1) I knew about Treptower park from 10 years ago, when my relative, a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, gave me then to read a big book about the history of World War II, in which already in the chapters about the final period of the Great Patriotic War there was a talk 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 street) for about 1 km. In this area, Russian-speaking citizens, locals or tourists very often came across, I can't say. Apparently, this is due to the location of the Belarusian embassy nearby, which the Belarusians themselves are somewhat unhappy with, comparing it 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. As soon as one bridge was crossed over this canal, the ethnic picture changed instantly. An interesting point. Before the former border of the GDR and West Berlin, Russian-speaking, after immigrants from African countries and Turkey. A wonderful cross-cultural transition experience. 
4) And now to the very monument. After the end of the existence of the GDR, the Treptow Park complex was in desolation. There were proposals to demolish all the slabs with the statements of I. Stalin altogether, calling the monument itself the last monument in the world to Joseph Vissarionovich. 
5) More than 7,000 Soviet soldiers were 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 were killed. In 1946, the Soviet military administration decided to re-equip Soviet military graves in Berlin. The place was chosen by the Soviet command and enshrined in order number 134. Along with the memorial already created in 1945 in the Tiergarten, where the burial place of more than 2,000 Soviet soldiers was located, additional mass graves were planned for the fallen soldiers of the Red Army. 
6) On May 8, 1949, the largest Soviet military memorial outside the Soviet Union was inaugurated in Treptow. The significance of the memorial goes far beyond Berlin and Germany. In the central part of the park, in a large meadow, there is a figure of a Soviet soldier cutting a swastika with a sword, and with a rescued child in his hand, which is a world-famous symbol of the Soviet Union's contribution to the defeat of National Socialism (authors: architect Yakov Belopolsky and sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich). 
7) Granite from Hitler's Reich Chancellery was used for the construction. 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 Yevgeny Vuchetich is one of the creators of one of the tallest statues in the world, the sculptural composition "Motherland" on Mamayev Kurgan in Volgograd. 
9) Monument "Warrior-Liberator" - Sculptor E. V. Vuchetich, architect Y.B. Belopolsky, artist A. V. Gorpenko, engineer S. S. Valerius. Opened May 8, 1949. Height - 12 meters. Weight - 70 tons.
There is a round memorial hall inside the pedestal. The walls of the hall are decorated with mosaic panels (artist A. A. Gorpenko). The panel depicts representatives of different peoples, 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: “Nowadays everyone recognizes that the Soviet people, by their selfless struggle, saved the civilization of Europe from the fascist pogromists. This is the great merit of the Soviet people to the history of mankind "(quote from the report of JV 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 stationed, he posed for young Vuchetich. Initially, according to the memoirs of V.M. Gunaza, Vuchetich planned to sculpt a soldier who holds a boy in his hands and it was Gunaza who advised him to replace the boy with the girl.
- According to other sources, for a year and a half in Berlin, the sergeant of the Soviet army Ivan Stepanovich Odarchenko posed for the sculptor. Odarchenko also posed for the artist A.A.Gorpenko, who created a mosaic panel inside the monument's pedestal. This panel depicts Odarchenko 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 a 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 Rafail, 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 chef became the chef of the Prague restaurant.
Berlin is rightfully considered one of the greenest European capitals. Extensive parks for recreation of the townspeople here began to be laid back in the century before last, in accordance with all the rules of gardening art and in accordance with the general development plan of the city. Perhaps the most famous of these is the Tiergarten, adjacent to the government quarter with the Reichstag in the central Berlin-Mitte district. Tourists can neither walk nor drive past the Tiergarten ...
Approximately at the same time with him (1876-1888), another large park was laid - in the Treptow region. Now its name in Germany and in the republics of the former USSR, as well as in other countries of the world, is firmly associated with the memorial complex located here. It is dedicated to the Red Army soldiers who died in the battles for Berlin at the end of World War II. About seven thousand of them are buried in this park alone - out of more than 20 thousand Soviet soldiers who died during the liberation of the city at the very end of the war.
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Memorial in Treptower Park
The memorial in Treptower Park was erected in 1947-1949. The main monument is erected on a hill with a mausoleum.
Memorial in Treptower Park
Soldiers' War Cemetery in Berlin
A soldier-liberator with a rescued girl in his arms is the central monument of the memorial in Treptower Park.
Memorial in Treptower Park
Soldiers' War Cemetery in Berlin
Monumental mosaic in the mausoleum.
Memorial in Treptower Park
Soldiers' War Cemetery in Berlin
A bas-relief depicting the Order of the Patriotic War at the entrance to the memorial in Treptower Park.
Memorial in Treptower Park
Soldiers' War Cemetery in Berlin
Memorial field with mass graves, bowls for eternal fire and two red granite banners.
Memorial in Treptower Park
Soldiers' War Cemetery in Berlin
A bas-relief with soldiers going on the attack on one of the sarcophagi.
Memorial in Treptower Park
Soldiers' War Cemetery in Berlin
"Everything for the front! Everything for the victory!" - a bas-relief dedicated to the support of the army in the rear.
Memorial in Treptower Park
Soldiers' War Cemetery in Berlin
Quote from Stalin.
Memorial in Treptower Park
Soldiers' War Cemetery in Berlin
Sculpture of a grieving woman.
Memorial in Treptower Park
Soldiers' War Cemetery in Berlin
A kneeling soldier near the red granite banner.
It is convenient to get from the center of Berlin to the park by rail with one change - first by train S7 or S9 to Ostkreuz, and then by the ring line Ringbahn S41 / 42. Lines S8 and S9 also pass here. The stop is called Treptower Park. Travel time is about 20 minutes. Then it remains to walk a little, following the signs to the shady Pushkin Alley (Puschkinallee).
The War Memorial in Treptower Park is the largest of its kind outside the former Soviet Union and the most famous in the world along with the Mamayev Kurgan in Russia. A young soldier with a rescued German girl in his arms and a sword that cuts through a defeated swastika rises above the tops of old trees on a grave mound.
In front of the bronze soldier there is a memorial field with other mass graves, sarcophagi, bowls for eternal fire, two red granite banners, sculptures of kneeling soldiers - very young and older. The granite banners have inscriptions in two languages: "Eternal glory to the soldiers of the Soviet Army, who gave their lives in the struggle for the liberation of mankind." The sarcophagi themselves are empty, the soldiers are buried in the ground along the edges of the honor alley.
At the entrance, decorated with granite portals, visitors are greeted by the Motherland, grieving for her sons. She and the soldier-liberator are two symbolic poles that define the drama of the entire memorial, which is framed by weeping birches specially planted here to remind of Russian nature. And not only about nature.
In guidebooks and other descriptions of Treptow Park, all sorts of detailed parameters are certainly mentioned - the height and weight of the bronze statue, the number of segments it consists of, the number of sarcophagi with bas-reliefs, the area of the park ... But when you are in place, all this statistical accounting is no doesn't matter.
The versions of who exactly was the warrior who, in April 1945, risking his life, saved a German girl are also retold. However, the author of the monument, sculptor and front-line soldier Yevgeny Vuchetich, emphasized that his soldier-liberator had a symbolic meaning and did not talk about a specific episode. He emphasized this in an interview with the Berliner Zeitung in 1966.
The feat of Nikolai Masalov
The most common version is that the historical prototype for the monument was the soldier Nikolai Masalov (1921-2001). A three-year-old girl cried beside her murdered mother in the ruins of Berlin. The Red Army heard her voice during the brief lull between attacks on Hitler's Reich Chancellery. Masalov volunteered to pull her out of the firing zone, asking to cover him with fire. He saved the girl, but was wounded.
In 2003, a plaque was erected on the Potsdamer Brücke (Potsdamer Brücke) in Berlin in memory of the feat accomplished in this place.
Sowjetisches Ehrenmal im Treptower Park
Puschkinallee,
12435 Berlin
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 times, eyewitness accounts were collected about other similar cases throughout Berlin. There were several dozen of them. Before the assault, many residents 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.
Portrait likeness and historical quotes
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 was holding a German girl in his arms, but then she was replaced by the little daughter of the commandant of Berlin, Major General Alexander Kotikov.
The sword that cuts the swastika is a copy of the sword owned by the first Pskov prince Vsevolod-Gabriel, the grandson of Vladimir Monomakh. Vuchetich was offered to replace the sword with a more modern weapon - a machine gun, but he insisted on his original version. They also say that some military leaders suggested placing not a soldier, but a giant figure of Stalin in the center of the memorial complex. This idea was abandoned, since it, most likely, did not find support from Stalin himself.
The "Supreme Commander-in-Chief" is reminiscent of his numerous quotes carved on symbolic sarcophagi in Russian and German. After the unification of Germany, some German politicians demanded that they be removed, referring to the crimes committed during the Stalinist dictatorship, but the whole complex, according to interstate agreements, is under state protection. Any changes without the consent of Russia are unacceptable here.
Reading quotes from Stalin today evokes ambiguous feelings and emotions, makes you remember and think about the fate of millions of people both in Germany and in the former Soviet Union who died in Stalin's times. But in this case, quotes should not be taken out of the general context, they are a document of history that is necessary for its comprehension.
Reich Chancellery granite
The memorial in Treptower Park was erected immediately after the end of World War II, in 1947-1949. The remains of the soldiers temporarily buried in various city cemeteries were brought here. The site was chosen by the Soviet command and enshrined in order number 134. Granite from Hitler's Reich Chancellery was used for the construction.
Several dozen projects took part in the art competition, which was organized by the Soviet military command in Berlin. The winners are joint sketches by architect Yakov Belopolsky and sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich.
60 German sculptors and 200 stonemasons were involved in the production of sculptural elements according to Vuchetich's sketches, and a total of 1200 workers took part in the construction of the memorial. All of them received additional allowance and food. In German workshops, bowls for eternal fire and a mosaic in the mausoleum under the sculpture of a liberator soldier were also made. The main statue was cast in Leningrad and delivered to Berlin by water.
In addition to the memorial in Treptower Park, monuments to Soviet soldiers were erected in two more places immediately after the war. In the Tiergarten park, located in central Berlin, about 2,000 fallen soldiers are buried. There are more than 13 thousand in the Schönholzer Heide park in Berlin's Pankow district.
During the GDR times, the memorial complex in Treptower 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 took part in a solemn verification dedicated to the memory of the fallen and the withdrawal of Russian troops from a unified Germany, and the parade was hosted by Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
The status of the monument and all Soviet military cemeteries is enshrined in a separate chapter of the treaty concluded between the FRG, the GDR and the victorious powers in World War II. According to this document, the memorial is guaranteed eternal status, and the German authorities are obliged to finance its maintenance, to ensure its integrity and safety. Which is done in the best way.
See also:
The graves of Soviet prisoners of war and forced laborers
17 frames of spring
Between Düsseldorf and Bonn
DW has repeatedly written about the database, which contains information about the burial places and memorials of Soviet citizens in Germany. DW correspondent visited some of them - between Dusseldorf and Bonn, taking a camera and a dozen red roses on the road.
17 frames of spring
The day began near Dusseldorf, where the remains of one and a half thousand people who died here in the infirmary lie in the fraternal cemetery. It was opened in 1940 for prisoners of war from different countries. The first were the French, and then Soviet soldiers began to enter here - from forced labor in the surrounding labor camps. Address: Luckemeyerstraße, Düsseldorf.
17 frames of spring
Address: Mülheimer Straße 52, Leverkusen.
17 frames of spring
The next cemetery is fraternal. It is located in the Wahner Heide near the Cologne / Bonn airport in the city of Rösrat.
17 frames of spring
Most of the 112 graves in the Van Wasteland are unmarked burials of Soviet soldiers. There are also several graves of Polish citizens and victims of National Socialism from other countries. They all died in the labor camp.
Earlier, about the famous monument in Berlin Treptower Park was written in the material: "A warrior with a child in his arms." There will also be an addition about the soldier who became the prototype of this monument, about his combat biography, and how his post-war fate developed. And also a little about what the search for information about the rescued German girl was crowned with.
Nikolai Masalov was born in 1922 in the village of Voznesenka, Tisulsky District, into a family of eternal workers of the land, immigrants from the Kursk province, who moved to Siberia in search of a better life. The grandfather, great-grandfather and father of Nikolai Masalov were hereditary blacksmiths, whose skill was highly valued throughout the district. The family had many children, so when the time came to defend the Motherland, four Masalov brothers went to war. Andrei with heavy artillery reached Europe, Vasily became a tanker, Mikhail fought in the border troops on the northern fronts, Nikolai was a gunner at Stalingrad in a mortar company. Nikolay was drafted by the Tisul district military enlistment office of the Tomsk district of the Novosibirsk region in December 1941. Masalov like many Tisul recruits got into the 1045th rifle regiment. Here he underwent combat training in the military specialty "mortarman". On March 16, 1942, the 284th Rifle Division began advancing into the defense zone of the Bryansk Front. The division's formations from April 16 to May 18, 1942 were located on the line in the area with. Melevoe (now the border territories of the Pokrovsky and Verkhovsky districts of the Oryol region. At the end of May, the division was transferred to the area of the town of Kastornoye, where it began to create an anti-tank unit. As of July 1, 1942, there were 84 mortars of caliber 50-mm, 82- mm and 120-mm. Baptism of fire mortar Nikolai Masalov received in the area of the station Kastornaya Kursk region from 1 to 5 July 1942. After July 5, units of the division in columns and small groups made their way out of the encirclement to the north, to Yelets for more than a week. In July Masalov NI was wounded for the first time.In the 20th of July, units of the division fought on the Perekopovka - Ozerki line, 80 km from Voronezh.
From August 2 to September 17, the 284th rifle division was in reserve in the city of Krasnoufimsk, Sverdlovsk region, where it was replenished at the expense of Pacific sailors and storerooms. On September 17, the 284th Rifle Division was included in the 62nd Army. On the night of September 20-21, Masalov crossed the Volga to Stalingrad. The task of the regiments was to capture the railway station opposite Gogol Street. As a result of fierce battles, the 1045th joint venture took up positions in the area of the Steep ravine. On November 11-15, 1942, 1045 sleeper was fought in the southern part of the Barricades plant. From the end of November 1942 to mid-January 1943 he fought on the Mamayev Kurgan where on January 21, 1943 he received his second wound. For the battles in Stalingrad, by the Decree of December 22, 1942, Masalov, along with other soldiers, was awarded the medal "For the Defense of Stalingrad".
On March 1, 1943, the 284th SD was given the honorary title of the Guards and it became known as 79th Guards. Red Banner Division. The division's formations received guards numbering on 05 April. 1045 joint venture began to be called the 220th Guards. During this period, N.I. Masalov applied for admission to the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). Participated in all operations with the participation of the 79th Guards Rifle Division. His second award - the medal “For Courage” - the mortar loader of the 120-mm mortar battery of the Guard, corporal Masalov N.I. received the order of the 220th Guards rifle regiment of January 29, 1944 with the wording “... : one heavy machine gun, two bunkers, two carts with ammunition and up to 15 enemy soldiers. With personal weapons - rifles - he destroyed 7 Nazis. " After the liberation of Odessa, in one of the battles near Lublin, on July 22, 1944, Masalov was wounded for the third and last time during the war. From July 1944 to January 1945, the 79th Guards Rifle Division was located at the Magnushevsky bridgehead south of Warsaw. During the Vistula-Oder operation, the 8th Guards. army captured a bridgehead on the western bank of the river. Oder near Kustrin (modern Kostshin, Polish). NI Masalov received the maximum awards during the Berlin offensive operation. By order of 220 guards rifle regiment of April 20, 1945, senior sergeant Masalov, a submachine gunner of a company of submachine gunners of the guard regiment, was awarded the medal "For Military Merit". The wording was as follows: “... during the capture of the assault on N of the item. Sachsendorf April 15, 1945 Comrade Masalov, with the regimental banner in his hands, walked in front of the combat units that were going to attack the enemy, dragging the fighters along with him. " By order of the 79th Guards Rifle Division of May 7, 1945, he was awarded the Order of Glory, 3rd degree. The award list read: “... in the battles for N of the item. Sachsendorf on the western bank of the Oder River on April 16, 1945, acting as part of a rifle unit, during the assault on the enemy trenches, was one of the first to burst into the enemy trenches, where he threw grenades at the enemy's machine-gun crew, destroying four German soldiers. Besides. from a machine gun destroyed 9 Nazis. In total, in this battle, he destroyed 13 Nazis. "
Parents received soldiers' triangles from their sons: “Alive, healthy, I beat the fascist bastard. Do not worry". The guys even reported wounds and contusions after being treated in hospitals. Letters came from the commanders of the units where the sons served, letters of thanks. They were kept by their mother, and then, many years after the war, by Nikolai's wife.
« Dear Ivan Efimovich!
Our guards unit is celebrating the third anniversary of its existence. During the years of the Patriotic War, we passed a long victorious battle path from the Volga to the Vistula, liberating thousands of villages and dozens of cities in our Soviet land from the German fascist monsters. The Motherland has adequately appreciated our military merits, having awarded our unit with three orders - the Order of Suvorov, the Red Banner, Bohdan Khmelnitsky. We received a number of thanks from the Supreme Commander-in-Chief I.V. Stalin for skillful military operations to defeat the German fascist invaders. A veteran of our unit, your son of the guard, senior sergeant Nikolai Ivanovich Masalov, is a direct participant in these glorious military affairs. For exemplary performance of the command's combat missions and the valor and courage shown at the same time, he was awarded medals: "For the Defense of Stalingrad", "For Courage."
The command is proud of your son and welcomes you on the day of our anniversary, which we are celebrating now outside our homeland on the outskirts of the den of the fascist beast. We wish you health and success in helping the front for the quickest and final defeat of the enemy. I shake your hand tightly.
Commander of the 39232 unit of the Guard, Major General Vagin. 5.12.44g.».
In March 1942, the regiment in which Nikolai Masalov served was baptized by fire on the Bryansk front, near Kastornaya.
The regiment burst out of the ring of fire three times. We had to break through with bayonets, we took care of every cartridge, every shell. The regiment did not flee from the advancing enemy, it retreated slowly, in a Siberian manner, uncompromisingly responding with fire to fire, blow for blow. The regiment left the encirclement in the Yelets area. In heavy battles, these soldiers managed to preserve the banner that was handed to them in a distant Siberian city. However, the cost of this was human lives. In the mortar company of Nikolai Masalov, only five soldiers remained, all the rest perished in the Bryansk forests.
After reorganization, the regiment became part of the legendary
62nd Army of General Chuikov. The Siberians staunchly defended the Mamayev Kurgan. The calculation of Nikolai Masalov was twice covered with earth under the collapsed slopes of the dugout. Fighting comrades found and dug them up.
NI Masalov recalls: “I defended Stalingrad from the first to the last day. The city was reduced to ashes from the bombing, and we fought in these ashes. Shells and bombs plowed everything around. Our dugout was covered with earth during the bombing. So we were buried alive. There is nothing to breathe. We couldn't get out ourselves - they poured a mountain on top. With the last bit of strength we shout: "Combat, dig it out!" At the entrance to the trench I row the earth under myself, and the second one further into the dugout rakes. The dugout was more than half filled with earth, at least squeeze out your clothes, and everything is falling and falling from above. “There is nowhere to rake,” the guy said almost in a whisper to me or to himself. I stopped rowing and felt something cold creep down my back. “It’s absurd how it turns out: alive and unharmed, even to die like this here. We could not come to terms with this. I pierce the ground with a ramrod still, even higher. And so the ramrod went easily. "Saved, saved!" - I shout to a friend. Then the guys arrived in time - they dug us out ... "
For the battles in Stalingrad, the 220th regiment received the guards banner. At this time, Nikolai Masalov was appointed Assi a veteran in a znamenny platoon. Then he did not yet know that he, a guy from distant Siberia, would be destined to carry the battle banner all the way to Berlin.
And the regiment went forward again. More and more soldiers came to replace the fallen soldiers. They crossed the Don, Northern Donets, Dnieper, Dniester. Then there were the Vistula and the Oder. The regiment won, but each victory was paid for at a high price, with the blood of Soviet soldiers. From the first composition of the regiment, only two entered Berlin: Sergeant Masalov, the regiment's bannerman, and Captain Stefanenko. During the war years, Nikolai Masalov had to look death in the eye more than once, he was wounded three times and twice shell-shocked. The soldier was especially seriously wounded near Lublin.
NI Masalov recalls: “... On a rye field, I fell in an attack under a large-caliber machine gun. Received two bullets in the leg, one in the chest. I was lying deaf in the open air, the sun was shining in my eyes, the bread nodded. It was so quiet all around, as if, broken by work on a tractor, I lay down to rest in my native field. It got dark. I think: but they won't find me here. I crawled as much as I could, stopped if my hands refused. They picked me up in the morning. "
Overcoming the pain, he crawled all night, centimeter by centimeter approaching the location of his part. A month and a half after the hospital, Nikolai Masalov, in passing cars, caught up with his regiment, which was preparing to cross the Vistula. Here he was appointed the flag bearer of the 220th Guards Zaporozhye Regiment, with which he went through the entire war. For Nicholas and his comrades, the scarlet banner was more than just a cloth, because it absorbed the blood of comrades in arms, shed in the battles for the Motherland.
NI Masalov will remember: “On January 14, 1945, we went over to the offensive. They broke through the Vistula with heavy battles. They suffered heavy losses, but the enemy was driven out of the trenches and driven to the west. Without stopping, we crossed the Polish-German border. They advanced day and night, not giving the enemy a minute of respite. We reached the Oder, set up a pontoon ferry on the move and went on. However, on the approaches to the heavily fortified Seelow Heights, we got bogged down. "
Before the decisive assault on Hitler's fortifications, Nikolai Masalov received an order to carry the regiment's guards banner through the trenches where the assault groups were concentrated. Under cover of night, he walked solemnly, clearly typing his step. A heavy cloth fluttered in the wind. Soldiers rose to meet the banner, saluting him. Bullets flew over the trench in a dense swarm, now in front of the standard-bearer, now behind. Nikolay Masalov felt a heavy, ringing blow to the head. He swayed, but still, overcoming the pain, walked on firmly and evenly. Already at the exit from the last trench, the standard-bearer's assistants were killed by enemy bullets ... After the storming of the Seelow Heights, Nikolai Masalov was presented to the Order of Glory, he was awarded the next rank - senior sergeant. Marshal of the Soviet Union V.I. Chuikov in his book of memoirs "Storm Berlin "wrote about Nikolai Masalov:" The combat biography of this warrior, as it were, reflects the entire combat path of the 8th Guards Army ... It fell to his lot, as to the lot of all army soldiers, to be on the main direction of the attack of the German troops advancing to Stalingrad. Nikolai Masalov fought on the Mamayev Kurgan as a shooter, then in the days of the fighting on the Northern Donets took up the trigger of a machine gun, when crossing the Dnieper he commanded a squad, after the capture of Odessa he was appointed assistant commander of the commandant's platoon. He was wounded at the Dniester bridgehead. And four months after crossing the Vistula to the Oder bridgehead, he walked with a bandaged head next to the banner. "
About the feat of saving a German girl.
IN APRIL 1945, the advance units of the Soviet troops reached Berlin. The city was surrounded by a ring of fire. The 220th Guards Rifle Regiment advanced along the right bank of the Spree River, moving from house to house to the imperial chancellery. Street fighting went on day and night. Here an ordinary soldier in all his glory rose to the war pedestal.
An hour before the start of the artillery preparation, Nikolai Masalov, accompanied by two assistants, brought the regiment's banner to the Landwehr Canal. The guards knew that here, in the Tiergarten, in front of them was the main bastion of the military garrison of the German capital. The fighters moved to the line of attack in small groups and one by one. Someone had to cross the channel by swimming on improvised means, someone had to break through a barrage of fire through a mined bridge.
There were 50 minutes left before the attack began. Silence settled down - anxious and tense. Suddenly, through this ghostly silence, mixed with smoke and settling dust, a child's cry was heard. He came as if from somewhere out of the ground, dull and inviting. A child with crying uttered one word that everyone understood: "Mutter, mutter ...", because all children cry in the same language. Earlier than others, Sergeant Masalov caught the child's voice. Leaving his assistants at the banner, he rose almost to his full height and ran straight to the headquarters - to the general.
- Let me save the child, I know where he is ...
The General silently looked at the soldier who had come from nowhere.
- Just be sure to come back. We must return, because this battle is the last one, ”the general admonished him in a fatherly way.
- I'll be back, - said the guard and took the first step towards the canal.
The area in front of the bridge was under fire from machine guns and automatic cannons, not to mention the mines and landmines that densely covered all the approaches. Sergeant Masalov crawled, clinging to the asphalt, carefully avoiding barely perceptible hillocks of mines, feeling every crack with his hands. Nearby, machine-gun fire swept past, knocking out stony crumbs. Death from above, death from below - and there is nowhere to hide from it. Dodging the deadly lead, Nikolai dived into the shell crater, as if into the waters of his native Siberian Barandatka.
In Berlin, Nikolai Masalov saw enough of the suffering of German children. In clean suits, they approached the soldiers and silently held out an empty tin can or just an emaciated palm. And Russian soldiers shoved bread, lumps of sugar into these little hands, or seated a thin company around their pots ...
Nikolai Masalov approached the channel inch by inch. Here he, pressing his machine gun, has already rolled over to the concrete parapet. Immediately, fiery lead jets gushed forth, but the soldier had already managed to slide under the bridge.
I. Paderin, former commissar of the 220th regiment of the 79th guards division, recalls: “And our Nikolai Ivanovich disappeared. He enjoyed great authority in the regiment, and I was afraid of a spontaneous attack. A spontaneous attack, as a rule, is extra blood, and even at the very end of the war. And now Masalov seemed to have sensed our anxiety. Suddenly he gives a voice: “I am with a child. Machine gun on the right, house with balconies, plug his throat. " And the regiment, without any command, opened such fierce fire that I, in my opinion, did not see such tension during the whole war. Under the cover of this fire, Nikolai Ivanovich went out with the girl. He was wounded in the leg, but did not say ... "
NI Masalov recalls: “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 pulling at her mother's belt and calling: "Mutter, mutter!" There is no time to think about it. I am a girl in an armful - and back. And how she will shout! I walk her on and on and so and so I persuade: shut up, they say, otherwise you will open me. Here, indeed, the Nazis began to shoot. Thanks to ours - they helped us out, opened fire from all barrels. "
Guns, mortars, machine guns, carbines covered Masalov with heavy fire. The guardsmen were aiming at the enemy's firing points. A Russian soldier stood over a concrete parapet, blocking the German girl from bullets. At that moment, a dazzling disc of the sun rose over the roof of a house with pillars ravaged by splinters. Its rays hit the enemy coast, blinding the shooters for a while. At the same time, the cannons struck, and artillery preparation began. It seemed that the entire front was saluting the feat of the Russian soldier, his humanity, which he did not lose on the roads of war.
NI Masalov recalls: “I crossed the neutral zone. I looked into one, the other entrance of the houses - in order, therefore, to hand over the child to the Germans, civilians. And there it is empty - not a soul. Then I'll go straight to my headquarters. The comrades surrounded me, laughing: “Show me what kind of“ tongue you got ”. And who themselves are biscuits, who shove sugar to the girl, soothe her. He handed her over from hand to hand to the captain in a raincoat-tent thrown over, which gave her water from a flask. And then I returned to the banner. "
How the famous monument appeared.
A few days later, the sculptor E.V. Vuchetich came to the regiment and immediately found Masalov. Having made a few sketches, he said goodbye, and it was unlikely that Nikolai Ivanovich at that moment imagined why the artist needed it. It was not by chance that Vuchetich drew attention to the Siberian warrior. The sculptor performed the task of the front-line newspaper, looking for a type for a poster dedicated to the Victory of the Soviet people in the Patriotic War. These sketches and sketches came in handy for Vuchetich later, when he began work on the project of the famous ensemble-monument. After the Potsdam conference of the heads of the allied powers, Vuchetich summoned Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov and proposed to start preparing a sculptural ensemble-monument dedicated to the Victory of the Soviet people over Nazi Germany. Originally intended to be placed in the center of the composition
the majestic bronze figure of Stalin with the image of Europe or the globe in his hands.
Sculptor E.V. Vuchetich: “The main figure of the ensemble was watched by artists and sculptors. They praised and admired. But I was dissatisfied. We must look for another solution.
And then I remembered the Soviet soldiers who, during the storming of Berlin, carried German children out of the zone of fire. He dashed to Berlin, visited Soviet soldiers, met with heroes, made sketches and hundreds of photographs - and a new solution matured: a soldier with a child on his chest. He sculpted a meter-high figure of a warrior. There is a fascist swastika under his feet, an automatic rifle in his right hand, and a three-year-old girl with his left. "
It's time to demonstrate both projects under the light of the Kremlin chandeliers. In the foreground is the leader's monument ...
— Listen, Vuchetich, are you tired of this one with a mustache?
Stalin pointed with the mouthpiece of his pipe in the direction of a one and a half meter figure.
Vuchetich hastily removed the parchment from the soldier's figure. Stalin examined him from all sides, smiled tightly and said:
- We will put this soldier in the center of Berlin, on a high burial mound ... Only you know, Vuchetich, the machine gun in the soldier's hand must be replaced with something else. The machine gun is a utilitarian object of our time, and the monument will stand for centuries. Give him something more symbolic in his hand. Well, let's say a sword. Weighty, solid. With this sword, the soldier cut the fascist swastika. The sword is lowered, but grief will be to the one who forces the hero to raise this sword. Agree?
The fate of sergeant Masalov after the war.
AFTER demobilization Nikolay Masalov returned to his native place. The fate of the sons of the village blacksmith turned out to be happy - he waited for all four from the front. And, probably, in the life of Anastasia Nikitichna Masalova there were no more joyful troubles than on that memorable day. As planned, a birthday cake was placed on the table. Nikolai Masalov tried to sit at the tractor levers - it did not work, the front wounds affected. As soon as I worked for an hour or two on the tractor, unbearable pain began to toss and turn in my head. Doctors recommended to change profession. However, Nikolai Masalov could not imagine himself without an "iron horse", without peasant labor, to which he dreamed of returning throughout the war. Often he recalled his native fields, where he worked hard during the hot harvest.
The soldier tried many professions before he found a job to his liking. After moving to Tyazhin, Nikolai Ivanovich began to work in a kindergarten as a caretaker. Here he again felt needed, immediately managed to find a common language with the kids. Probably because he loved the kids very much, really loved them. And they felt it.
The former pupil of the railway kindergarten SP Zamyatkina recalls: “Once the correspondents of the Ogonyok magazine came to Tyazhin. They wanted to photograph Nikolai Ivanovich with a little girl in his arms. For this they chose me for some reason. To small children, Uncle Kolya seemed like a real giant - strong, but kind. Later I saw this photo in a magazine, and it was very dear to me ... "
In the mid-60s, Masalov became famous overnight. He was told about in central Soviet newspapers and magazines, as well as in foreign media. At the same time, Soviet and German filmmakers shot a full-length documentary "The Boy from the Legend". On the eve of the 20th anniversary of the victory, N.I. Masalov, for the first time after the war, visited the capital of the German Democratic Republic. Then the bronze monument and its prototype were first seen firsthand. In 1969 he was awarded the Certificate of Honorary Citizen of Berlin.
Nikolay Masalov with his wife and daughter after the war.
And NI Masalov himself lived his whole life in his native village of Tyazhin, Kemerovo Region, although he was once offered to move to Germany, since he was an honorary citizen of Berlin. In recent years, Nikolai Ivanovich did not get out of bed - the fragments of German shells that remained in his legs and chest made themselves felt. His only daughter Valentina called an ambulance almost every week, but doctors are not omnipotent ... In December 2001, at the age of 79, he died and was buried in a local cemetery. And in the center of Tyazhin, even during the life of a soldier, the same monument was erected as in Treptow Park, only of a much smaller size. And there are always flowers near him. Alive ...
What the search for a rescued German girl gave.
From a letter from M. Richter (GDR): “Yesterday I read an article about your rescue of a German girl in the newspaper Junge Welt. At that time, in the spring of 1945, I was only one year old. I was deeply shocked by this article. After all, the same thing that happened to that girl could have happened to me. We will do our best to find the girl you saved. "
In July 1984, Nikolai Ivanovich Masalov was visited by graduates of the Faculty of Journalism from the University of Berlin, spouses Lutz and Sabina Dekvert. Then they managed to fulfill their old dream - to interview the legendary Russian soldier. German Komsomol members tried to find the girl rescued by Nikolai Masalov in the last hours of the war. "A girl from the monument is wanted" - under this heading in July 1964 in a special Sunday edition of the youth newspaper of the GDR "Junge Welt" a whole page was published about the heroic deed of Nikolai Masalov. The journalists appealed to the population for help in finding a girl rescued by a Soviet soldier. All the central newspapers of the German Democratic Republic, as well as many local publications, published reports about the wanted list announced by Komsomolskaya Pravda and Junge Welt. From all over the republic, letters were sent to the newspaper in which German citizens offered their help. People wanted to see the one for which a citizen of the Soviet country risked his life in the last hours of the war.
German journalist Rudi Peschel recalls: “The whole summer passed either in joyful expectations or in disappointment. Sometimes it seemed to me that I was on a hot trail, but then on the spot it turned out that this was just a misunderstanding. Later, there was more in my hands than just a trace. It was a photograph taken at the end of 1945 at the former youth hostel Ostrau. Almost all 45 kids, boys and girls depicted on it, were rescued by the soldiers of the Soviet Army. Thus, in this small corner of the GDR alone, I found confirmation of what had been said in dozens of letters. There were many, many children who owed their salvation to the Russian guys. "
The editors of newspapers and magazines received reports, the authors of which sought to at least partially shed light on the events that took place in the center of Berlin on April 29, 1945. Then a letter came from Hera, in which it was suggested that the girl's name was Krista. In another letter, on the basis of weighty arguments, the opinion was expressed that she had a different name - Helga. In Berlin, they managed to find a family that adopted a three-year-old girl in 1945. In 1965, the girl was twenty-one years old. Her name was Ingeborga Butt. During the fighting, her mother also died, and she was also saved by a Soviet soldier - she was brought in her arms to a safe refuge. There are many coincidences, except for one - this event took place in what was then East Prussia.
Another message came from Clara Hoffmann in Leipzig. She wrote about a blonde, three-year-old girl whom she adopted in 1946. If this girl from Leipzig is exactly the one that Masalov saved in Berlin, then the question arises, how did she end up in Leipzig. Therefore, of particular interest was a letter in which a resident of the city of Kamenets, Frau Jacob, talked about how on May 9, 1945, on the border with Czechoslovakia, somewhere near the city of Pirna, she met a motorized Soviet unit. In one of the cars, a soldier was holding a two or three-year-old blonde girl, wrapped in a light green blanket. The woman asked:
- Where did you get your child?
One of the Soviet soldiers replied:
- We found the girl in Berlin and took her with us to Prague to give her to a good family.
Was this the girl who caused Masalov to throw himself under the bullets? Why not? Further searches along this trail gave contradictory results ...
German journalist B. Tsaiske said that then 198 people responded, who were saved from hunger, cold and bullets by Soviet soldiers only in Berlin. Writer Boris Polevoy wrote about the feat of senior sergeant Trifon Lukyanovich. Day after day with Masalov, he accomplished exactly the same feat - he saved a German child. However, on the way back, he was overtaken by an enemy bullet.
In Berlin, in Treptower Park, a Russian soldier stands on a pedestal in a raincoat thrown over his shoulders, proudly throwing up his chubby head. Under his feet, the fallen wreckage of the fascist swastika. A heavy double-edged sword is clutched in his right hand, and on his left hand a little girl comfortably clung to the soldier's chest.
Eternal and Light Memory of Soviet soldiers who liberated the world from fascism !!!
On May 8, 1949, 60 years ago, on the territory of Treptower Park in Berlin, the "Monument to the soldiers of the Soviet Army who fell in battles against fascism" was unveiled.
The world-famous Soviet memorial complex in Treptower Park, where about five thousand Soviet soldiers are buried, is the figure of a Soviet soldier, in one hand of which is a sword that cuts through the fascist swastika, in the other is a little German girl rescued from the ruins of defeated Berlin. There is a mausoleum at the base of the monument.
Taking into account the height of the hill and the base of the base, the total height of the monument is approximately 30 meters.
The memorial took three years to build and was officially opened on May 8, 1949. The team of authors was headed by architect Yakov Belopolsky and sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich.
It is believed that the prototype for the sculptor was a Soviet soldier, a native of the village of Voznesenka, Tisulsky District, Kemerovo Region, Nikolai Masalov, who saved a German girl during the storming of Berlin in April 1945. According to historians, on April 30, 1945, Sergeant Masalov, a participant in the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of the Kursk Bulge, heard a children's cry during a battle a few kilometers from the Reichstag on the street adjacent to the Landverkanal. Moving towards him, the soldier found a three-year-old girl in a dilapidated building and, covering her with his body, carried the baby to a safe place under the bullets. Marshal Chuikov was the first to tell about Masalov's feat, later the researchers were able to document this.
After the war, Evgeny 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.
The names of two Soviet fighters - Ivan Odarchenko and Viktor Gunaz - are most often mentioned as the prototype of the bronze soldier. Vuchetich met with both, both posed for him.
First, Vuchetich molded a 2.5-meter high plaster model of the "Liberator Warrior", and then a 13-meter bronze monument weighing 72 tons was cast from it in Leningrad. It was transported to Berlin in parts by sea.
According to the recollections of Ivan Odarchenko, at first there was a German girl in his arms, and then a Russian - 3-year-old Sveta - the daughter of the commandant of Berlin, General Kotikov.
Many believed that the sword was inappropriate in the "Soldier-Liberator" statue, and they advised the sculptor to exchange it for some modern weapon, for example, a submachine gun. But Vuchetich insisted on the sword. In addition, he did not make a sword at all, but precisely copied the sword of the Pskov prince Gabriel, who, together with Alexander Nevsky, fought for Russia against the "knight-dogs".
Under a state treaty between the USSR and the FRG in 1990, the Federal Republic assumed obligations for the care and necessary restoration of monuments and other burial places of Soviet soldiers in Germany. In this case, funding comes from the government of the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Berlin Senate is responsible for organizing the work.
In the fall 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 died in battles against fascism in Berlin was returned to its original place.
The author of the monument is Evgeny Viktorovich Vuchetich, an outstanding Soviet sculptor-monumentalist. She is the author of the grandiose memorial at the Mamayev Kurgan in Volgograd. Among his other works are the monument to Dzerzhinsky on Lubyanskaya Square in Moscow (1958, today it is located in the Muzeon Park of Arts next to the Central House of Artists on Krymsky Val) and the figure "We Will Beat Swords into Plowshares" (1957), one of the casts of which was presented by the Soviet government as a gift to the UN.
... And in Berlin on a holiday date
Was erected to stand for centuries
Monument to Soviet Soldier
With a girl saved in her arms.
He stands as a symbol of our glory,
Like a lighthouse glowing in the darkness.
This is he - the soldier of my state -
Protects peace throughout the earth!G. Rublev
On May 8, 1950, one of the most magnificent symbols of the Great Victory opened in Berlin's Treptower Park. A warrior-liberator with a German girl in his arms climbed to a height of many meters. This 13-meter-high monument has become epochal in its own way. Let's find out the details about him ...
Millions of people visiting Berlin try to visit this very place to bow to the great feat of the Soviet people. Not everyone knows that according to the initial idea, in Treptow Park, where the ashes of more than 5 thousand Soviet soldiers and officers lie, the majestic figure of Comrade. Stalin. And this bronze idol was supposed to hold a globe in his hands. Like, "the whole world is in our hands."
This is exactly what the first Soviet marshal, Kliment Voroshilov, imagined when he summoned the sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich immediately after the end of the Potsdam conference of the heads of the allied powers. But the front-line soldier, 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. And he only asked to replace the machine gun in the soldier's hands with something more symbolic, for example, a sword. And so that he chopped off the fascist swastika ...
Why exactly 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 the fierce attack on the 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! Allow me! " And a second later he rushed in search. Crying was heard from under the bridge. However, it is better to present the floor to Masalov himself. Nikolai Ivanovich recalled: “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 pulling at her mother's belt and calling: "Mutter, mutter!" There is no time to think about it. I am a girl in an armful - and back. And how she will shout! I walk her on and on and so and so I persuade: shut up, they say, otherwise you will open me. Here, indeed, the Nazis began to shoot. Thanks to ours - they helped us out, opened fire from all barrels. "
At that moment Nikolai was wounded in the leg. But he didn’t leave the girl, he reported to 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 widespread version that the historical prototype for the monument was the soldier Nikolai Masalov (1921-2001). In 2003, a plaque was erected on the Potsdamer Brücke (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 times, eyewitness accounts were collected about other similar cases throughout Berlin. There were several dozen of them. Before the assault, many residents 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 was holding a German girl in his arms, but then she was replaced by the little daughter of the commandant of Berlin.
It is interesting that after the opening of the monument in Treptower 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 the humble Ivan never said that it was he who posed for the sculptor. And the fact that from the initial idea of holding a German girl in my arms, in the end, had to be abandoned.
The prototype of the child was 3-year-old Svetochka, the daughter of the commandant of Berlin, General Kotikov. By the way, the sword was not at all contrived, 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 gives to the warrior depicted on the monument "Rear to Front" (Magnitogorsk), and which then he raises the Motherland at the Mamayev Kurgan in Volgograd.
Numerous quotes carved on symbolic sarcophagi in Russian and German are reminiscent of the “Supreme Commander-in-Chief”. After the unification of Germany, some German politicians demanded that they be removed, referring to the crimes committed during the Stalinist dictatorship, but the whole complex, according to interstate agreements, is under state protection. Any changes without the consent of Russia are unacceptable here.
Reading quotes from Stalin today evokes ambiguous feelings and emotions, makes you remember and think about the fate of millions of people both in Germany and in the former Soviet Union who died in Stalin's times. But in this case, quotes should not be taken out of the general context, they are a document of history that is necessary for its comprehension.
After the Battle of Berlin, the sports park near Treptover Allee became a soldier's cemetery. The mass graves are located under the alleys of the park of memory.
The work began when Berliners, not yet divided by the wall, were rebuilding their city from ruins brick by brick. German engineers helped Vuchetich. The widow of one of them, Helga Köpfstein, recalls that much of this project seemed unusual to them.
Helga Köpfstein, tour guide: “We asked why the soldier was holding not a machine gun, but a sword? They explained to us that the sword is a symbol. The Russian soldier defeated the Teutonic knights on Lake Peipsi, and a few centuries later reached Berlin and defeated Hitler. "
60 German sculptors and 200 stonemasons were involved in the production of sculptural elements according to Vuchetich's sketches, and a total of 1200 workers took part in the construction of the memorial. All of them received additional allowance and food. In German workshops, bowls for eternal fire and a mosaic in the mausoleum under the sculpture of a liberator soldier were also made.
Work on the memorial was carried out for 3 years by the architect Y. Belopolsky and the sculptor E. Vuchetich. Interestingly, granite from Hitler's Reich Chancellery 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 examined the sculpture made in Leningrad in the most precise way 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 Treptower Park, monuments to Soviet soldiers were erected in two more places immediately after the war. In the Tiergarten park, located in central Berlin, about 2,000 fallen soldiers are buried. There are more than 13 thousand in the Schönholzer Heide park in Berlin's Pankow district.
During the GDR times, the memorial complex in Treptower 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 took part in a solemn verification dedicated to the memory of the fallen and the withdrawal of Russian troops from a unified Germany, and the parade was hosted by Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
The status of the monument and all Soviet military cemeteries is enshrined in a separate chapter of the treaty concluded between the FRG, the GDR and the victorious powers in World War II. According to this document, the memorial is guaranteed eternal status, and the German authorities are obliged to finance its maintenance, to ensure its integrity and safety. Which is done in the best way.
It is impossible not to tell about the further destinies of Nikolai Masalov and Ivan Odarchenko. After demobilization, Nikolai Ivanovich returned to his native village of Voznesenka, Tisulsky district, Kemerovo region. A unique case - his parents took their four sons to the front and all four returned home with a victory. Nikolai Ivanovich was unable to work on a tractor due to contusions, and after moving to Tyazhin, he got a job as a caretaker in a kindergarten. Here the journalists found him. 20 years after the end of the war, fame fell on Masalov, to which, however, he treated with his usual modesty.
In 1969 he was awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of Berlin. But when talking about his heroic deed, Nikolai Ivanovich did not get tired of emphasizing: what he did was no feat, in his place many would have done so. 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 similar cases. The rescue of at least 45 boys and girls by Soviet soldiers has been documented. Today Nikolai Ivanovich Masalov is no longer alive ...
But Ivan Odarchenko still lives in Tambov (information for 2007). He worked at a factory, then retired. He buried his wife, but the veteran has frequent guests - a daughter and a granddaughter. And to the parades dedicated to the Great Victory, Ivan Stepanovich was often invited to portray a soldier-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-in-arms to Berlin.
Last year, a scandal erupted in Germany over the monuments to Soviet soldiers-liberators erected in Berlin's Treptower Park and Tiergarten. In connection with the latest events in Ukraine, journalists from popular German publications sent letters to the Bundestag demanding to dismantle the legendary monuments.
One of the publications that signed the openly 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 officials write. In addition to the authors of the 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 the peaceful revolution in Eastern Europe by force,” write German journalists.
The controversial 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 the Bild and Berliner Tageszeitung. Many believe that newspapermen are deliberately escalating the situation around the Ukrainian issue.
For sixty years, this monument has truly become a part of Berlin. It was on postage stamps and coins; during the GDR times, 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 more than once smashed marble slabs and painted swastikas on obelisks. But each 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-groomed monuments in Berlin. Germany spent about three million euros on its reconstruction. Some were very annoyed by this.
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 being 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 monument 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 view their history. Both in old Gadeer guidebooks and on modern travel sites it is a monument to the "Soviet soldier-liberator". An ordinary person who came to Europe in peace.
