1) I knew about Treptower Park since I was 10 years old, when my relative, a veteran of the Second World War, then gave me to read a large book about the history of World War 2, in which, already in the chapters on the final period of the Great Patriotic War, it was about Berlin operation.

2) The park itself is located in the area of ​​​​the S-Bahn station of the same name, from where you can walk along Puschinalle (Pushkin St.) for about 1 km. In this area, Russian-speaking citizens, locals or tourists very often came across, I can’t say. Apparently, the location of the Belarusian embassy nearby is affecting, which the Belarusians themselves are somewhat unhappy with, comparing with the Russian embassy, ​​located almost in the very center of Berlin, 200 meters from the Brandenburg Gate.
The Belarusian citizens themselves immediately blamed Alexander Lukashenko for this because the Belarusian embassy is on the outskirts of the city, and the Russian one is in the center.

3) Apparently, Russian-speaking tourists are often brought to the monument to the Soviet soldier-liberator. Interestingly, the Treptow-Park area is located 3 km from the former border between West and East Berlin, which ran along the Landwehrkanal canal. It was worth crossing one bridge across this canal, so instantly the ethnic picture changed. An interesting point. Before the former border of the GDR and West Berlin, Russian speakers, after immigrants from African countries and Turkey. Great experience of cross-cultural transition.

4) And now to the monument itself. After the end of the existence of the GDR, the Treptow-Park complex was in disrepair. There were proposals to completely demolish all the plates with the statements of I. Stalin, calling the monument itself the last monument in the world to Joseph Vissarionovich.

5) More than 7,000 Soviet soldiers are buried on the territory of the memorial erected to commemorate the defeat of National Socialism. During the Berlin operation and in the battles for Berlin from April 16 to May 2, more than 75,000 Soviet soldiers died. In 1946, the Soviet military administration decided to refurbish the Soviet military graves in Berlin. The place was chosen by the Soviet command and enshrined in order number 134. Along with the already created in 1945 memorial in the Tiergarten, where there was a burial place for more than 2,000 Soviet soldiers, additional mass graves were planned for the dead soldiers of the Red Army.

6) On May 8, 1949, the largest Soviet military memorial outside the Soviet Union was solemnly opened in Treptov. The significance of the memorial goes far beyond Berlin and Germany. In the central part of the park, on a large meadow, there is a figure of a Soviet soldier cutting a swastika with a sword, and with a rescued child on his arm, which is a world-famous symbol of the contribution of the Soviet Union to the defeat of National Socialism (authors: architect Yakov Belopolsky and sculptor Evgeny Vuchetich).

7) For the construction, granite from the Reich Chancellery of Hitler was used. The monument is not an abstract monument, it is a monument to Sergeant Nikolai Masalov, who actually saved a German girl.

8) It should be added that the sculptor Evgeny Vuchetich is one of the creators of one of the highest statues in the world of the sculptural composition "Motherland" on Mamaev Kurgan in Volgograd.

9) Monument "Warrior-Liberator" - Sculptor E. V. Vuchetich, architect Ya. B. Belopolsky, artist A. V. Gorpenko, engineer S. S. Valerius. Opened May 8, 1949. Height - 12 meters. Weight - 70 tons.
Inside the pedestal is a round memorial hall. The walls of the hall are decorated with mosaic panels (artist A. A. Gorpenko). The panel depicts representatives of different nations, including the peoples of the Caucasus and Central Asia, laying wreaths at the grave of Soviet soldiers. Above their heads, in Russian and German, it is written: “Now everyone recognizes that the Soviet people, by their selfless struggle, saved the civilization of Europe from fascist pogromists. This is the great merit of the Soviet people to the history of mankind ”(quote from the report of I.V. Stalin on the 27th anniversary of the October Revolution.

10) There are three versions of who exactly posed for the sculptor E.V. Vuchetich for the soldier’s monument. Nevertheless, they do not contradict each other, since it is possible that different people could pose for the sculptor at different times.
- According to the memoirs of retired colonel Viktor Mikhailovich Gunaza, in 1945, in the Austrian city of Mariazell, where Soviet units were quartered, he posed for young Vuchetich. Initially, according to the memoirs of V. M. Gunaza, Vuchetich planned to sculpt a soldier holding a boy, and it was Gunaza who advised him to replace the boy with a girl.
- According to other sources, a sergeant of the Soviet army Ivan Stepanovich Odarchenko posed for the sculptor in Berlin for a year and a half. Odarchenko also posed for the artist A. A. Gorpenko, who created a mosaic panel inside the pedestal of the monument. On this panel, Odarchenko is depicted twice - as a soldier with the sign of the Hero of the Soviet Union and a helmet in his hands, and also as a worker in blue overalls with his head bowed, holding a wreath. After demobilization, Ivan Odarchenko settled in Tambov, worked at a factory. He died in July 2013 at the age of 86.
- According to an interview with Father Raphael, the son-in-law of the commandant of Berlin A. G. Kotikov, who refers to the unpublished memoirs of his father-in-law, the cook of the Soviet commandant's office in Berlin posed as a soldier. Later, upon returning to Moscow, this cook became the chef of the Prague restaurant.

A small German girl is frightened pressed against the chest of a Soviet soldier who is standing on the fragments of a swastika with a lowered sword. This is the world-famous monument to the Soldier-Liberator in Berlin's Treptow Park. The memorial was officially opened on May 8, 1949. The group of authors was headed by architect Yakov Belopolsky and sculptor Evgeny Vuchetich.

Not everyone knows that according to the original idea, in Treptow Park, where the ashes of more than 5 thousand Soviet soldiers and officers are buried, there should have been a majestic figure of Stalin with a globe in his hands. This is exactly how the first Soviet marshal, Kliment Voroshilov, imagined the monument when, immediately after the end of the Potsdam Conference of the Heads of the Allied Powers, he summoned the sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich to his place. However, the front-line soldier Yevgeny Vuchetich, just in case, made the second option - with a Red Army soldier holding a German girl in his arms. Both projects were presented to Stalin, and he chose the "fallback" option.

The prototype of the "Warrior-Liberator" was Sergeant Nikolai Masalov, who on April 26, 1945, during the battle, carried a three-year-old German girl out of the firing zone. The hero himself recalled his feat like this: “Under the bridge, I saw a three-year-old girl sitting next to her murdered mother. The baby had blond hair, slightly curled at the forehead. She kept fiddling with her mother's belt and calling: "Mutter, mutter!" No time to think here. I am a girl in an armful - and back. And how she sounds! I'm on the go and so and so I persuade: shut up, they say, otherwise you will open me. Here, indeed, the Nazis began to shoot. Thanks to our people - they helped us out, opened fire from all trunks.

Marshal Chuikov was the first to tell about the feat of Masalov. The very fact of Masalov's feat is documented, but during the GDR, eyewitness accounts were collected about dozens of other similar cases throughout Berlin. Before the assault, many inhabitants remained in the city. The National Socialists did not allow the civilian population to leave it, intending to defend the capital of the "Third Reich to the last." After the war, Yevgeny Vuchetich met with Nikolai Masalov, whose feat prompted him the key idea of ​​the monument in Treptow Park: saving a girl, a soldier protects peace and life.

However, Vutechich chose a completely different person as a sitter. At the celebration of the Day of the athlete, the sculptor noticed 21-year-old private Ivan Odarchenko, who participated in running competitions. It is curious that Odarchenko, who served in Berlin, was on guard at the monument to the “Liberator Soldier” several times. People constantly approached Ivan and were amazed at the resemblance to the monument, but the private guard did not reveal to the visitors the secret of this resemblance. According to the memoirs of Ivan Odarchenko, the model for the statue of the girl that the warrior holds in his arms was first a German girl, and then a Russian - 3-year-old Sveta - the daughter of the commandant of Berlin, General Kotikov.

Many believed that the sword was out of place in the statue of the Liberator Warrior, and advised the sculptor to change it to some modern weapon, for example, to a machine gun. But Vuchetich insisted on the sword. In addition, he did not make a sword at all, but exactly copied the sword of the Pskov prince Gabriel, who, together with Alexander Nevsky, fought for Russia against the “knight dogs”.

Work on the memorial was carried out for 3 years. Interestingly, granite from the Reich Chancellery of Hitler was used for the construction. The 13-meter bronze figure of the "Warrior-Liberator" was made in St. Petersburg and weighed 72 tons. In Berlin, it was transported in parts by sea.

In the autumn of October 1, 2003, the sculpture of the warrior was dismantled and sent for restoration. In the spring of 2004, the monument to the soldiers of the Soviet Army who fell in the battles against fascism in Berlin was returned to its original place.

The status of the monument and all Soviet military cemeteries is enshrined in a separate chapter of the "two plus four" unification agreement concluded between the FRG, the GDR and the victorious powers in World War II. According to this document, the memorial is guaranteed an eternal status, and the German authorities are obliged to finance its maintenance, ensure integrity and safety. Which is done in the best way.

The second largest park in Berlin is a witness to many events that took place in Germany and Europe over the course of a century. Spread out on the river bank of the Spree, it remembers both calm and serene times, and exciting anti-fascist rallies, inspired speeches by Clara Zetkin, cruel episodes of the Second World War and the collapse of Hitler's plans. Now Treptow Park in the imagination of the whole world is associated with the Memorial to Soviet soldiers who liberated Europe from the fascist plague.

A nice bonus only for our readers - a discount coupon when paying for tours on the site until February 28:

• AF500guruturizma - promo code for 500 rubles for tours from 40,000 rubles
• AFT1500guruturizma - promo code for tours to Thailand from 80,000 rubles

Until March 10, the promotional code AF2000TUITRV is valid, which gives a discount of 2,000 rubles on tours to Jordan and Israel from 100,000 rubles. from tour operator TUI. Arrival dates from 28.02 to 05.05.2019.

Even F. I. Tyutchev, while in the diplomatic service in Germany, noted how much attention the Germans pay to gardens and other green spaces, how they carefully preserve the flora and increase it. Such was Gustav Meyer, according to whose project Treptow Park was created on the site of the former Boucher apple orchard. A talented designer who cares about the prosperity of the city, planned the unique territory of the future park and put a lot of effort into bringing the project to life. He did not live to see the opening of the park in 1888, taking part only in laying it out, but Mayer's landscape design was completely preserved. Already in the 50s of the 20th century, a magnificent garden of roses (25 thousand bushes) and sunflowers was laid.

Treptow Park - a favorite place for leisure

Beautiful alleys, ponds, fountains, a rose garden, sports grounds are located here in accordance with the design of a landscape engineer. As a sign of grateful memory, his bust, with a raised head, as if peering into a park perspective, is installed under the canopy of trees, in a cozy corner of one of the alleys. After the opening, the townspeople immediately fell in love with the park, where you can walk under the shade of sprawling lindens and oaks, ride boats along the Spree, eat ice cream in a cafe, and feed the fish in the pond. Various competitions were organized on the sports grounds, competitions were organized. Revolutionary-minded fighters for freedom and justice gathered here, speeches by German Marxists were heard, and the feminist Clara Zetkin proclaimed the idea of ​​holding Women's Day.

It is no coincidence that this place was chosen to perpetuate the grateful memory of the Soviet soldiers-liberators, who cleansed Europe from the vices of fascism.

Soldiers Memorial

Created by the joint efforts of architects, sculptors and designers, the memorial complex to the glory of the Russian soldier is the largest and most majestic military monument outside of Russia. In terms of worldwide fame and scale, it is not inferior to the Mamaev Kurgan memorial in Volgograd (former Stalingrad). Treptow Park is a sacred place for both Russians and Europeans, because almost 7,000 Soviet soldiers who died in the battles for Berlin are buried in its land. Where, if not here, above the sacrificial ashes of the saviors of a foreign country, is a grandiose structure destined to stand, embodying in granite the ideas of humanism and the victory of good over evil?!

A Brief History of the Creation of the Treptower Park Memorial

When the site of the complex was approved, the government of the USSR issued a decree on the competitive creation of the best project, as a result, the works of the architect Yakov Belopoltsev and the young sculptor Evgeny Vuchetich turned out to be such. Large-scale work began on the selected site of the park and on the sculptural creations of the memorial. 60 German sculptors, 200 stonemasons, 1200 ordinary workers were mobilized. Granite from the former Nazi Reich Chancellery was widely used in the construction of the memorial. For the main sculpture of a Soviet warrior, with a sword in one hand and a little girl in the other, among the SA soldiers, Vuchetich chose a prototype of a warrior in the person of Sergeant Nikolai Masalov, who actually saved a German girl who found herself in a tragic situation during the shelling.

The history of the monument to the Liberator Soldier

A three-year-old child was crying over her murdered mother, and this mournful cry, coming from the destroyed house, was heard by the soldiers in the intervals between artillery salvos. Masalov, according to the memoirs of Marshal Chuikov, at the risk of being killed, rushed into the ruins and pulled out the trembling girl. During the rescue operation, he was injured. In the memoirs of the fighters who liberated Berlin, such cases were mentioned more than once, so the impressive monument to the warrior-savior of children is fully justified. Two more men of athletic build served as a sculptor in kind: Ivan Odarchenko and Viktor Gunaz, a German girl and the daughter of the commandant of Berlin, Sveta Kotikova, who later replaced her.

Sculptural symbols of the main monument

The Memorial to the Soldier-Liberator is a symbol of a courageous soldier, a generalized image of a humane defender, ready to sacrifice his life for the sake of a child's life. The gesture of a soldier who nailed a fascist swastika with a sword is also symbolic, like St. George, who pierced the insidious Serpent with a spear. Moreover, the sculptor sculpted the sword by analogy with the authentic sword of Prince Vsevolod of Pskov, who won many victories over his enemies. On his sword, which has survived to this day, the inscription is squeezed out: "I will not yield my honor to anyone." Vuchetich chose the prince's sword, despite objections, as a symbol of Russian weapons, reliable protection of his native land, remembering the catchphrase: "Whoever comes to us with a sword will die by the sword." The defenseless figure of a girl is also symbolic, trustingly clinging to the broad chest of a mighty warrior, designed to ensure the cloudless happiness of all children, regardless of nationality.

The monument is installed on a grave hill, on a high white pedestal, with the Room of Memory and Sorrow located inside, in which there is a parchment tome in a scarlet velvet binding with the names and surnames of all those buried in a mass grave.

Unique interiors of the Memorial Room

The walls of the memorial room are covered with mosaic paintings depicting representatives of the fraternal republics laying commemorative wreaths at the graves of fallen soldiers of different nationalities. But the room is always full of natural wreaths and flowers brought by Russian tourists and emigrants. The ceiling is decorated with a real work of applied art - a symbolic chandelier - the Order of Victory, made of magnificent rubies and rock crystals sparkling with diamond shine.

Sculptures-monuments of the memorial complex

A memorial field with 5 mass graves, marble sarcophagi opens up to the gaze of a granite warrior; with Eternal Flame burning in granite bowls. The sad sarcophagi are engraved with excerpts from the statements of Stalin, the commander of the great Victory, which later aroused the objection of German officials. But their demand was considered unfounded and, according to the framework of the agreement, the words of the “father of nations” forever remained a spiritual particle of the memorial.

At the entrance there are symbolic gates in the form of 2 half-mast banners made of red granite, under which there are sculptural images of a young and old soldier frozen in a mournful kneeling pose.

An expressive sculpture “Grieving Mother” is installed in front of the entrance, when you look at it, tears well up in your eyes: so much hopeless grief and maternal love is captured in a stunningly lively figure of a woman with a mournfully bowed head. She "sits", pressing one hand to her heart, and the other leans on the pedestal, as if looking for support in order to adequately survive the sad loss of her sons. The disturbing soul "granite mother" symbolizes all the mothers of the world, whose sons died in wars. An alley of Russian birch trees stretches on both sides of the memorial to the Liberator Soldier as a symbolic connection between mother and son-soldier.

The sculpture of a grieving Soviet soldier is located on a pedestal of white granite slabs against the backdrop of a red granite obelisk. In the bronze figure of a warrior kneeling; in the lowered head, the removed helmet, one feels sadness for the dead comrades and a mournful protest against the cruel senselessness of the war. But in the firm gesture of his hand, squeezing the lowered machine gun, in the whole courageous figure and inner restraint, one senses the potential of a force that can be reborn if necessary.

Memorial Status

The grand opening of the grandiose Memorial complex took place on the eve of Victory Day on May 9, 1949 in the presence of representatives of the official authorities of the Soviet Union and Germany, participants in the liberation of Berlin. Hundreds of Berliners came to Treptow Park that day to bow to the ingenious sculptural sculptures that embodied the tragedy of war and the greatness of the Victory. Soon, an agreement was concluded between the states without a statute of limitations, according to which the memorial was transferred under the jurisdiction of the Berlin authorities.

the treaties oblige them to maintain proper order, to carry out the necessary restoration work and not to change anything on the memorial square without agreement with the representatives of the USSR. Not so long ago, the monument to the warrior-liberator was restored, and the ideal order is maintained around. Now Russians, Jews living in Germany, Russian tourists and anti-fascists from all over the world come here on memorable dates. When visiting the Memorial, the words of Robert Rozhdestvensky are recalled: “People, remember, in years, in centuries, remember that this will never happen again, remember!”

Treptow Park today

He continues to live his measured life: in spring, summer and early autumn, rides are still working here, tourists and the local public are walking along the cozy alleys. Parents come with their children, for whom a playground with dizzying slides, entertaining towers and other attractions is equipped. There are many who want to make boat trips on the water surface of the Spree: boats are rented at the park's boat station.

Archenhold Observatory

and Berliners are happy to visit the local observatory Archenhold, where a powerful telescope with strong lenses is installed. This is the oldest and largest public observatory in Berlin, the opening of which was timed to coincide with the traveling industrial exhibition on May 1, 1896. At first it was a wooden building with a telescope placed in it. In 1908, the dilapidated building was removed and an impressive building of classical architecture was built.

The first report on the theory of relativity made by Einstein took place in it on June 2, 1915. Later, the observatory turned into a whole complex equipped with modern equipment due to the attached planetarium buildings, a lecture hall and educational buildings. Together with the German Technical Museum, the observatory conducts educational and recreational activities, public lectures, and correspondence planetary travel.

Monument "Warrior-Liberator" in Berlin (Berlin, Germany) - description, history, location, reviews, photos and videos.

• Tours for May around the world
• Hot tours around the world

Previous photo Next photo

How to get there: by train to the station. Treptower Park or buses No. 166, 265, 365.

Opening hours: around the clock 7 days a week. Entrance to the park and memorial hall is free.

Add a review

Track

Other attractions nearby

Berlin and East Germany

• Where to stay: In hotels of any "star" and pricing policy in Berlin, near attractions or on the budget outskirts. The choice of hotels in Brandenburg and Potsdam is no less, in addition, there is wonderful nature and about 500 palaces and estates in the vicinity. Everyone whose soul is not indifferent to beauty will like the "German Florence" - Dresden with its baroque mansions and art collections. Leipzig is the most inspiring city in Germany: the works of Bach, Schumann, Wagner, Mendelssohn and Goethe are proof of this.
• What to watch: The Reichstag, the Brandenburg Gate and the Berlin Wall, as well as a lot of interesting museums and monuments in Berlin. In Brandenburg, you should definitely visit the brilliant royal estates, and in

... And in Berlin on a festive date

Was erected to stand for centuries,

Monument to the Soviet soldier

With a rescued girl in her arms.

It stands as a symbol of our glory,

Like a beacon glowing in the dark.

He is the soldier of my state -

Keeping peace throughout the world!

G. Rublev

On May 8, 1950, one of the most majestic symbols of the Great Victory was opened in Berlin's Treptow Park. A warrior-liberator with a German girl in his hands climbed to a multi-meter height. This 13-meter monument has become epochal in its own way.

Millions of people visiting Berlin try to visit this place in order to bow to the great feat of the Soviet people. Not everyone knows that, according to the original idea, in Treptow Park, where the ashes of more than 5 thousand Soviet soldiers and officers are buried, there should have been a majestic figure of Comrade. Stalin. And in the hands of this bronze idol was supposed to hold a globe. Like, "the whole world is in our hands."

This is exactly the idea that the first Soviet marshal, Kliment Voroshilov, imagined when he called the sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich to himself immediately after the end of the Potsdam Conference of the Heads of the Allied Powers. But the front-line soldier, the sculptor Vuchetich, just in case, prepared another option - an ordinary Russian soldier, who stomped from the walls of Moscow to Berlin, who saved a German girl, should pose. They say that the leader of all times and peoples, having looked at both proposed options, chose the second one. And he only asked to replace the machine gun in the hands of a soldier with something more symbolic, for example, a sword. And for him to cut the fascist swastika ...

Why a warrior and a girl? Evgeny Vuchetich was familiar with the story of the feat of Sergeant Nikolai Masalov ...

A few minutes before the start of a furious attack on German positions, he suddenly heard, as if from under the ground, a child's cry. Nikolai rushed to the commander: “I know how to find a child! Permit! And a second later he rushed in search. Weeping came from under the bridge. However, it is better to give the floor to Masalov himself. Nikolai Ivanovich recalled this: “Under the bridge, I saw a three-year-old girl sitting next to her murdered mother. The baby had blond hair, slightly curled at the forehead. She kept fiddling with her mother's belt and calling: "Mutter, mutter!" No time to think here. I am a girl in an armful - and back. And how she sounds! I'm on the go and so and so I persuade: shut up, they say, otherwise you will open me. Here, indeed, the Nazis began to shoot. Thanks to our people - they helped us out, opened fire from all trunks.

At this moment, Nikolai was wounded in the leg. But he didn’t leave the girl, he informed his friends ... And a few days later the sculptor Vuchetich appeared in the regiment, who made several sketches for his future sculpture ...

This is the most common version that the soldier Nikolai Masalov (1921-2001) was the historical prototype for the monument. In 2003, a plaque was erected on the Potsdamer Bridge (Potsdamer Brücke) in Berlin in memory of the feat accomplished in this place.

The story is based primarily on the memoirs of Marshal Vasily Chuikov. The very fact of Masalov's feat is confirmed, but during the GDR, eyewitness accounts were collected about other similar cases throughout Berlin. There were several dozen of them. Before the assault, many inhabitants remained in the city. The National Socialists did not allow the civilian population to leave it, intending to defend the capital of the "Third Reich" to the last.

The names of the soldiers who posed for Vuchetich after the war are precisely known: Ivan Odarchenko and Viktor Gunaz. Odarchenko served in the Berlin commandant's office. The sculptor noticed him during sports competitions. After the opening of the Odarchenko memorial, it happened to be on duty near the monument, and many visitors, who did not suspect anything, were surprised at the obvious portrait resemblance. By the way, at the beginning of work on the sculpture, he held a German girl in his arms, but then she was replaced by the little daughter of the commandant of Berlin.

Interestingly, after the opening of the monument in Treptow Park, Ivan Odarchenko, who served in the Berlin commandant's office, guarded the "bronze soldier" several times. People approached him, marveling at his resemblance to a warrior-liberator. But modest Ivan never told that it was he who posed for the sculptor. And the fact that the original idea to hold a German girl in her arms, in the end, had to be abandoned.

The prototype of the child was 3-year-old Svetochka, daughter of the commandant of Berlin, General Kotikov. By the way, the sword was not at all far-fetched, but an exact copy of the sword of the Pskov prince Gabriel, who, together with Alexander Nevsky, fought against the “knight dogs”.

It is interesting that the sword in the hands of the "Warrior-Liberator" has a connection with other famous monuments: it is understood that the sword in the hands of the soldier is the same sword that the worker passes to the warrior depicted on the monument "Rear to the Front" (Magnitogorsk), and which then raises the Motherland on Mamaev Kurgan in Volgograd.

The "Supreme Commander-in-Chief" is reminiscent of his numerous quotes carved on symbolic sarcophagi in Russian and German. After the reunification of Germany, some German politicians demanded their removal, referring to the crimes committed during the Stalinist dictatorship, but the entire complex, according to interstate agreements, is under state protection. No changes without the consent of Russia are unacceptable here.

Reading Stalin's quotes today evokes ambiguous feelings and emotions, makes us remember and think about the fate of millions of people in Germany and the former Soviet Union who died in Stalin's times. But in this case, the quotations should not be taken out of the general context, they are a document of history, necessary for its comprehension.

After the Battle of Berlin, the sports park near Treptower Allee became a military cemetery. The mass graves are located under the alleys of the memory park.

The work began when the Berliners, not yet separated by a wall, were rebuilding their city from the ruins brick by brick. Vuchetich was assisted by German engineers. The widow of one of them, Helga Köpfstein, recalls that many things about this project seemed unusual to them.

Helga Köpfstein, tour guide: “We asked why a soldier does not have a machine gun in his hands, but a sword? We were told that the sword is a symbol. A Russian soldier defeated the Teutonic Knights on Lake Peipsi, and a few centuries later he reached Berlin and defeated Hitler.

60 German sculptors and 200 masons were involved in the manufacture of sculptural elements according to Vuchetich's sketches, and a total of 1,200 workers participated in the construction of the memorial. All of them received additional allowances and food. The German workshops also made bowls for the eternal flame and a mosaic in the mausoleum under the sculpture of the warrior-liberator.

Work on the memorial was carried out for 3 years by the architect Y. Belopolsky and the sculptor E. Vuchetich. Interestingly, granite from the Reich Chancellery of Hitler was used for the construction. The 13-meter figure of the Liberator Warrior was made in St. Petersburg and weighed 72 tons. She was transported to Berlin in parts by water. According to Vuchetich, after one of the best German foundry workers in the most accurate way examined the sculpture made in Leningrad and made sure that everything was done flawlessly, he approached the sculpture, kissed its base and said: “Yes, this is a Russian miracle!”

In addition to the memorial in Treptow Park, monuments to Soviet soldiers were erected in two more places immediately after the war. Around 2,000 fallen soldiers are buried in the Tiergarten park in central Berlin. There are over 13,000 in the Schönholzer Heide park in Berlin's Pankow district.

During the GDR, the memorial complex in Treptow Park served as a venue for various kinds of official events and had the status of one of the most important state monuments. On August 31, 1994, a thousand Russian and six hundred German soldiers participated in the solemn verification dedicated to the memory of the fallen and the withdrawal of Russian troops from united Germany, and Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Russian President Boris Yeltsin took part in the parade.

The status of the monument and all Soviet military cemeteries is enshrined in a separate chapter of the agreement concluded between the FRG, the GDR and the victorious powers in World War II. According to this document, the memorial is guaranteed an eternal status, and the German authorities are obliged to finance its maintenance, ensure integrity and safety. Which is done in the best way.

It is impossible not to tell about the further fate of Nikolai Masalov and Ivan Odarchenko. Nikolai Ivanovich, after demobilization, returned to his native village of Voznesenka, Tisulsky district, Kemerovo region. A unique case - his parents took four sons to the front and all four returned home with a victory. Nikolai Ivanovich could not work on a tractor because of contusions, and after moving to the city of Tyazhin, he got a job as a supply manager in a kindergarten. This is where the journalists found him. 20 years after the end of the war, fame fell upon Masalov, which, however, he treated with his usual modesty.

In 1969 he was awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of Berlin. But talking about his heroic deed, Nikolai Ivanovich never tired of emphasizing: what he accomplished was no feat, many would have done the same in his place. So it was in life. When the German Komsomol members decided to find out about the fate of the rescued girl, they received hundreds of letters describing such cases. And the rescue of at least 45 boys and girls by Soviet soldiers was documented. Today Nikolai Ivanovich Masalov is no longer alive ...

But Ivan Odarchenko still lives in the city of Tambov (information for 2007). He worked in a factory and then retired. He buried his wife, but the veteran has frequent guests - his daughter and granddaughter. And Ivan Stepanovich was often invited to parades dedicated to the Great Victory to portray a liberator with a girl in his arms ... And on the 60th anniversary of the Victory, the Memory Train even brought an 80-year-old veteran and his comrades to Berlin.

Last year, a scandal broke out in Germany around the monuments to Soviet soldiers-liberators, installed in Berlin's Treptow Park and the Tiergarten. In connection with the recent events in Ukraine, journalists from popular German publications sent letters to the Bundestag demanding that the legendary monuments be dismantled.

One of the publications that signed the frankly provocative petition was the Bild newspaper. Journalists write that Russian tanks have no place near the famous Brandenburg Gate. “As long as Russian troops threaten the security of a free and democratic Europe, we do not want to see a single Russian tank in the center of Berlin,” angry media workers write. In addition to the authors of Bild, this document was also signed by representatives of the Berliner Tageszeitung.

German journalists believe that Russian military units stationed near the Ukrainian border threaten the independence of a sovereign state. “For the first time since the end of the Cold War, Russia is trying to suppress a peaceful revolution in Eastern Europe by force,” German journalists write.

The scandalous document was sent to the Bundestag. By law, the German authorities must consider it within two weeks.

This statement by German journalists caused a storm of indignation among the readers of Bild and Berliner Tageszeitung. Many believe that the newspapermen deliberately escalate the situation around the Ukrainian issue.

For sixty years, this monument has truly become accustomed to Berlin. It was on postage stamps and coins, in the days of the GDR here, probably, half of the population of East Berlin was accepted as pioneers. In the nineties, after the unification of the country, Berliners from the west and east held anti-fascist rallies here.

And neo-Nazis have repeatedly beaten marble slabs and painted swastikas on obelisks. But every time the walls were washed, and the broken slabs were replaced with new ones. The Soviet soldier in Treptover Park is one of the most well-kept monuments in Berlin. Germany spent about three million euros on its reconstruction. Some people were very annoyed.

Hans Georg Büchner, architect, former member of the Berlin Senate: “What is there to hide, we had one member of the Berlin Senate in the early nineties. When your troops were withdrawn from Germany, this figure shouted - let them take this monument with them. Now no one even remembers his name.”

A monument can be called a national one if people go to it not only on Victory Day. Sixty years have changed Germany a lot, but they have not been able to change the way Germans look at their history. And in the old GDR guidebooks, and on modern travel sites - this is a monument to the "Soviet soldier-liberator". To a simple man who came to Europe in peace.