The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is an architectural memorial ensemble in the city of Moscow, near the walls of the Kremlin, in the Alexander Garden. The Eternal Flame has been burning in the center of the composition for 34 years. People come to the monument to bow to the fighter who gave his life for his Motherland.
Description
The tombstone is decorated with a bronze composition: a laurel branch and a soldier's helmet, reclining on the banner of military glory. In the center of the architectural composition is a niche made of labradorite, where the words are carved: "Your name is unknown, your feat is immortal." In the middle of the niche is a bronze five-pointed star, in which the Eternal Flame of military glory burns.
To the left of the burial there is a quartzite wall with the words written on it: "1941 fallen for the Motherland 1945". To the right of the grave is an alley of granite with blocks of dark red porphyry. Each of them depicts the Gold Star medal and the name of the hero city is inscribed: Kyiv, Leningrad, Odessa, Stalingrad, Minsk, Sevastopol, Smolensk, Murmansk, Tula, Brest,Novorossiysk, Kerch. The blocks contain capsules with earth taken from the listed objects.
On the right side of the alley there is a red granite stele, on which the names of forty cities of military glory are immortalized.
Creation idea
In 1966, Muscovites prepared with special solemnity to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the defense of their city. The position of the first secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee at that time was occupied by Egorychev Nikolai Grigorievich. This man was one of the communist reformers who played an important role in the politics of the state.
The anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War began to be celebrated with special pomp since 1965, after Moscow became a hero city, and May 9 was made a holiday, non-working day. It was then that the idea arose to erect a monument to ordinary soldiers who lost their lives during the defense of the capital. Egorychev decided to make this monument popular. In 1966, Kosygin Alexei Nikolaevich called Nikolai Grigorievich and said that there was a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Poland, and offered to erect such a monument in Moscow. Egorychev replied that he was just considering this project. Soon the sketches of the memorial were shown to the first leaders of the country - Mikhail Andreevich Suslov and Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev.
Choosing a seat
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is a monument close to the heart of every person. The choice of the site on which it will be located was givenexceptional value. Egorychev immediately proposed to erect a memorial in the Alexander Garden, near the Kremlin wall. There was just the right place. However, Brezhnev did not like this idea. The biggest obstacle was that in this area there was an obelisk created in honor of the tercentenary of the Romanov dynasty in 1913. After the coup of 1917, the names of the reigning persons were erased from the pedestal, and in their place the names of the revolutionary leaders were knocked out. The list of titans of the revolution was compiled personally by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. And in the USSR, everything that was connected with this person was not allowed to be touched. However, Yegorychev took a risk, deciding to move the obelisk a little to the side without the highest approval. Nikolai Grigorievich was sure that he would not receive permission anyway, and the discussion of this issue would drag on for many years. Together with the head of the architectural department of the capital, Fomin Gennady, they moved the obelisk, so cleverly that no one noticed it. However, in order to start global construction work, the approval of the Politburo was needed, which Egorychev received with great difficulty.
Search for remains
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow was intended for a soldier who died for his Motherland. Then large-scale construction was carried out in the city of Zelenograd, during which a mass grave with the remains of soldiers was discovered. However, the Politburo had many sensitive issues. Whose ashes to bury? What if it will be the remains of a German or a shot deserter? Now each of us understands that any person is worthyprayer and memory, but in 1965 they thought differently. Therefore, all the circumstances of the death of the soldiers were subjected to a thorough check. We opted for the remains of a soldier on whom a military uniform survived (it did not have commander's insignia). As Yegorychev later explained, the deceased could not have been wounded and taken prisoner, because the Germans did not reach Zelenograd, the unknown was also not a deserter - before being shot, the belt was removed from them. It was clear that the body belonged to a Soviet man who died heroically in the battle for the defense of Moscow. No documents were found on him, his ashes were truly nameless.
Burial
The military developed a ritual for the solemn burial of an unknown soldier. The body of a soldier from Zelenograd was delivered to Moscow on a gun carriage. In 1966, on December 6, thousands of people stretched along Gorky Street from the very morning. They wept as the procession passed by. The funeral cortege reached Manezhnaya Square in mournful silence. The last few meters of the coffin were carried by leading members of the party, such as Marshal Rokossovsky. Yevgeny Konstantinovich Zhukov was not allowed to carry the remains because he was in disgrace. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, whose photo you can see in this article, has become an iconic place that everyone aspired to visit.
Eternal Flame
On May 7, 1967, a torch from the Eternal Flame on the Field of Mars was lit in Leningrad. By relay, the fire was delivered from the capital. They say that the whole way from Leningrad to Moscow was littered with people. On the morning of May 8, the procession reached the capital. The first to receive the torch at Manezhnaya Square was the legendary pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union, Alexei Maresyev. A unique newsreel that captured this moment has been preserved. People froze in anticipation of the most important event - the lighting of the Eternal Flame.
The opening of the memorial was entrusted to Yegorychev. And Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev had a chance to light the Eternal Flame.
Memorial inscription
Everyone who comes to the memorial sees at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier the words: "Your name is unknown, your deed is immortal." This inscription has authors. When the Central Committee approved the project to create a monument, Yegorychev gathered the leading writers of the country - Simonov, Narovchatov, Smirnov and Mikhalkov - and invited them to compose an epitaph. They settled on the sentence: "His name is unknown, his feat is immortal." When everyone dispersed, Nikolai Grigorievich thought about what words each person would approach the grave with. And he decided that the inscription should contain a direct appeal to the deceased. Egorychev phoned Mikhalkov, and they came to the conclusion that the line that we can observe today should appear on the granite slab.
Today
In 1997, on December 12, the Decree of the President of Russia was signed, according to which the guard of honor is transferred from the Lenin Mausoleum to the place where the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is located. There is a changing of the guard every hour. In 2009, on November 17, in accordance with Presidential Decree No. 1297, the burial became the National Memorial of Military Glory. From December 16, 2009 toOn February 19, 2010, the monument was subject to reconstruction, in connection with which the guard of honor was not exhibited, and the laying of flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was temporarily suspended. On February 23, 2010, the Eternal Flame was returned to the Alexander Garden, lit by Dmitry Medvedev, then President of the Russian Federation.
Conclusion
The Monument Tomb of the Unknown Soldier has become a symbol of mourning for all the soldiers who sacrificed their lives to save the Motherland. Everyone who was involved in the creation of this memorial felt that this work was the main thing in his life. We will disappear, our descendants will leave, and the Eternal Flame will burn.
