In the Tiergarten in Berlin, Germany there is a memorial for the fallen Soviet soldiers who died in the Battle of Berlin during the Second World War. The monument is located in the Tiergarten near the Reichstag and Brandenburger Tor,.a scene of heavy fighting in the last days of the Second World War.
The monument was built in 1945, only a few months after the battle, while the atrocities to the civilian population and former soldiers in Berlin were still taking place on a daily scale. The construction of the memorial started at the former Siegesallee (today it is called: Straße des 17 Juni), this Victory Alley was constructed under Emperor Wilhelm II with statues of Prussian heroes along the entire avenue. It is precisely on this avenue that the Russians built a memorial in honor of their deceased soldiers. The memorial was built while Berlin was still in ruins. A total of three large memorial sites have been built in and around Berlin in honor of the soldiers of the Red Army.
During the Battle of Berlin and its run-up, more than 81,000 Russian soldiers lost their lives, the Red Army lost almost 2,000 tanks (1997), 2,108 pieces of artillery and 917 aircraft, but won the battle and the Second World War ended after this battle on 8 May 1945. Berlin was divided into three sectors, an agreement made by the Allies to maintain a balanced interest in Berlin and to prevent Germany from a possible future war. The choice of location for the Russian memorial was surprising as it was in the British sector. After the British took control of their part in Berlin it became impossible for the Russians to visit the monument. The British did allow Russian guards at the monument though.
Het Soviet War Monument
The monument to fallen soldiers was erected by decision of the Military Council of the 1st Belarusian Front according to the design of the sculptors L.E. Kerbel and V.E. Tsigal and architect N.V. Sergievsky on what was then Charlottenburg Highway (now 17 June Street). The monument was inaugurated on November 11, 1945 with a parade of Allied troops.
The central part of the monument is a concave row of columns with a larger central column serving as a pedestal for an eight-meter-tall bronze statue of a Soviet soldier. The gun on his shoulder speaks of the end of the war. The inscriptions on the columns tell about the different branches of the army and keep lists of dead soldiers. On both sides of the monument there are two T-34-76 tanks, one of which was No. 300, which reached Berlin from the outskirts of Leningrad, and two guns – ML-20 howitzers, which took part in the Battle of Berlin . To the right and left of the main path are the graves of fallen Soviet officers.
Behind the soldier, in a small park, lie the remains of Soviet soldiers. The exact number of people buried here is unknown and varies from 2000 to 2500 people according to various unconfirmed sources. The names of 178 soldiers and officers are immortalized on memorial plaques. There are errors in some of the data immortalized on the memorial plaques of fallen soldiers.
For many years, the territory of the monument was a Soviet enclave within the territory of the former British sector of the occupation of Berlin. Until the final withdrawal of the Group of Soviet Troops in Germany (ZGV) in 1994, a ceremonial guard from the 1st Motorized Rifle Company of the 133rd Separate Motorized Rifle Battalion of the 6th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade stood at the monument.
Visit
The monument is free to visit, it is a short walk form the Brandenburger Tor and the Reichstag.
