The monument was erected here because on 25 September 1941, 18-year-old private Nikolai Sosnovsky of the 312th Novgorod Regiment of the 26th Stalin Order of the Red Banner Division hurled himself against an enemy emplacement near Demyansk.
A street has been named after him in Demyansk.
The monument was unveiled on 22 June 2011 at the initiative of the local search groups. It is the 15th
and so far the largest monument built by the Demyansk Search Party. The sculpture of a soldier stands above a mass grave of 166 servicemen who died in the Demyansk Pocket.
