Magnitogorsk
Magnitogorsk is an industrial city in Chelyabinsk Oblast, located on the eastern side of the extreme southern extent of the Ural Mountains by the Ural River. Population: 407,775 , it was named after the Magnitnaya Mountain, a geological anomaly that once consisted completely of iron ore, around 55% to 60% iron. It is the second-largest city in Russia, not the administrative center of any federal subject or district. Magnitogorsk contains the largest iron and steel works in the country, Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works; the official motto of the city is "The place where Europe and Asia meet", as the city occupies land in both Europe and Asia. Magnitogorsk was founded in 1743 as part of the Orenburg Line of forts built during the reign of the Empress Elizabeth. By 1747 the settlement had grown large enough to justify the building of a small wooden chapel named subsequently "The Church of the Holy Trinity". Russian iron-ore mining in this region dates back to 1752, when two entrepreneurs named Tverdysh and Myasnikov decided to check on the feasibility of mining in the area that became famous later.
They managed to take full advantage of the fact that the Magnitnaya mountain did not belong to anyone at that time - they secured it for themselves by way of petition to Empress Elizabeth. In 1759, the petition was accepted, they launched iron-ore production; the city underwent rapid change in the 1930s, when according to Stalin's Five-Year-Plans, Magnitogorsk was to become a one-industry town modeled after two of the most advanced steel-producing cities in the United States at that time – Gary and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At this time, hundreds of foreign experts streamed in, in order to direct the work. In 1928 a Soviet delegation arrived in Cleveland, Ohio to discuss with American consulting company Arthur G. McKee a plan to set up in Magnitogorsk a copy of the US Steel steel-mill in Gary; the contract was increased four times, the new plant had a capacity of over four million tons annually. It was a showpiece of Soviet achievement. Huge reserves of iron ore in the area made it a prime location to build a steel-plant capable of challenging its Western rivals.
However, a large proportion of the workforce, as ex-peasants had few industrial skills and little industrial experience. To solve these issues, several hundred foreign specialists arrived to direct the work, including a team of architects headed by the German Ernst May. According to the original plans, the city was to have followed the linear city design, with rows of similar superblock neighborhoods running parallel to the factory, with a strip of greenery, or greenbelt, separating them. Planners would align living and production spheres so as to minimize necessary travel time: workers would live in a sector of the residential band closest to the sector of the industrial band in which they worked. However, by the time that May completed his plans for Magnitogorsk, construction of both factory and housing had started; the sprawling factory and enormous cleansing lakes had left little room available for development, May therefore had to redesign his settlement to fit the modified site. This modification resulted in a city being more "rope-like" than linear.
Although the industrial area is concentrated on the left bank of the river Ural, most residential complexes are separated and located on its right bank, the city inhabitants are still subjected to noxious fumes and factory smoke. The book Behind the Urals, by John Scott, documents the industrial development of Magnitogorsk during the 1930s. Scott discusses the fast-paced industrial and social developments during Stalin's first five-year plan and the rising paranoia of the Soviet regime preceding the Great Purge of the late 1930s. In 1937 foreigners were told to leave and Magnitogorsk was declared a closed city. There is little reliable information about events and development of the city during the closed period; the city played an important role during World War II because it supplied much of the steel for the Soviet war-machine and its strategic location east of the Ural Mountains made Magnitogorsk safe from seizure by the German Army. During perestroika the closed-city status was removed and foreigners were allowed to visit the city again.
The years after perestroika brought a significant change in the life of the city. With the depletion of the substantial local iron-ore reserves, Magnitogorsk has to import raw materials from Sokolvsko-Sarbaisky deposit in northern Kazakhstan. Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is incorporated as the City of Magnitogorsk—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts; as a municipal division, the City of Magnitogorsk is incorporated as Magnitogorsky Urban Okrug. The city is connected by a railway. Public transportation includes trams and taxis; the city is ranked 8th in 2nd in Russia for automobile congestion. There are three establishments of higher education in Magnitogorsk: Magnitogorsk State Technical University, Magnitogorsk State University, Magnitogorsk State Conservatory. There are three theatres: Pushkin Drama Theatre, the Opera and Ballet House, the Puppet Theatre; the Church of the Ascension of the Lord opened in 2004. Metallurg Magnitogorsk is an ice hockey team based in Magnitogorsk, playing in the Kontinental Hockey Le
Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
The conservation and restoration of cultural heritage focuses on protection and care of tangible cultural heritage, including artworks, architecture and museum collections. Conservation activities include preventive conservation, documentation, research and education; this field is allied with conservation science and registrars. Conservation of cultural heritage involves protection and restoration using "any methods that prove effective in keeping that property in as close to its original condition as possible for as long as possible." Conservation of cultural heritage is associated with art collections and museums and involves collection care and management through tracking, documentation, storage, preventative conservation, restoration. The scope has widened from art conservation, involving protection and care of artwork and architecture, to conservation of cultural heritage including protection and care of a broad set of other cultural and historical works. Conservation of cultural heritage can be described as a type of ethical stewardship.
Conservation of cultural heritage applies simple ethical guidelines: Minimal intervention. There are compromises between preserving appearance, maintaining original design and material properties, ability to reverse changes. Reversibility is now emphasized so as to reduce problems with future treatment and use. In order for conservators to decide upon an appropriate conservation strategy and apply their professional expertise accordingly, they must take into account views of the stakeholder, the values and meaning of the work, the physical needs of the material. Cesare Brandi in his Theory of Restoration, describes restoration as "the methodological moment in which the work of art is appreciated in its material form and in its historical and aesthetic duality, with a view to transmitting it to the future"; some consider the tradition of conservation of cultural heritage in Europe to have begun in 1565 with the restoration of the Sistine Chapel frescoes, but more ancient examples include the work of Cassiodorus.
The care of cultural heritage has a long history, one, aimed at fixing and mending objects for their continued use and aesthetic enjoyment. Until the early 20th century, artists were the ones called upon to repair damaged artworks. During the 19th century, the fields of science and art became intertwined as scientists such as Michael Faraday began to study the damaging effects of the environment to works of art. Louis Pasteur carried out scientific analysis on paint as well; however the first organized attempt to apply a theoretical framework to the conservation of cultural heritage came with the founding in the United Kingdom of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings in 1877. The society was founded by William Morris and Philip Webb, both of whom were influenced by the writings of John Ruskin. During the same period, a French movement with similar aims was being developed under the direction of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, an architect and theorist, famous for his restorations of medieval buildings.
Conservation of cultural heritage as a distinct field of study developed in Germany, where in 1888 Friedrich Rathgen became the first chemist to be employed by a Museum, the Koniglichen Museen, Berlin. He not only developed a scientific approach to the care of objects in the collections, but disseminated this approach by publishing a Handbook of Conservation in 1898; the early development of conservation of cultural heritage in any area of the world is linked to the creation of positions for chemists within museums. In the United Kingdom, pioneering research into painting materials and conservation and stone conservation was conducted by Arthur Pillans Laurie, academic chemist and Principal of Heriot-Watt University from 1900. Laurie's interests were fostered by William Holman Hunt. In 1924 the chemist Dr Harold Plenderleith began to work at the British Museum with Dr. Alexander Scott in the created Research Laboratory, although he was employed by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in the early years.
Plenderleith's appointment may be said to have given birth to the conservation profession in the UK, although there had been craftsmen in many museums and in the commercial art world for generations. This department was created by the museum to address the deteriorating condition of objects in the collection, damages which were a result of their being stored in the London Underground tunnels during the First World War; the creation of this department moved the focus for the development of conservation theory and practice from Germany to Britain, made the latter a prime force in this fledgling field. In 1956 Plenderleith wrote a significant handbook called The Conservation of Antiquities and Works of Art, which supplanted Rathgen's earlier tome and set new standards for the development of art and conservation science. In the United States, the development of conservation of cultural heritage can be traced to the Fogg Art Museum, Edward Waldo Forbes, its director from 1909 to 1944, he encouraged technical investigation, was Chairman of the Advisory Committee for the first technical journal, Technical Studies in the Field of the Fine Arts, published by the Fogg from 1932 to 1942.
He brought onto the museum staff chemists. Rutherford John Gettens was the first of such in the US to be permanently employed by an art museum, he worked with the founder and first editor of Technical Studies. Gettens and Stout co-authored Painting Materials
Marshal of the Soviet Union
Marshal of the Soviet Union was the highest military rank of the Soviet Union. The rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union was created in 1935 and abolished in 1991, forty-one people held this rank; the equivalent naval rank was until 1955 Admiral of the fleet and from 1955 Admiral of the fleet of the Soviet Union. Both ranks were comparable to NATO rank codes OF-10, to the five-star rank in anglophone armed forces. While the supreme rank of Generalissimus of the Soviet Union, which would have been senior to Marshal of the Soviet Union, was proposed for Joseph Stalin after the Second World War, it was never approved; the military rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union was established by a decree of the Soviet Cabinet, the Council of People's Commissars, on 22 September 1935. On 20 November, the rank was conferred on five people: People's Commissar of Defence and veteran Bolshevik Kliment Voroshilov, Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army Alexander Ilyich Yegorov, three senior commanders, Vasily Blyukher, Semyon Budyonny, Mikhail Tukhachevsky.
Of these, Blyukher and Yegorov were executed during Stalin's Great Purge of 1937–38. On 7 May 1940, three new Marshals were appointed: the new People's Commissar of Defence, Semyon Timoshenko, Boris Shaposhnikov, Grigory Kulik. During World War II, Kulik was demoted for incompetence, the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union was given to a number of military commanders who earned it on merit; these included Ivan Konev and Konstantin Rokossovsky to name a few. In 1943, Stalin himself was made a Marshal of the Soviet Union, in 1945, he was joined by his intelligence and police chief Lavrenti Beria; these non-military Marshals were joined in 1947 by politician Nikolai Bulganin. Two Marshals were executed in postwar purges: Kulik in 1950 and Beria in 1953, following Stalin's death. Thereafter the rank was awarded only to professional soldiers, with the exception of Leonid Brezhnev, who made himself a Marshal in 1976, Ustinov, prominent in the arms industry and was appointed Defence Minister in July 1976.
The last Marshal of the Soviet Union was Dmitry Yazov, appointed in 1990, imprisoned after the failed coup against Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991. Marshal Sergei Akhromeev committed suicide in 1991 during the fall of the Soviet Union; the Marshals fell into three generational groups. Those who had gained their reputations during the Russian Civil War; these included both those who were purged in 1937–38, those who held high commands in the early years of World War II. All of the latter except Shaposhnikov and Timoshenko proved out-of-step with modern warfare and were removed from commanding positions; those who made their reputations in World War II and assumed high commands in the latter part of the war. These included Zhukov, Konev, Malinovsky and Govorov; those who assumed high command in the Cold War era. All of these were officers in World War II, but their higher commands were held in the Warsaw Pact or as Soviet Defence Ministers; these included Grechko, Kulikov, Ogarkov and Yazov. All Marshals in the third category had been officers in World War II, except Brezhnev, a commissar and Ustinov, People's Commissar for Armaments.
Yazov, 20 when the war ended, had been a platoon commander. The rank was abolished with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991, it was succeeded in the new Russia by the rank of Marshal of the Russian Federation, held by only one person, Marshal Igor Sergeyev, Russian Defence Minister from 1997 to 2001. Note: All Marshals of the Soviet Union, with the exception of Non-Military Marshals, had at least started their military careers in the Army; the Service Arms listed are the services they served in during their respective tenures as Marshals of the Soviet Union. Generalissimus of the Soviet Union Admiral of the fleet of the Soviet Union Marshal of the Russian Federation History of Russian military ranks Military ranks of the Soviet Union Marshal of the branch Chief marshal of the branch Field Marshal of Imperial Russia Ranks and insignia of the Red Army and Navy 1935–1940, 1940–1943 Ranks and rank insignia of the Soviet Armed Forces 1943–1955, 1955–1991 Biographies of all the Marshals of the USSR
Berlin
Berlin is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3,748,148 inhabitants make it the second most populous city proper of the European Union after London; the city is one of Germany's 16 federal states. It is surrounded by the state of Brandenburg, contiguous with its capital, Potsdam; the two cities are at the center of the Berlin-Brandenburg capital region, which is, with about six million inhabitants and an area of more than 30,000 km², Germany's third-largest metropolitan region after the Rhine-Ruhr and Rhine-Main regions. Berlin straddles the banks of the River Spree, which flows into the River Havel in the western borough of Spandau. Among the city's main topographical features are the many lakes in the western and southeastern boroughs formed by the Spree and Dahme rivers. Due to its location in the European Plain, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. About one-third of the city's area is composed of forests, gardens, rivers and lakes; the city lies in the Central German dialect area, the Berlin dialect being a variant of the Lusatian-New Marchian dialects.
First documented in the 13th century and situated at the crossing of two important historic trade routes, Berlin became the capital of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, the Kingdom of Prussia, the German Empire, the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich. Berlin in the 1920s was the third largest municipality in the world. After World War II and its subsequent occupation by the victorious countries, the city was divided. East Berlin was declared capital of East Germany. Following German reunification in 1990, Berlin once again became the capital of all of Germany. Berlin is a world city of culture, politics and science, its economy is based on high-tech firms and the service sector, encompassing a diverse range of creative industries, research facilities, media corporations and convention venues. Berlin serves as a continental hub for air and rail traffic and has a complex public transportation network; the metropolis is a popular tourist destination. Significant industries include IT, biomedical engineering, clean tech, biotechnology and electronics.
Berlin is home to world-renowned universities, orchestras and entertainment venues, is host to many sporting events. Its Zoological Garden is one of the most popular worldwide. With the world's oldest large-scale movie studio complex, Berlin is an popular location for international film productions; the city is well known for its festivals, diverse architecture, contemporary arts and a high quality of living. Since the 2000s Berlin has seen the emergence of a cosmopolitan entrepreneurial scene. Berlin lies in northeastern Germany, east of the River Saale, that once constituted, together with the River Elbe, the eastern border of the Frankish Realm. While the Frankish Realm was inhabited by Germanic tribes like the Franks and the Saxons, the regions east of the border rivers were inhabited by Slavic tribes; this is why most of the villages in northeastern Germany bear Slavic-derived names. Typical Germanised place name suffixes of Slavic origin are -ow, -itz, -vitz, -witz, -itzsch and -in, prefixes are Windisch and Wendisch.
The name Berlin has its roots in the language of West Slavic inhabitants of the area of today's Berlin, may be related to the Old Polabian stem berl-/birl-. Since the Ber- at the beginning sounds like the German word Bär, a bear appears in the coat of arms of the city, it is therefore a canting arm. Of Berlin's twelve boroughs, five bear a Slavic-derived name: Pankow, Steglitz-Zehlendorf, Marzahn-Hellersdorf, Treptow-Köpenick and Spandau. Of its ninety-six neighborhoods, twenty-two bear a Slavic-derived name: Altglienicke, Alt-Treptow, Buch, Gatow, Kladow, Köpenick, Lankwitz, Lübars, Marzahn, Prenzlauer Berg, Schmöckwitz, Stadtrandsiedlung Malchow, Steglitz and Zehlendorf; the neighborhood of Moabit bears a French-derived name, Französisch Buchholz is named after the Huguenots. The earliest evidence of settlements in the area of today's Berlin are a wooden beam dated from 1192, remnants of a house foundation dated to 1174, found in excavations in Berlin Mitte; the first written records of towns in the area of present-day Berlin date from the late 12th century.
Spandau is first mentioned in 1197 and Köpenick in 1209, although these areas did not join Berlin until 1920. The central part of Berlin can be traced back to two towns. Cölln on the Fischerinsel is first mentioned in a 1237 document, Berlin, across the Spree in what is now called the Nikolaiviertel, is referenced in a document from 1244. 1237 is considered the founding date of the city. The two towns over time formed close economic and social ties, profited from the staple right on the two important trade routes Via Imperii and from Bruges to Novgorod. In 1307, they formed an alliance with a common external policy, their internal administrations still being separated. In 1415, Frederick I became the elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, which he ruled until 1440. During the 15th century, his successors established Berlin-Cölln as capital of the margraviate, subsequent members of the Hohenzol
Triptych
A triptych is a work of art, divided into three sections, or three carved panels that are hinged together and can be folded shut or displayed open. It is therefore a type of the term for all multi-panel works; the middle panel is the largest and it is flanked by two smaller related works, although there are triptychs of equal-sized panels. The form can be used for pendant jewelry. Despite its connection to an art format, the term is sometimes used more to connote anything with three parts if they are integrated into a single unit; the triptych form arises from early Christian art, was a popular standard format for altar paintings from the Middle Ages onwards. Its geographical range was from the eastern Byzantine churches to the Celtic churches in the west. During the Byzantine period, triptychs were used for private devotional use, along with other relics such as icons. Renaissance painters such as Hans Memling and Hieronymus Bosch used the form. Sculptors used it. Triptych forms allow ease of transport.
From the Gothic period onward, both in Europe and elsewhere, altarpieces in churches and cathedrals were in triptych form. One such cathedral with an altarpiece triptych is Llandaff Cathedral; the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp, contains two examples by Rubens, Notre Dame de Paris is another example of the use of triptych in architecture. One can see the form echoed by the structure of many ecclesiastical stained glass windows. Although identified as an altarpiece form, triptychs outside that context have been created, some of the best-known examples being works by Hieronymus Bosch, Max Beckmann, Francis Bacon; the highest price paid for an artwork at auction was $142.4 million for a 1969 triptych, Three Studies of Lucian Freud, by Francis Bacon in November 2012. The record was broken in May 2015 by $179.4 million for Pablo Picasso's 1955 painting Les Femmes d’Alger. The format has been used in other religions, including Islam and Buddhism. For example: the triptych Hilje-j-Sherif displayed at the National Museum of Oriental Art, Italy, a page of the Qur'an at the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts in Istanbul, exemplify Ottoman religious art adapting the motif.
Tibetan Buddhists have used it in traditional altars. A photographic triptych is a common style used in modern commercial artwork; the photographs are arranged with a plain border between them. The work may consist of separate images that are variants on a theme, or may be one larger image split into three. Annunciation with St. Margaret and St. Ansanus by Simone Martini Stefaneschi Triptych by Giotto The Mérode Altarpiece by Robert Campin The Garden of Earthly Delights, Triptych of the Temptation of St. Anthony and The Haywain Triptych by Hieronymus Bosch The Portinari Altarpiece by Hugo van der Goes The Buhl Altarpiece, 7 m wide The Raising of the Cross by Peter Paul Rubens Departure by Max Beckmann Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion by Francis Bacon The Pioneer by Frederick McCubbin Diptych Polyptych Polyvision Three hares The Institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper with St. Peter and St. Paul, Metropolitan Museum of Art On the triptych as a writing instrument Example of triptych features and restoration
La Marseillaise
"La Marseillaise" is the national anthem of France. The song was written in 1792 by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in Strasbourg after the declaration of war by France against Austria, was titled "Chant de guerre pour l'Armée du Rhin"; the French National Convention adopted it as the Republic's anthem in 1795. The song acquired its nickname after being sung in Paris by volunteers from Marseille marching to the capital; the song is the first example of the "European march" anthemic style. The anthem's evocative melody and lyrics have led to its widespread use as a song of revolution and its incorporation into many pieces of classical and popular music; as the French Revolution continued, the monarchies of Europe became concerned that revolutionary fervor would spread to their countries. The War of the First Coalition was an effort to stop the revolution, or at least contain it to France; the French army did not distinguish itself, Coalition armies invaded France. On 25 April 1792, baron Philippe-Frédéric de Dietrich, the mayor of Strasbourg, requested his guest Rouget de Lisle compose a song "that will rally our soldiers from all over to defend their homeland, under threat".
That evening, Rouget de Lisle wrote "Chant de guerre pour l'Armée du Rhin", dedicated the song to Marshal Nicolas Luckner, a Bavarian in French service from Cham. A plaque on the building on Place Broglie where De Dietrich's house once stood commemorates the event. De Dietrich was executed the next year during the Reign of Terror; the melody soon became the rallying call to the French Revolution and was adopted as "La Marseillaise" after the melody was first sung on the streets by volunteers from Marseille by the end of May. These fédérés were making their entrance into the city of Paris on 30 July 1792 after a young volunteer from Montpellier called François Mireur had sung it at a patriotic gathering in Marseille, the troops adopted it as the marching song of the National Guard of Marseille. A newly graduated medical doctor, Mireur became a general under Napoléon Bonaparte and died in Egypt at age 28; the song's lyric reflects the invasion of France by foreign armies that were under way when it was written.
Strasbourg itself was attacked just a few days later. The invading forces were repulsed from France following their defeat in the Battle of Valmy; as the vast majority of Alsatians did not speak French, a German version was published in October 1792 in Colmar. The Convention accepted it as the French national anthem in a decree passed on 14 July 1795, making it France's first anthem, it lost this status under Napoleon I, the song was banned outright by Louis XVIII and Charles X, only being re-instated after the July Revolution of 1830. During Napoleon I's reign, "Veillons au salut de l'Empire" was the unofficial anthem of the regime, in Napoleon III's reign, it was "Partant pour la Syrie". During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, "La Marseillaise" was recognised as the anthem of the international revolutionary movement. Eight years in 1879, it was restored as France's national anthem, has remained so since. Several musical antecedents have been cited for the melody: Mozart's Allegro maestoso of Piano Concerto No. 25 the credo of the fourth mass of Holtzmann of Mursberg, but this has been refuted by Edgar Istel in 1922.
The oratorio Esther by Jean Baptiste Lucien Grison For Guido Rimonda it is based on "Tema e variazioni in Do maggiore", a spurious work attributed to the Italian violinist Giovanni Battista Viotti. Rouget de Lisle. Only the first verse and the first chorus are sung today in France. There are some slight historical variations in the lyrics of the song; these verses were omitted from the national anthem. "La Marseillaise" was arranged for soprano and orchestra by Hector Berlioz in about 1830. Franz Liszt wrote a piano transcription of the anthem. During World War I, bandleader James Reese Europe played a jazz version of "La Marseillaise", which can be heard on part 2 of the Ken Burns TV documentary Jazz. Serge Gainsbourg recorded a reggae version in 1978, titled "Aux armes et cætera". Jacky Terrasson recorded a jazz version of "La Marseillaise", included in his 2001 album A Paris. During the French Revolution, Giuseppe Cambini published Patriotic Airs for Two Violins, in which the song is quoted and as a variation theme, with other patriotic songs.
Ludwig van Beethoven quotes "La Marseillaise" in his Wellington's Victory overture, Op. 91, composed in 1813. Gioachino Rossini quotes "La Marseillaise" in his 1813 opera, L'italiana in Algeri, during the choral introduction to Isabella's 2nd act aria "Pensa alla patria" and in the second act of his opera Semiramide. Robert Schumann used part of "La Marseillaise" for "Die beiden Grenadiere", his 1840 setting of Heinrich Heine's poem "Die Grenadiere"; the quotation appears at the end of the song. Schumann incorporated "La Marseillaise" as a major motif in his overture Hermann und Dorothea, inspired by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, quotes it, in waltz rhythm, in the first movement of Faschingsschwank aus Wien, for solo piano. Richard Wagner quotes from "La Marseillaise" in his 1839–40 setting of a French translation of Heine's poem. In Orphée aux enfers, Jac
Soviet War Memorial (Treptower Park)
The Soviet War Memorial is a war memorial and military cemetery in Berlin's Treptower Park. It was built to the design of the Soviet architect Yakov Belopolsky to commemorate 7,000 of the 80,000 Soviet soldiers who fell in the Battle of Berlin in April–May 1945, it opened four years after World War II on May 8, 1949. The Memorial served as the central war memorial of East Germany; the monument is one of three Soviet memorials built in Berlin after the end of the war. The other two memorials are the Tiergarten memorial, built in 1945 in the Tiergarten district of what became West Berlin, the Soviet War Memorial Schönholzer Heide in Berlin's Pankow district. Together with the Rear-front Memorial in Magnitogorsk and The Motherland Calls in Volgograd, the monument is a part of a triptych. At the conclusion of World War II, three Soviet war memorials were built in the city of Berlin to commemorate Soviet deaths in World War II the 80,000 that died during the Battle of Berlin; the memorials are not only commemorative, but serve as cemeteries for those killed.
A competition was announced shortly after the end of the war for the design of the park. The competition attracted 33 entries, with the eventual design a hybrid of the submissions of the architect Jakow S. Belopolski, sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich, painter Alexander A. Gorpenko and engineer Sarra S. Walerius; the sculptures, 2.5 meter diameter "Flammenschalen" were cast at the Kunstgießerei Lauchhammer in 1948. The memorial itself was built in Treptower Park on land occupied by a sports field; the memorial was completed in 1949. Rumour had it that the remains of the Reich Chancellery had been used for the construction of the memorial, but none of it is true. Around the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall, unknown persons vandalized parts of the memorial with anti-Soviet graffiti; the Spartacist party claimed that the vandals were right-wing extremists and arranged a demonstration on January 3, 1990, which the PDS supported. Through the demonstrations, the newly formed party stayed true to the communist roots of its founding party, attempted to gain political influence.
The International Communist League spoke to the crowd. Them noting that "for the first time in 60 years, Trotskyists addressed a mass audience in a workers state. Participants and those listening on radio and TV heard two counterposed programs: that of the Stalinist SED, that of the Trotskyist ICL". PDS chairman Gregor Gysi took this opportunity to call for a Verfassungsschutz for the GDR, questioned whether the Amt für Nationale Sicherheit should be reorganized or phased out. Historian Stefan Wolle believes that Stasi officers may have been behind the vandalism, since they feared for their jobs; as part of the Two Plus Four Agreement, Germany agreed to assume maintenance and repair responsibility for all war memorials in the country, including the Soviet memorial in Treptower Park. However, Germany must consult the Russian Federation before undertaking any changes to the memorial. Since 1995, an annual vigil has taken place at the memorial on May 9, organized by the Bund der Antifaschisten Treptow e.
V.. The motto of the event is the "Day of Freedom", corresponding to Victory Day, a Russian holiday and the final surrender of German soldiers at the end of World War II; the focus of the ensemble is a monument by Soviet sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich: a 12-m tall statue of a Soviet soldier with a sword holding a German child, standing over a broken swastika. According to Marshal of the Soviet Union Vasily Chuikov, the Vuchetich statue commemorates the deeds of Sergeant of Guards Nikolai Masalov, who during the final storm on the center of Berlin risked his life under heavy German machine-gun fire to rescue a three-year-old German girl whose mother had disappeared. Before the monument is a central area lined on both sides by 16 stone sarcophagi, one for each of the 16 Soviet Republics with relief carvings of military scenes and quotations from Joseph Stalin, on one side in Russian, on the other side the same text in German: "Now all recognize that the Soviet people with their selfless fight saved the civilization of Europe from fascist thugs.
This was a great achievement of the Soviet people to the history of mankind". The area is the final resting place for some 5000 soldiers of the Red Army. At the opposite end of the central area from the statue is a portal consisting of a pair of stylized Soviet flags built of red granite; these are flanked by two statues of kneeling soldiers. Beyond the flag monuments is a further sculpture, along the axis formed by the soldier monument, the main area, the flags, is another figure, of the Motherland weeping at the loss of her sons. In recent years, the ensemble has undergone a thorough renovation. In 2003 the main statue was sent to a workshop on the island of Rügen for refurbishment, it was replaced on May 4, 2004. The Soviet War Memorial is described in considerable detail in M. M. Kaye's novel "Death in Berlin", written in 1953 and based on the author's first-hand impression of the freshly inaugurated monument; the protagonists - British officers stationed in Berlin and their wives and families - are far from well disposed towards the Soviets, but are still impressed with what they see: "Two giant statues of kneeling Russian soldiers, their heads bared in homage - statues and the towering expanse of red marble dwarfing the steam of sightseers".
One of Kaye's British characters makes the prediction - since d
.svg)
