After the victory of the Soviet people in the most terrible war unleashed by fascist Germany, memorial complexes and monuments began to rise throughout the country, reflecting the events of those years. Oddly enough, but even after five decades, only a modest museum and a few guns that survived after the battle replaced the monument on the Prokhorovsky field, where the battle took place, a turning point in that war.
The murmur of the public and the mute reproach of the endless field
In the early 90s, the issue of opening a memorial complex on the Prokhorovsky field was raised by a group of public men of the Kursk and Belgorod regions, on the border of which the area where the famous tank battle took place is located. The reason was an article in Pravda by a prominent statesman Nikolai Ryzhkov, who was outraged by the fact that there was no monument worthy of this event in the area. At the site of the death of thousands of Soviet soldiers, it was proposed to build an Orthodox church. Hewas to some extent replace the monument to the Soviet soldiers that was never erected on the Prokhorovsky field. A photo of the area, where only fragments of shells hidden in the ground reminded of a glorious battle, served as a weighty argument for silent condemnation of descendants.
To the 50th anniversary of the Great Victory
Soon a fundraising for the construction of the temple was announced, and after some time, in November 1993, another article by Ryzhkov was published, in which he compared the Battle of Prokhorov, the Battle of Kulikovo on September 16, 1380 and the victory of Russian troops near Borodino 26 August 1812 as the three most important events in Russian history. The thoughts expressed by the author of the article changed the plans of the public group for the construction of the temple: it was decided to build a real memorial complex in the field near Prokhorovka in memory of the battle.
Acting head of the administration of the Belgorod region, Evgeny Savchenko, one of the initiators of the construction of the complex, turned to the Council of Ministers of the Russian Federation with a request to partially finance the project from the state treasury. The idea of building a temple was also not abandoned by the public – it should form part of the complex. Savchenko's request was heard, and money for the construction was allocated, and the monument on the Prokhorovsky field was to be erected for the 50th anniversary of the Victory. The project was entrusted to the famous sculptor, a native of the Kursk region, Vyacheslav Klykov.
At that time, Klykov's list of successful works already includedabout two hundred sculptural structures erected according to his sketches. One of them is a monument to Marshal Zhukov, installed at the Historical Museum in Moscow. By that time, Vyacheslav Mikhailovich had been planning for several years to build a majestic monument on the Prokhorovsky field. The history of the Fatherland, according to the author's intention, was to be reflected in it. For the Memorial Complex, Klykov developed a project for a unique belfry, which became both a monument to the great battle and a symbol of the three historical victories that Ryzhkov wrote about.
Opening of the Victory Monument on Prokhorovsky field
Two kilometers from Prokhorovka, on a hill more than two hundred meters high, in memory of the battle that took place on July 12, 1943, the Belfry Memorial complex was erected. Its opening took place on May 3, 1995. The Presidents of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus were personally present at the ceremony, thereby testifying how valuable the feat of the Soviet soldiers and the monument erected to them on the Prokhorovka field are for the three states. The description of this important event appeared in many newspapers, and not only in Russia. The lighting of the Unity Bell on the Belfry, the top of which is crowned with a gilded figure of the Virgin, was made by Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia himself.
And in front of the Memorial complex was built, in a rather uncharacteristic for Orthodoxy style, a beautiful temple. All the walls in it, from floor to ceiling, are hung with signs on which the names of soldiers who died in the tank battle near Prokhorovka are engraved.
Four pylons of Belfry
The author of the majestic Belfry, Vyacheslav Klykov, considered it his best creation. It is difficult to disagree with his opinion. The monument on the Prokhorovsky field is the same Belfry - four pylons standing at some distance from each other, symbolizing the four years of the war. The pylons in the upper part are connected by a gilded dome, on which stands the statue of the Virgin.
The belfry pylons are decorated with 24 bas-reliefs. Among the many compositions that tell one or another story of the Russian State, one can find images of Prince Dmitry Donskoy, Field Marshal Kutuzov, and Marshal Zhukov - about 130 historical images in total.
The first pylon, which marks the beginning of the war, faces west, from where trouble came to Soviet soil in 1941. The northern pylon faces Kursk, where the Root Miraculous Icon of the Mother of God is installed - the intercessor of Russia since the 12th century. For 1942, the turning point of the war, the patronage of the forces of the saints was of great importance.
Eastern pylon symbolizes liberation from enemies - it was from the East that the army of liberators marched to the walls of the Reichstag throughout 1943. In the southern pylon, the meaning of the Victory itself is laid in the image of St. George the Victorious, who adorned the upper part of the pylon.
Three epochs near Prokhorovka
As already mentioned, the organizers of the memorial complex liked the idea of Ryzhkov to give the Prokhorov battle the significance of the third military field in the history of Russia and was implemented not only in the bas-reliefs of the Belfry. Underits dome was suspended alarm bell weighing three and a half tons, which rings every 20 minutes for an hour. The first ringing reminds of the fallen in the Battle of Kulikovo, the second - of those who died in the Battle of Borodino. The third sounds in memory of those whose place of eternal rest was Prokhorovka.
In 2006, the sculptor Vyacheslav Klykov died, but his son Andrei continued his father's work. In 2008, not far from the Belfry, he erected three busts of the great generals: Dmitry Donskoy, Mikhail Kutuzov and Georgy Zhukov. In the late 2000s, another monument was erected on the Prokhorovsky field - to Vyacheslav Klykov himself, the work of A. Shishkov. He stands at the foot of the Belfry and seems to be admiring his best work.
Meaning of the Battle of Prokhorovka
Many battles of the Great Patriotic War are worthy of the memory of grateful descendants, like the one that began on the second day of the war and lasted a whole week in the Brody-Rivne-Lutsk sector in Western Ukraine. And only the defeat of our troops did not bring him worthy glory. Two years later, on July 12, 1943, the Battle of Kursk ended in our victory. In honor of her, a monument was erected on the Prokhorovsky field. The pictures with which the Belfry pylons are painted seem to tell the true story of that tank battle and other significant events. They can be studied like a textbook on the history of the Russian State - they contain all the military glory of the Fatherland.
