Victory Monument
The majestic Victory Monument was an obelisk soaring upward, erected on Poklonnaya Hill in Moscow in honour of the Great Victory over fascism and the key role of the Soviet Union in the destruction of this world evil. In 1958, a granite sign was installed on Poklonnaya Hill that a monument to the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 would be erected here. In the late 1980s, the whole country worked on subbotniks, transferring funds for the construction of a memorial and a museum dedicated to the heroic and tragic period in the history of the Motherland. At the same time, they chose what the memorial would be. Sketches were presented by many famous Soviet artists and sculptors. Such options were offered as a sculpture of Red Army soldiers holding the Victory Banner, two semi-arches to which a cubic block of numbers 1941-1945 would be attached with cables, and a giant bell, as well as other options with arches and bells. The project of the group of the sculptor Zurab Tsereteli, the architects Leonid Vavakin and Vladimir Budaev was approved. The Victory Monument is an obelisk, weighing 1,000 tons, in the form of an army bayonet of the 1898 model. On May 9, 1995, the Victory Monument was inaugurated. Its height is 141.8 meters: every 10 centimeters of height symbolize one day of the Great Patriotic War. On the edge of the bayonet-obelisk there are bronze bas-reliefs with episodes of the Battles of Stalingrad and Kursk, the Belarusian operation. At a height of 104 meters, it is decorated with the goddess of Victory Nika with angels trumpeting Victory. At the foot of the monument there is a sculpture of the patron saint of Moscow — St. George the Victorious. He, like on the coat of arms of the capital, deals with a huge snake. The Victory Monument is a complex engineering structure. The frame is made of high-carbon alloy steel, protected from corrosion. Multi—ton counterweights are built into its pedestal, and the bayonet itself has elements that protect it from strong winds. The station for monitoring the state of the Victory Monument is equipped in the design of the pedestal. Inside the obelisk there is an elevator that lifts to a height of 87 meters.
Address: Moscow, Victory Park
