of Warrior Glory, the visitor comes to the Square of Sorrow through the open space in the wall of the Hall. In the right corner of the Square there is a composition of a mourning mother with a dead soldier in her arms. His face is covered with a banner - a symbol of the military honors. The height of the composition is 11m, at the feet of it one can find a small water pool, in the calm waters of which the composition is reflected.
In the Square of Sorrow lies buried field Marshall of USSR, ex-commander of the 62nd army and two times a Hero of Soviet Republics, V.I. Tchuikov. From the Square of Sorrow we begin our walk to the top of the hill to the feet of the main monument – “Mother-Russia calls for!». Along the serpentine, in the ground of the hill, there was made a reburial or the remains of 34 505 soldiers - defenders of Stalingrad, and also there can be found 35 granite tombstones of the Heroes of the Soviet Union, participants of the Stalingrad Battle.
The sculpture “Mother-Russia calls for!” is a compositional center of the whole ensemble, it represents a figure of a woman (its height is 52 meters), rapidly stepping forward. In her right hand she is holding a sword, which is 33 meters long and its weight is 14 tons. Together with the sword the height of the sculpture is 85 meters. The monument is standing on the 16-meters fundamental base. The height of the main monuments speaks of its grand scale and uniqueness. It is enough to mention that its weight is 8 thousand tons. The monument – a modern interpretation of an image of the antic Nikka – goddess of the victory – calls her sons and daughters to resist the enemy and continue advancing onto it.
Despite the impressive sizes, the monument bears liking to a bird flying in the skies. It looks magnificent from all the perspectives in any time of the year: in summer, when the hill is covered with green lawns, and in winter, when the statue, lighted by the rays of projectors, makes a vision of itself raising from the hills and mixing together with the blankets of snow. The monument can be seen not only in the area of Mamayev Hill, it reigns over the whole city and can be noticed from thousands of kilometers afar.
From the feet of Mamayev Hill to its top a visitor steps on 200 hundred granite steps, the height of which is 15cm and the width is 35cm. The authors have planned and the constructors have build exactly 200 steps, because the Stalingrad Battle lasted exactly this amount of fiery days and nights.
Remodeling and reconstruction works have been performed twice with the use of hydrophobic coverage, recommended in the year of 1986 by the Institute of Chemical Silicates of USSR Academy of Sciences of Leningrad. By the resolution 467 of the Administration of the Volgograd region of 30th September, 1994 “Building of a Military memorial cemetery” – on the 8th of May the 1st row of the Memorial cemetery was opened with all the honors and celebrations. Nowadays the remains of the 109 identified soldiers and 502 non-identified soldiers are reburied there in the private and common graves.
The meetings of a different kind that take place on Mamayev Hill are always unforgettable: the meetings of the veterans with the young generations during the ceremony of taking an oath by the soldiers of Volgograd garrison, the ceremonies of initiation of the workers, graduation ceremonies of community colleges and universities. These meetings usually occur on the honored days such as 9th of May – the Victory Day and 2nd of February – the day of the victorious ending of the Stalingrad Battle.
All of these events are finished with the ceremonial placement of the wreaths and flowers to the Eternal Fire in the Hall of Military Glory and to the common graves at the memorial cemetery. The role of these events is priceless – they help raising the children in the spirit of love to their motherland, equip them with such noble features of character as courage, admiration and thankfulness to their defenders.
Here on the Mamayev Hill lies the invisible connection between the generations. Veterans recall the hard days of trials – the days of the war, share with younger generations their experiences of being the true citizens and defenders of their country, teach the young how to stay faithful to the traditions of the old. Such events never pass without leaving a certain impact on the people. After each meeting young people become morally stronger, they become infected by that gigantic emotional force that the veterans have. This emotional force is love to the motherland and its people. The flow of time can’t kill our glorious past. The voice of history, just like the will of the passed away and the living veterans, brings simple and clear truth to the young generations -–a human being is born to live. The project was developed by a team of sculptors and architects under the guidance of the laureate of the State and the Lenin scholarship, honored artist of USSR, E.V. Vuchetitch.
|
