Memory Route for the 70th Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War

In the middle of the 20th century, the Soviet Union endured the Great Patriotic War, one of the most tragic periods in Russian history, in which more than 20 million Soviet citizens died. Victory over Nazi Germany came on 9 May 1945. Soviet troops left Veliky Novgorod on 19 August 1941, and the German occupation lasted 883 days. The city was liberated on 20 January 1944, when Red Army soldiers raised a banner on the ancient Kremlin wall. In 2008 Veliky Novgorod was awarded the title “City of Military Glory.” Today the city preserves this memory through monuments, stelae, memorial plaques and obelisks. The route begins with Prince Alexander Nevsky, remembered as a warrior, ruler and defender of the country; he also topped the nationwide “Name of Russia” vote. The Hall of Military Glory presents the thousand-year history of Novgorod residents defending their city and country. Nearby stands the “City of Military Glory” stela, opened before the 65th anniversary of Victory: a 10-metre granite column crowned with Russia’s coat of arms. Four smaller stelae depict four periods of military history—Ancient Rus, the Tsardom of Moscow, the Russian Empire and modern history. Near the House of Children’s Creativity is a monument to teenage partisan Lenya Golikov, born in Lukino village in Parfinsky District. During the war he took part in 27 combat operations and killed 78 German soldiers and officers; he was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. In the Kremlin, between the Zlatoustovskaya Tower and the now-lost Voskresenskaya Tower, is the Eternal Flame of Glory. The flame was lit 50 years ago, on the 20th anniversary of Victory over Nazi Germany, from the Eternal Flame on the Field of Mars in St. Petersburg. On the bank of the Volkhov River by the Novgorod Kremlin stands the Victory Monument, opened on the 30th anniversary of Novgorod’s liberation. A mounted warrior raises a sword above a defeated swastika. The monument weighs 27 tonnes and is 8 metres high. Nearby is the memorial complex for the 30th anniversary of liberation, guarded by two 76-millimetre ZiS-3 anti-tank divisional guns and a T-70 tank. The ZiS-3 model of 1942 became the most widely produced Soviet artillery gun of the war. The T-70, recovered from Lake Ilmen and installed in 1964, took part in the liberation of Novgorod. Across the Volkhov at Yaroslav's Court, between the Church of St. Paraskeva Pyatnitsa and the river, a memorial honours Soviet soldiers Ivan Gerasimenko, Leonty Cheremnov and Alexander Krasilov, who in January 1942 covered the embrasures of German bunkers with their bodies to save their comrades. An obelisk on the riverbank marks the site. Alexander Pankratov performed a similar feat in 1942, covering an enemy machine-gun barrel with his body during the fighting for Novgorod. His obelisk stands on the road out of the city toward Moscow, on the left bank of the Maly Volkhovets; a bust erected in the year of the 70th anniversary of the Great Victory stands at the intersection of Pankratova and Rogatitsy streets. Nearby is the “Defence Line” memorial. Its inscription states that the German advance was halted here in August 1941 and that soldiers of the Volkhov Front held the enemy for 795 days and nights. A T-34 tank stands by the central stela; it was the Soviet Army’s main tank until the middle of 1944, when the T-34-85 replaced it. Volkhov Front troops took part in the Novgorod-Luga offensive of 1944 that liberated Novgorod. A MiG-17 monument to the airmen of the Volkhov Front was installed in Kolmovo 40 years after Victory. Its inscription commemorates the 40th anniversary of the Soviet people’s victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945. One of the largest airfields of the North-Western Front was in Kresttsy, Novgorod Region; at the entrance to the settlement stands a MiG 16 monument with red stars on its wings and tail. Toward St. Petersburg, near Myasnoy Bor, lies the so-called Valley of Death, where tens of thousands of Russian, German and Spanish soldiers died during the Great Patriotic War. Soviet soldiers fought here for besieged Leningrad. In January 1942 the Red Army attempted to break through, and the narrow strip of forest and marsh became known for its enormous losses. Around 20 thousand soldiers are buried at the military cemetery. The memorial complex lies at km 535 of the M-10 “Russia” highway. A roofed Orthodox chapel without walls or doors stands beside an avenue lined with granite slabs bearing the names of those buried here. The “Dolina” Search Expedition in memory of N. I. Orlov works to find missing soldiers and rebury their remains. Over 25 years its teams found and buried the remains of more than 105 thousand Red Army soldiers and commanders and established the names of more than 20 thousand defenders. The international festival “Forgotten Feat — Second Shock Army” is held annually in Tesovo-Netylsky and is one of the largest independent military-history events in northwestern Russia. Another major memorial complex, Yasnaya Polyana, is in Parfinsky District. Every year before 9 May local residents and members of the Dolina expedition gather there to honour the fallen. A mass grave of Soviet soldiers also lies on Korovnikova Street in the western part of Veliky Novgorod. The street is named after Colonel General Ivan Terentyevich Korovnikov, commander of the 59th Army, which defeated Army Group North and liberated Novgorod during the Novgorod-Luga offensive. Near Khutyn Monastery stands the memorial to the 229th Rifle Division, marked by huge figures “229” and a hand gripping a submachine gun. Its inscription commemorates 1075 soldiers of the 229th Rifle Division who died here in March–April 1943. In Staraya Russa, the Museum of the North-Western Front is Russia’s first and only museum devoted to the wartime operations of an entire Red Army front. Its exhibits include wartime weapons, models of Soviet and German equipment, a partisan dugout and an underground safe-house interior, with many objects donated by veterans from Staraya Russa.