{"id":925458,"date":"2006-06-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-06-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/?page_id=925458"},"modified":"2006-06-14T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-06-14T00:00:00","slug":"victory-monument","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/welcome-to-the-archives-of-belarus-website\/subject-guides-to-archival-records\/culture\/victory-monument","title":{"rendered":"Victory Monument"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the 4th of July 2004 Belarus marks 50 years since the opening of Victory Monument in\r\nMinsk City – the monument to the Soviet Army soldiers and Belarusian partisans who\r\nperished in World War Two. This monument has become a symbol of the Belarusian capital. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

As early as the autumn of 1942, Belarusian architect Georgi Zaborski, who had been\r\nseriously wounded and was staying in a hospital in the town of Troitsk in the Urals, began\r\nmaking sketches and drawings for a monument to the war heroes. At the end of 1945, he came\r\nback to Minsk and became engaged in the restoration of the destroyed Belarusian towns and\r\nvillages.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

In the autumn of 1950, the Administration for Architectural Affairs under the Council\r\nof Ministers of Belarus announced a competition for the design of a monument to the Soviet\r\nArmy soldiers and Belarusian partisans. Over 70 architects and sculptors from Moscow,\r\nLeningrad (now St. Petersburg), Minsk, Riga and other cities of the Soviet Union\r\nparticipated in the competition. The first prize was awarded to the design by Georgi\r\nZaborski. For the elaboration of the final design, one more competition was held. The\r\ndesign by G.V. Zaborski and V.A. Korol was judged the best. The leading Belarusian\r\nsculptors Z.Azgur, A. Bembel, A. Glebov, S. Selikhanov worked together with the architects\r\nto create this monument. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

Victory Monument is a dominant figure in the architectural ensemble of Victory Square\r\nand serves as a compositional link for Independence Avenue, the main thoroughfare of Minsk\r\nCity, ending up its perspective. Forty meters high and classic in shape, the obelisk is\r\nfaced with grey granite and is crowned with the Order of Lenin made of bronze and\r\nmulticoloured mosaics. The obelisk faces are covered with high relief ribbons with\r\nBelarusian national pattern. A large stepped foundation of the obelisk is decorated with 4\r\nbronze high reliefs. These are the ‘May 9, 1945’ (sculptor A.Bembel) depicting the triumph\r\nof victory, with the state emblem of Belarus above, ‘The Soviet Army in World War II’\r\n(sculptor S.Selikhanov) and ‘Belarusian partisans’ (sculptor A. Glebov) depicting\u00a0\r\nsome episodes from the ‘railroad war’ and a combat battle, and the ‘Glory to the perished\r\nheroes’ (sculptor Z. Azgur) depicting the people’s grief over a hero’s grave. These\r\nsculptural compositions, performed in a realistic manner with a detail elaboration of\r\nrelief imprints, highlight the culmination points in the struggle of the Belarusian people\r\nagainst the German-Fascist invaders. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

The obelisk is mounted on a wide octagonal stepped podium embellished with 4\r\nbronze\u00a0 wreaths placed on huge cubic stylobates of black labradorite. They serve as\r\nsymbols of 4 fronts that participated in the liberation of Belarus from the Nazi\r\noccupiers. At the foot of the obelisk is a bronze sword covered with laurel wreath as a\r\nsymbol of victory (sculptor S. Saltykov). On July 3, 1961, the 17th anniversary of Belarus\r\nliberation, the Eternal Flame was lit before the monument.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

In 1984, due to the opening of Minsk Metro, the square in front of the monument was\r\nreconstructed (architects B. Larchenko, B. Shkolnikov, K. Viazgin). It was designed on two\r\nlevels. The obelisk’s foundation underground is circled by a passage gallery connected to\r\nthe metro station. The gallery runs into a memorial hall to the heroes and victims of\r\nWWII. In the center of the hall there is an illuminated wreath of coloured glass (artist\r\nV. Pozniak) – a symbol of the Eternal flame of memory. On the wall is the bronze\r\nbas-relief of the Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union and the memorial plaques with the\r\nnames of 566 natives of Belarus and other Soviet republics, who gave their lifes to\r\nliberate Belarus from the Nazi invaders and who were awarded the title of the Hero of the\r\nUSSR. The symmetrical flights of steps entering the square are embellished with massive\r\ngranite blocks having a bronze depiction of lowered flags on their upper sloping faces\r\n(sculptor N. Ryzhenkov). The entrance to the monument is decorated with small granite\r\nblocks with the inscriptions of the Soviet cities-heroes and the images of their awards. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

In 2004, the monument and the adjacent area were renewed (chief architect of the\r\nproject V.I. Bakaev). <\/p>\r\n\r\n

Documents relating to the construction and restoration of the monument (drawings,\r\nsketches, competition designs and photographs) are held at the Belarusian State Archives\r\nof Scientific and Technical Documentation (BGANTD). <\/p>\r\n\r\n

Draft designs [the 1950s]<\/b><\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\n\r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n
\r\n\t<\/td>\r\n \r\n\t<\/td>\r\n \r\n\t<\/td>\r\n \r\n\t<\/td>\r\n\r\n <\/tr>\r\n<\/table>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n

\r\n\r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n
Victory Monument
\r\n\t[early 1950s]<\/td>\r\n 		Design author, architect G. Zaborski (1988)<\/td>\r\n Design author G. Zaborski among the members\r\n\tof the Commission for\r\n reconstructional work of Victory monument (1988)<\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n
<\/td>\r\n <\/td>\r\n <\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n

\r\n\r\n\t<\/td>\r\n

\r\n\r\n\t <\/a> <\/td>\r\n

\r\n\t

\r\n\t<\/a><\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n<\/table>\r\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the 4th of July 2004 Belarus marks 50 years since the opening of Victory Monument in Minsk City – the monument to the Soviet Army soldiers and Belarusian partisans…","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":976243,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-925458","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/925458"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=925458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/925458\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/976243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=925458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}