Noting the exceptional merits of the defenders-Gorky residents (now-Nizhny Novgorod citizens) before the Motherland, in 1964 the City Executive Committee of the city of Gorky adopted a decision: "To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Victory in honor of the Gorky people who died during the Great Patriotic War".

The memorial was solemnly opened on May 8, 1965 - on the eve of the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the celebration of the Victory Day. The authors of the project were the Honored Architect of Russia, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Architecture and Building Sciences (RAASN) Timofeev SA, Honored Architect of Russia Nelyubin BS, Architect Kovalev V.Ya. And artists Lyubimov VV, Lamster EE, Topupov NP, Shvaykin AM For a year, from 1964 to 1965, the author's collective formed the general idea of ​​the ensemble, performed models and sketches of the complex. After that, the models of the main elements were made and installed and the accomplishments of the memorial were made. May 9, 1970 on the territory of the complex was installed T-34 tank as a symbol of the labor contribution of the Gorky people to the Victory.

In the center of the memorial complex there is an eternal flame on a tetrahedral gray granite pedestal. The ensemble itself consists of two granite steles. Near the first stela, no more than a meter and a half in height, gilded wreaths arranged along the entire length, symbolizing the missing soldiers during the bloody war. The other depicts two fighters and the date of the beginning and end of the Great Patriotic War. On the reverse side are the names of the Gorkyites, Heroes of the Soviet Union, who died at the front, and the inscription: "Eternal glory to the Gorkyites who died in the battles for freedom and independence of our Motherland!"

On the side of the stela, in gold letters, poems of the poet V. Polovinkin are stamped:

Comrades, remember the life of the defended,

They saved us both the sun and joy.

 For honor, for freedom, for the homeland of the dead

 Forever consider going side by side.