Today can rightly be considered a day of great historical justice. In Russia now there is Rzhevskiy memorial. It is well visible from afar. And will remind about the price of victory over fascism.
Million three hundred dead, wounded, missing. Often nameless. But this nameless heroes largely decided the outcome of the war. And the victory in Berlin was forged not only in those battles that we know from childhood. But in such as Rzhev — which lasted more than a year and which for a long time not accepted to speak. But would it be the flag over the Reichstag without Rzhev? After all, the nameless fighters of Rzhev was not given to Hitler reinforcements to Stalingrad and to resume the offensive on Moscow.
“We have fallen for their country, but she is saved”, — these lines Twardowski carved at the foot of the monument. Twardowski would have appreciated today. A poem written on behalf of the nameless dead: “I was killed near Rzhev in a nameless bog”. Our memory of that war — not some nameless swamp.
the Immortal soul of a Soviet soldier in the weightless cranberry wings as if carried away in a shining eternity. Leaving under a torn battles of Rzhev land.
At the opening of a poignant memorial, which is impossible to watch without a lump in my throat, President Putin came together with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko. Leaders warmly welcomed the veterans and personally talked to every.
fresh flowers — bouquets of red roses — Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko laid to the foot of the majestic monument.
the Image of the bronze soldier, was born of the great song “Cranes” by composer Jan Frenkel is written on the poems of Rasul Gamzatov.
the memory of the defenders of Rzhev and all the heroes of the great Patriotic Putin and Lukashenko observed a minute of silence.
After a minute of silence to Putin came one of the veterans and asked for an autograph. The head of state signed the paper and handed it to the hero-frontHovik. As it turned out, asked a volunteer, who accompanied the veteran on events.
for decades, the feat of the Soviet soldiers near Rzhev was undervalued. One of the bloodiest battles of the great Patriotic called local fighting.
figures of Soviet losses Rzhev brought the head of state in an article on the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second world war. These figures were collected in the archives and made public for the first time.
“not long ago, in the official history about the battles of Rzhev was not accepted to talk a lot. Little, sparingly told about those events and the participants. It was too hard to remember the terrible so-called Rzhev meat-grinder. Impossible without pain to think about the losses suffered by the Red army. Were killed, wounded, missing more than 1 million 300 thousand people. Monstrous, unthinkable figure. The value of this protracted and bloody battle the victory of the Soviet people over Nazism — the biggest. She finally showed the enemy to try to re-deploy the attack on Moscow it is impossible, as impossible to break, subdue the people, who defended their Motherland”, — said Vladimir Putin.
“there Are boundaries, a confrontation which paid an incredible price. Rzhev is exactly such a place, because it was the capital of our Motherland and our great country. Here the land was burning, the stone melted and crumbled armor. But not surrendered Soviet soldiers. Bleeding on the snow in the dead of winter, dying, but fought to the death,” — said Alexander Lukashenko.
Built over two years, the memorial to Soviet soldiers was created on public donations, on the initiative of veterans of the great Patriotic war. Today they came to the opening of the monument.
“of Course, I should have had to make such a monument,” says a female frontovichka.
“Respect for those who defended our land,” said the veteran.
the Project was implemented in Russianmilitary-historical society with the support of the Union state of Russia and Belarus. As a symbol of memory common feat.
“Time has no power over this feat. And he should never, cannot be forgotten. And especially, jammed, smeared with lies and fraud. We don’t allow that. Fate cut short the war will always respond to us with an open wound. And the most important moral compass, as now, will serve as the courage and fortitude of our fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers, their boundless love for the Motherland, devotion to the Fatherland”, — said the President of Russia.
Rzhev memorial is the largest monument to the Soviet soldier, created in modern Russia and other countries that once were part of the same state.
with bulk mound height of the memorial 35 meters. The weight of shape 80 tons. But the main thing in the image of a warrior frozen in the figure of courage and sorrow. The symbol rates of the great Victory.
“At the time of the peak of the offensive, our army lost a day 7 thousand people”, — informed the public is Vladimir Medinsky, the Russian presidential aide, Chairman of RVIA.
the soul of the soldier is carried off into the sky 35 cranes. The smallest weighs 800 kg, and the largest over a ton.
the uniqueness of the monument is in its airiness. To achieve this effect was due to the special frame. Cape soldier visually as it dissolves in the cranes. While the entire structure rests only on one of the bronze bird.
On a six-meter slabs of the memorial are carved the names of 62 thousand soldiers killed near Rzhev and buried in the ground. Under the monument of the legendary lines of the poem Tvardovsky “We have fallen for their country, but she is saved.”
