The tragedy of peoples on Poklonnaya Hill. Oleg Davydov. monumental double entendre. How to take part in the project

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Monument "Tragedy of Nations"

"Tragedy of Nations"
The monument “Tragedy of Nations” is located on Poklonnaya Hill. It was installed in 1997 in memory of the victims of the fascist extermination of people. The author of the monument is an academician Russian Academy arts Z. K. Tsereteli. Sculptural composition about 8 m high.
A gray, endless, continuous and doomed line of naked men, women, old and young, children who are going to their death. It was their turn: the woman covered the child’s eyes with her hand so that he would not see the horror of death, the man protected his chest with a huge palm, this is a desperate and hopeless attempt to protect the child from death. The monument “Tragedy of Nations” is a sad memory of countless executions and shootings committed by the Nazis. On the ground lie clothes removed by the executioners, things - orphaned witnesses
pre-war life, and naked people, thin and fragile, rise to the sky in dark silhouettes. The figures turn into stones, fragments of stones; merge with granite steles on which the same commemorative inscription is carved in the languages ​​of the peoples of the USSR: “May the memory of them be sacred, may it be preserved for centuries.” Captured in stone and bronze, the moment of transition from life to death is forever stopped.
The “Tragedy of Nations” monument is intended to remind people of the price at which the Victory was achieved.

Alina Belyaeva
1st year student at Polytechnic College No. 39. I am studying in the specialty " Rational use environmental complexes." I take part in various projects and competitions. My favorite subjects are chemistry, physics, history, ecology and literature. In addition to studying, I love active recreation.

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Poklonnaya Mountain - memorial place Moscow and all of Russia as a whole. Poklonnaya Gora was first mentioned in documents of the 16th century, although at that time it was called somewhat differently - Poklonnaya Gora on the Smolensk (Mozhaisk) road. It is believed that Poklonnaya Hill got its name thanks to an ancient tradition: every person arriving in Moscow and leaving the city bowed to him at this place. It was here that important people—princes, high dignitaries, and ambassadors of foreign states—were greeted with a bow. Napoleon did not receive such an honor. “Napoleon, intoxicated with his last happiness, waited in vain for Moscow, kneeling with the keys of the old Kremlin: No, my Moscow did not go to him with a guilty head...” These unforgettable lines of the greatest Russian poet Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin are associated with the Russian-French war of 1812, when french emperor, who reached the walls of the capital with his troops, tried in vain to wait for the keys to Moscow from the city authorities.

Memorial complex on Poklonnaya Hill

From time immemorial, Poklonnaya Hill has been one of the holy places of both Moscow and the entire Russian land. From here the Orthodox worshiped her shrines. Years and decades passed, and Poklonnaya Hill became a real symbol, personifying the Russian soul, the Russian character with such qualities as cordiality and hospitality on the one hand, freedom and independence on the other. And first of all, of course, this is due to the construction of a memorial complex here in honor of the Victory of our people in the Great Patriotic War. This memorial complex and Poklonnaya Hill itself are now strongly associated among Russians with an immortal feat Soviet people committed in the name of saving the Fatherland.

The decision to build the Victory Monument was made on May 31, 1957. On February 23, 1958, a granite foundation stone was installed on Poklonnaya Hill with the inscription: “A monument to the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War of 1941 - 1945 will be built here.” In 1961, Victory Park was laid out on Poklonnaya Hill. But the active construction of others components memorial complex (Victory Monument and Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War of 1941 - 1945) began only in 1985.

On May 9, 1995, on the day of the 50th anniversary of the Victory, the memorial was inaugurated. Leaders from 56 countries of the world attended its opening. Today it consists of several exhibition complexes - art gallery, military equipment sites, military-historical expositions, dioramas, cinema and concert halls, providing all the necessary conditions for scientific, educational, patriotic and educational work. Exhibition space covers 44 thousand square meters, which display more than 170 thousand exhibits.

The museum is rich not only in its unique exhibits. Here, in a solemn atmosphere, ceremonies of taking the Military Oath of young soldiers and meetings with famous veterans of the Great Patriotic War are held.

Temples of memory on Poklonnaya Hill

The property of the Memorial complex is represented not only by the Museum of the Great Patriotic War. Every monument, every building reminds of the feat of such different but united people Soviet Union.

On the territory of the memorial complex there are three temples that belong to different religions. This once again characterizes the multinationality of the liberators of our Motherland.

The first to be built was the Church of St. George the Victorious. In 1995, its solemn consecration took place. The shrine of the temple is a particle of the relics of the Great Martyr George the Victorious, donated by the Patriarch of Jerusalem Diodorus.

Two years later, in September 1997, a memorial mosque was opened. This event occurred on the day of the celebration of the 850th anniversary of Moscow.

The Temple of Memory - Synagogue was inaugurated on September 2, 1998. The synagogue building was built based on the concept of Israeli architect Moshe Zarhi. The President of Russia was present at the opening. An exhibition dedicated to Jewish history and the Holocaust was set up in the ground floor and gallery of the prayer hall.

In 2003 Memorial complex was supplemented by a chapel erected in memory of the Spanish volunteers who died during the Great Patriotic War. In addition, it is planned to build a Buddhist stupa, an Armenian chapel and a Catholic temple on Poklonnaya Hill in Moscow.

Monumental monuments on Poklonnaya Hill

In Victory Park, which is part of the Memorial complex, there is an obelisk 141.8 meters high. This height characterizes 1418 days and nights of the Great Patriotic War. At the hundred-meter mark there is a bronze figure of the Goddess of Victory - Nike.

At the foot of the obelisk, there is a sculpture of St. George the Victorious, who kills a snake with a spear - a symbol of evil. Both sculptures were made by Zurab Tsereteli.

In 2005, a monument to soldiers of the countries participating in the anti-Hitler coalition was unveiled on the Alley of Partisans. Participated in the opening Secretary General UN Kofi Annan. The author of the monument is Mikhail Pereyaslavets.

In Victory Park there is another beautiful attraction - the flower clock - the largest in the world, the dial diameter of which is 10 m, the length of the minute hand is 4.5 m, and the hour hand is 3.5 m. The total number of flowers planted on the clock is 7910 pcs. The clock mechanism is based on the principles of electromechanics and is controlled electronically quartz block.

The closest metro station to Poklonnaya Gora is Park Pobedy. Immediately upon exiting the station, you will see the Moscow Triumphal Gate, or simply the Arc de Triomphe.

It was built in 1829-1834 according to the design of the architect O. I. Bove, in honor of the victory of the Russian people in the Patriotic War of 1812. Initially, the arch was installed on Tverskaya Zastava Square, on the site of a wooden arch built in 1814 for the ceremonial welcome of Russian troops returning from Paris after the victory over the French troops. Currently, the Triumphal Arch is located on Victory Square, which is crossed by Kutuzovsky Prospekt, very close to Poklonnaya Gora. It was moved to this place in 1966-1968. The Moscow Triumphal Gate in its architecture is reminiscent of the Narva Triumphal Gate in St. Petersburg.

Poklonnaya Hill has become a traditional gathering place for veterans of the Great Patriotic War. Since inexorable time takes us further and further away from those heroic events, it is important to use every opportunity to turn to those memorable days, to tell and show young people how their great-grandfathers fought, defending the freedom and independence of our Motherland. The exhibitions of the memorial on Poklonnaya Hill make it possible to do this.

Photo Memorial complex on Poklonnaya Hill

THE MOTHERLAND (WHOSE?) WAS VICTORY (OVER WHOM?)

One spring, another monument to Zurab Tsereteli appeared on Poklonnaya Hill - “The Tragedy of Nations”, which was a line of corpses emerging from the grave and heading towards Kutuzovsky Prospekt near the Arc de Triomphe.

Oleg Davydov was then working at Nezavisimaya Gazeta and had not yet thought of writing his own , but I went to Poklonnaya Hill. He took out a compass and determined how Tsereteli’s works, placed along Poklonnaya Hill, were oriented according to the cardinal points. He compared all this with other Soviet war memorials and made such interesting conclusions that soon after his article was published in Nezavisimaya Gazeta, the editor received a letter from the Moscow City Hall with a promise to remove the dead. And they were indeed removed, but not very far. Even today, a random passer-by can suddenly turn gray, or even go completely crazy, coming across at night huge ghouls crawling out of the ground in one of the nooks and crannies of Poklonnaya Gora. This one article , still relevant today.

I'll start from afar. Almost the most famous work in a memorial kind - Monument-ensemble to the heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad in Volgograd on Mamayev Kurgan. Author Vuchetich. The most noticeable sculpture is the Motherland. When you walk under it, some unpleasant, heavy feeling comes over you. Something is wrong. Some say that this is due to fear - that this colossus will take it and collapse on you. And it will crush you (by the way, when I recently wandered among the people on Poklonnaya Hill, I could also hear constant talk about “crushing it”). But this distrust of technology is most likely just a rationalization of a more fundamental horror - a horror that lies dormant in our blood and which seems to awaken when we crawl like boogers at the feet of monstrous statues. Moreover, the matter is not only (and not even so much) in scale, but in something else. What? But let's figure it out.

Remember: in Volgograd, the Motherland stands with a sword on the banks of the Volga. Facade to the river. And turns back slightly. Calling his sons. Everything seems fine. We are so accustomed to this monument that we no longer notice its blatant absurdity. But if you look with an impartial eye, seditious thoughts will inevitably come into your head: whose mother is this and, in general, to whom and what is this a monument? The heroism of the soldiers who survived Stalingrad? But then the figure of a woman would have to hold back the onslaught of the enemy rushing towards the Volga, and not depict an uncontrollable impulse towards the Volga. Since it is impossible to determine by any signs the nationality of the Vuchetic Motherland, it remains to be assumed that it represents the power of Germany, which reached the Volga, reaching (as it was in reality) to the very bank of the great Russian river. How could it be otherwise if the symbolic woman is all rushing to the east and, as it were, calling her faithful sons along with her.

However, in front of the woman with a sword (Valkyrie?) there is also a man armed with a machine gun and a grenade. He also faces the Volga and portrays himself as a front-line fighter. Which army? This is not very clear, since he is naked, and anthropological type at the level of totalitarian sculpture, it is no different between Russians and Germans (Central European with Nordic elements). If he had at least been wearing a Russian military uniform, it would have been possible to talk about why a Russian soldier swung a grenade at the Volga? And so it turns out that Fritz took the machine gun from Ivan (our PPSh with a disc-shaped magazine is still a more powerful weapon than the German “Schmeiser”) and went to the Volga. This soldier, by the way, is standing right in the water, in some special reservoir, apparently depicting the Volga, he is piled on a block covered with graffiti, such as “Stand to the death,” but the figure of the soldier is still located above all of our usual heroic graffiti. ..

That is, we can say that the soldier is trampling this sacred thing for the Russian heart with his feet. But the most striking thing is that to the left and to the right, as the naked soldier and his mother move towards the Volga, there are actually Russian soldiers, dressed in Russian uniforms, but most of them are kneeling and bent. They seem to make way for the powerful movement to the east of a selfless berserker, accompanied by a monstrous Valkyrie, and form a corridor for the free movement of the adversary to the river. But this is already, so to speak, monumental slander. Everyone knows: the Soviet army survived Battle of Stalingrad, although in some places the enemy reached the Volga itself and washed his boots, so to speak, in it.

In general, some kind of ambiguous memorial was created by the sculptor Vuchetich. But by the way, in this regard, it is remarkable that several years ago Volgograd was rocked by protests against the installation of a small monument to the Austrian soldiers who died in Stalingrad. And it didn’t occur to anyone then that a huge monument to the Germans and their allies had long ago been erected in the city of Russian military glory.

However, one can interpret the symbolism of the memorial on Mamayev Kurgan a little differently. A woman with a sword is a symbol of a retreating Soviet Army(or more broadly - Russia), an allegory of our favorite “Scythian war” (forward, deep into Russia), when the enemy is lured into the bowels of the country and there is successfully destroyed. Then this is a monument to Russian masochism, which (masochism) is, of course, worthy of perpetuation in rough reinforced concrete, but such things must be clearly understood and treated accordingly: here we should no longer be talking about heroism, but about some painful deviation from the norm . Meanwhile, there is no doubt that both the defense of Stalingrad and, in general, the victory in the Great War were heroic deeds. But Soviet sculptors are maliciously rethinking them.

The Volgograd Motherland is not alone. For example, a woman personifying the Motherland and Victory in the city of Kyiv (also coming from Vuchetich’s workshop) is located on the right bank of the Dnieper and, accordingly, looks east. That is, almost everything that was said about the Motherland on Mamayev Kurgan can be repeated here. Well, except to add that perhaps this is some specifically Khokhlyat Motherland, the divine patroness of warriors, say, the SS Galicia division, staffed mainly by Western Ukrainians, or, perhaps, Bandera gangs. By the way, the raised arms of this Kyiv mother (in one - a shield, in the other - a sword) together with her head form a “trident”, which has now become the coat of arms of Ukraine.

However, let’s return to Moscow, to Poklonnaya Hill, to the Tseretelev memorial. There is, of course, a woman here too. It is called Nike (in Russian - Victory). It is located high up, on something like a needle. The face is turned - not quite to the east. More likely, to the northeast, definitely to the Arc de Triomphe, but, in any case, not to the west. As we can see, the trend continues. It is of course a woman on pins and needles in this case is not called the Motherland and holds in his right hand not a sword, but a wreath, that is, as if crowning someone with this wreath. There's an obvious difference.

But if you take a closer look, the typological similarity of the Moscow monument with the memorial on Mamayev Kurgan will come to the fore. The common thing here and there is a woman at a high altitude, and below her, a little ahead, a certain warrior. On Poklonnaya Hill, he is still dressed - in some kind of armor, which could well be mistaken for ancient Russian. He sits on a rearing horse, in his right hand he holds not a grenade, but a spear resting on the dragon’s neck. The dragon is enormous, it serves as a pedestal for a relatively little rider, all streaked fascist symbols and has already been dismembered into pieces (when the rider managed to do this butcher’s work, one can only guess).

If we compare the two monumental compositions, it will become obvious that the Moscow Dragon is (semantically) the same block covered with heroic slogans on which the naked soldier in Volgograd rests. And Georgy with Poklonnaya in this case corresponds to the naked soldier with a Nordic face installed on the Mamayev Kurgan. Behind each of these two warlike figures is a gigantic woman: in one case of simply dizzying height, and in the other of dizzying heights. These different women who inspire (urge, encourage, call) monumental warriors to fight are not just allegories of the Motherland or Victory, they are sculptural images of some feminine deity emerging from the unconscious depths of the sculptor’s soul when he takes up his sculpture - different incarnations of one archetype...

Actually, the archetypal triangle is: Woman - Serpent (Dragon) - Serpent Fighter. It is based on an Indo-European myth about a duel between the heavenly thunderer and the reptilian chthonic deity he slays. The woman over whom the fight occurs crowns the winner (goes to or is given over to him). This is in the most general outline, the details may be very different. Some of them are discussed in detail in my articles “Golgotha ​​the Serpent” and “The Mockery of Heaven on Earth” ( see the book “The Demon of Writing”, publishing house “Limbus Press”, St. Petersburg-Moscow, 2005). It is not worth dwelling on the details here, but it is worth saying that in Russian mythology (from Nestor to) the Rider-Snake Fighter is always associated with some alien, and the Dragon with a native deity ( Oleg Davydov talks about this a lot. — Ed . )

Of course, the Dragon can be painted with swastikas from head to tail (this is how children draw and write all sorts of nonsense on fences), but the essence of the myth will not change: the Dragon is a local deity who is destined to be pierced by an alien, and a woman who attracts (and thereby pushes) the alien, whoever she may be, will crown the winner. This is, so to speak, the general background of the serpent-fighting myth, but by telling it in words or through sculpture, a person usually brings something new and interesting into it. Tsereteli introduced dismemberment into the myth. This is an original motif, and although, of course, you can find images in which something has been chopped off from the Serpent, but so far - straight cut sausage (the limbs are also, naturally, separated) on festive table... I don’t remember this, here’s the author famous monument unity Soviet peoples(remember that phallic thing near the Danilovsky market?) managed to say a new word.

I have no doubt that the reader has already guessed what the dismembered Dragon is a symbol of. Of course - a symbol of the dismembered Soviet Union. And the fact that the Dragon is painted with swastikas is the usual metaphor of the perestroika years, when the communist ideology of the “scoop” was identified with fascism and the term “red-brown” was invented. That is, the monument on Poklonnaya Hill is not dedicated to the victory over Nazi Germany (as we are told), but exactly the opposite - to the victory over the communist Soviet Union. And accordingly, this woman has no relationship with foreign name Nike has nothing to do with the Victory over Nazi Germany, but is directly related to the victory over communism and the Soviet Union. Who defeated him? Well, let's say, some agent of Western influence in medieval armor and on a horse. The rider is about to jump off the dismembered Dragon and move towards the triumphal arch (he is aimed at it), only he is still waiting for the keys to Moscow, like Napoleon once on the same Poklonnaya Hill.

Now I am not at all interested in the question of whether this is all good or bad. For some it may be good, for others it may be bad. But things still need to be called by their proper names: Tsereteli built a monument to the dismemberment of the Soviet Union (as Vuchetich built a monument to Nazi Germany’s exit to the Volga). And this singer of a friendly family of peoples could not build another monument (by the way, his monument to friendship resembles the Fountain of Friendship at VDNKh). He could not because he was not at all worried about the victory in the Great Patriotic War, but about the destruction of the Soviet Union taking place before his eyes.

Generally speaking, the sculpting of monuments is far from harmless. If only because they are very expensive, visible to everyone, and made, like any work of art, in a kind of feverish semi-delirium. Just like poetry or novels are written—something comes from a person’s soul and turns into text. And what came out of you - the black stuff or the divine chant - will be visible to others later. And maybe not very soon. But, in any case, poems or drawings are things that do not require such material costs, like monuments, and - not so much an eyesore. I wrote a bad poem - well, it was a failure: they laughed and forgot. But the monument remains. So what should we do with it? Dismantle it like a monument to Dzerzhinsky? Or leave it as a monument to the madness of a time that has so lost elementary common sense that it is unable to distinguish right hand from the left and brown from the red.
In short, as are the times, so are the memorials. In the end, it is even commendable that a monument to the destruction of the Evil Empire appeared so quickly. The only bad thing is that there was an annoying confusion, an unexpected substitution (I don’t even allow the thought that Tsereteli understands what he, in fact, sculpted). And as a result, the unfortunate veterans were once again deceived - they were asked to worship not their victory, but victory over themselves (since they fought for the Soviet Union and subsequently had nothing against it as a state for the most part).

And then the time has come to understand what kind of emaciated naked people are moving the gravestones and emerging from the graves... What the author wanted to say with this is more or less clear: no one is forgotten, the dead will rise from their graves, and so on. Perhaps, in the spirit of the new political situation and fashion for religion, he even wanted to depict the Resurrection of the Dead. But I didn't bother to find out what it means and how it should happen. I haven’t heard that “There is a spiritual body, and there is a spiritual body.” I didn’t read from the Apostle Paul that “we will not all die, but we will all be changed suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will rise incorruptible, and we will be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. When this corruptible has put on incorruptibility, and this mortal has put on immortality, then the word that is written will be fulfilled: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

Agree, there is some similarity in this text with Tsereteli’s delusional fantasies, but at the same time - how unlike, even the complete opposite... Tsereteli’s dead rise from their graves not transformed, in complete decay. These are not those resurrected from the dead, but ghosts, ghouls, even, perhaps, ghouls, feeding on living human blood. It is hell itself that comes to earth to reign here, and not those resurrected from the dead. What kind of sick fantasy is this? And what meaning does it have?

In the context of everything that we already know about the Tseretelev memorial, everything is very logical. Look: the undead are heading towards Kutuzovsky Prospekt and must cross it before Arc de Triomphe. For what? Is it really just to go underground again where the Park Pobedy metro station is being built? No, they will most likely stand as a wall in the way of the mounted Victorious, ready to ride through the triumphal arch into Moscow, having dismembered the Dragon. These people have already died here once and now they are again standing up to defend the capital. So Tsereteli is not inspired by the Apostle Paul, but by Galich: “If Russia calls for its dead, it means trouble.”

However, these are all vague allusions. The reality of real life is that specific people stand in the way of the victorious march of Westernizing reforms - these very deceived veterans and pensioners, whom many radically minded comrades are inclined to consider as the dead seizing the living. And it was precisely this conflict between the old and the new that the memorial creator involuntarily embodied in his wonderful creation. After all, the idea that until the old people die, reforms are impossible, was very popular in certain circles when the monument was just being created. Now she is less popular, but nevertheless she was immortalized in the monument. But note: the monumentalist does not yet know who will win, his dead are still just moving into a defensive position, the horseman who destroyed the Dragon has not yet moved from his place (it is possible, by the way, that he grew out of the Dragon), stands on the corpse and waits “Moscow on its knees.” He hopes: what if these naked poor fellows will now hand him the keys to the city? It won't wait. The composition of the memorial does not allow it. So this fundamental uncertainty and reticence will remain in our collective soul...

Or does anyone think that it is possible to place bronze men on their knees in front of the Arc de Triomphe, facing west?

Other publications by Oleg Davydov on Changes can be found .

A city with incredible interesting story, ancient architectural monuments, modern shopping centers and the vibrant life that many provincial residents dream of. Moscow can rightfully be called one big attraction. Here, wherever you look, there is a place of great interest to tourists: the Kremlin, Red Square, Arbat, Tretyakov Gallery and many, many other objects. One of these is the “Tragedy of Nations” - a monument located on Poklonnaya Hill. This is where we will make our journey today.

Poklonnaya Gora

There is a place in Moscow dedicated to the victory over the German fascists. Its name is Poklonnaya Mountain. It is a gentle hill, which is located in the western part of the capital, between two rivers - Setun and Filka. Already in the 16th century, the existence of Poklonnaya Hill was first mentioned. But in those distant times it was located not in Moscow itself, but far beyond its borders.

Today, scientists continue to struggle to unravel the origin of the name of the attraction. With the name “mountain” everything is more or less clear: in the Central Russian zone this was the name given to any place that rose at least a little above the ground. And about the word “Poklonnaya”, various theories have been put forward: one of the most common versions is the judgment that the name “Poklonnaya” came from the word “bow”. It was by bowing in those centuries that it was customary to express one’s respect and reverence. Travelers, arriving or leaving Moscow, bowed to the city in the place where the monument is located.

Poklonnaya Gora has experienced a lot in its lifetime: the meeting of the ambassadors of the Crimean Khan Mengli-Girey in 1508, and the camp of Polish troops in 1612, when they were going to storm Moscow. And in 1812, Napoleon waited here for the keys to the capital of Russia.

Today it houses many monuments dedicated to the victory in the Great Patriotic War. “The Tragedy of Nations” is a monument located on Poklonnaya Hill and deserves the greatest respect.

Tsereteli and his brainchild

Before the description of the “Tragedy of Nations” monument appears in our article, I would like to say a few words about its creator, Zurab Tsereteli. The monument is dedicated to the millions of people who died in gas chambers, concentration camps and ditches. Tsereteli decided to perpetuate the memory of the victims of the Holocaust. The sculptor created his masterpiece solely from his own motives. Neither the state nor the Moscow municipality commissioned the sculptor to create such a statue. Tsereteli cast this composition from bronze exclusively for his own money and at the request of his own soul and memory. Zurab survived the war as a child; he saw and remembered those soldiers who were not destined to return home.

Tsereteli decided to create a monument on Poklonnaya Hill during his work in Brazil.

Description of the monument

The sculptural composition reaches a height of almost eight meters. It was installed in 1997. “The Tragedy of Nations” is a monument depicting an endless series of people sentenced to death. The gray line consists of naked and emaciated women and men, old people and children. These people differ in height, but what makes them similar is their bald shaved heads, frozen faces, blind and drooping hands. They are all doomed and silently stand in line to die.

The monument on Poklonnaya Hill begins with three figures. This is a man, a woman and their teenage son. The family must be the first to accept death. The husband and wife are trying to somehow protect their child: the mother covered his eyes with her palm, the father also made an attempt to protect him. But it’s all in vain: no one will be able to survive. The rest of the line follows behind, not noticing each other. Everyone is thinking about their own things - these are their last seconds on Earth.

The last figures are attracted by the earth, they become conventional and resemble stones and merge with granite steles. On these 15 slabs different languages of the republics that were part of the words “May the memory of them be sacred, may it be preserved for centuries!” And on the last, 16th stele, these words are written in Hebrew.

Scandal around the composition

“The Tragedy of Nations” is a monument that has caused mixed opinions among the population of Moscow. It even wrote an appeal to the then mayor of the city, Luzhkov, with a request to move the monument to another location. The citizens motivated their desire by the fact that the sculpture causes melancholy, evokes sorrowful feelings, and generally provokes depressing feelings.

The people simply demanded that the structure be removed away from human eyes if it could not be destroyed altogether. They named the backyard of the museum as a new home for the monument. In their opinion, this is the place for him, since not all guests will visit this territory.

He will live forever

Poklonnaya Hill (the “Tragedy of Nations” monument), despite the discontent of Muscovites, continues to amaze the minds of guests of the capital with its monumentality and grandeur. Tsereteli's powerful work is designed to live forever. The strong composition has withstood difficult trials, like the people to whom it is dedicated, and continues to exist, despite all the oppression and intentions to destroy and break it.