Memorial "Defenders of the Soviet Arctic" ("Alyosha")
The Murmansk Memorial to the “Defenders of the Soviet Polar Region during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945” has long been customarily called “Alyosha”. Residents of Murmansk treat the main city symbol as a native person - in general, there are few concrete multimeter sculptures in the world, to which people affectionately refer to by name.
Now they have forgotten that the name “Alyosha” did not catch on immediately - the first, “original” Alyosha appeared much earlier than Murmansk, in 1957 and in another country - Bulgaria, in the city of Plovdiv. The Russian hero-bogatyr Alexei Skurlatov is considered the prototype of the Bulgarian monument, that's why “Alyosha”.
“Stands over the mountain Alesha / In Bulgaria, a Russian soldier” - this song is based on the words of Konstantin Vanshenkin and the music of Edward Kolmanovsky was once so popular in the USSR, that the tender nickname “Alyosha” stuck to many solitary monuments of soldiers. So over time, it happened in Murmansk, although the townspeople for quite a long time tried to invent a proper, non-borrowed name for the monument. But now Murmansk people can be tormented by the question “Why exactly Alyosha?” - many will no longer be able to answer, “Alyosha” - and that's all, they are used to.
Another is not the most obvious fact: Murmansk "Alyosha" - one of the largest monuments in the world. In height (without a pedestal) in Russia, it is inferior only to one monument, it is easy to guess which one. The total height of the “Alyosha” is 42.5 meters, without a pedestal - 35.5 meters. But the point is not only in the height of the sculpture, but also in the place where it is located - on Green Cape, the highest hill of Murmansk (173 m). A broad-shouldered warrior in a cloak-tent can be seen from almost anywhere in the city and vice versa - the most famous panorama of Murmansk and an impressive view of the Kola Bay opens from the monument. Defender sees that protects. And the townspeople see their protector even at night: at night, the figure of the mighty warrior is highlighted by searchlights. Now it is even difficult to imagine that the original monument was planned to be installed on the central square of the city, Five Points.
Unlike the Moscow memorial on Poklonnaya Hill, Murmansk is one of those monuments whose artistic merits are not accepted. Soviet monumentalists knew their business, and the place itself is filled with deep meaning for those who know a little about military history.
The memorial was erected on the top, where during the war years there were anti-aircraft batteries protecting the city and the port from air raids. The glance of “Alyosha”, as it is written in all the guidebooks, is turned towards the Valley of Glory, where fierce fighting took place on the approaches to Murmansk. But not everyone remembers that before the Valley of Glory was called Death Valley. In 1941 there was a real hell. In our memory, the first year of the war is connected with Moscow - all forces were thrown to the defense of the capital, which was defended at the cost of terrible sacrifices. They know much less about the feat of Murmansk and the defenders of the Polar region (it suffices to recall the official name of the memorial). Some will remember the famous polar convoys, but it will be a little later, and in the first months of the war the main hostilities took place on land: the capture of Murmansk, the most important port connected by rail with the center of the country, would give the Germans a huge advantage.
But not a single winning bulletin arrived in Germany from the Soviet Arctic. The Germans could not take Murmansk, could not advance to the railway, the front line stabilized in 1941 and remained so until 1944. The Murmansk region is the only one where the enemy has not broken further than 30 km from the state border. Here will always remember the exploits of sailors who voluntarily went into the marines and fought on land, will remember the ships that defended the city from air raids with their anti-aircraft artillery. At least one line should mention the legendary Admiral Nikolai Gerasimovich Kuznetsov, the People's Commissar of the Navy — the only one who, on the eve of the German attack on the USSR, took measures to increase the combat readiness of the fleets, and on the night of June 22 ordered to bring them to full combat readiness, thus avoiding losses ships and naval aviation.
Unable to immediately take the city in 1941, the Germans won back the following year. The curse of Murmansk was the sun not setting on the polar day: in the summer of 1942, the bombardment burned three-quarters of an almost completely wooden city, people went to the hills, settled in dugouts, but the port continued processing lend-lease cargoes from convoy ships. During the war years, Murmansk survived 792 air raids and 185 thousand bombs - the second place after Stalingrad in terms of the intensity of the bombing.
For the feat, the capital of the Polar Region was awarded twice: in 1982, with the Order of the Patriotic War, I degree, and after three years - with the title Hero City.
The military parade on May 9 in Murmansk does not go as it did in the other hero-cities. Among our sailors, frontier guards and infantrymen there is a “box” of old men of not ours appearance of varying degrees of cheerfulness - in white berets, blue blazers with a row of unusual medals and gray trousers. These are members of the "Northern Russia" club - English military and civilian sailors, veterans of the Allied Polar convoys of the Second World War. On the left shoulder of their jackets, “The lucky ones” patch. Why? They proudly smile: “Go to you in those years and return home ... Oh, for that you had to“ be born with a silver spoon in your mouth ””. This is the analogue of our "born in a shirt".
It is still unknown how many thousands of Soviet soldiers and sailors were killed while defending Murmansk ...
Even a superficial knowledge of history helps to understand the meaning of all elements of the memorial - the Eternal Flame, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a granite stele with the inscription "For the Polar Circle Defenders - the soldiers of the 14th Army, the 19th Army, the Red Banner Northern Fleet, the 7th Air Army, the border detachments No. 82, 100, partisan detachments "Soviet Murman", "Bolshevik of the Polar Region", "Polarnik", "Stalinets", "Bolshevik". Glory to the defended this earth! " Two anti-aircraft guns and two capsules, walled up at the foot of the monument - one with sea water from the place of the death of the legendary ship “Tuman”, which repeated the feat of the cruiser “Varyag”, the second - with land from the Verman boundary.
HISTORY
The project was developed by sculptor Isaac Brodsky and architect Igor Pokrovsky. The monument was laid in 1969, but the opening of the memorial took place on October 19, 1974 - the 30th anniversary of the defeat of the German troops in the Arctic. It was a real holiday for the whole city - people went to Green Cape by the thousands. After the official opening, the cruiser Murmansk, standing on the roadstead in the Kola Bay, saluted with thirty volleys.
As eyewitnesses of those events recalled, it was not without a case. Green Cape is a place known for its piercing winds; they always blow here, even on the most fine day, what to say about the middle of October, the polar autumn. A gust of wind blew out the just-lit Eternal Flame brought to the memorial from the monument to the 6th Heroic Battery. The public held its breath - who will dare, after the first secretary of the regional party committee, who brought the torch, to rekindle the fire? The young officer was not taken aback and did not hesitate: he saved the situation, the flames ignited again.
Today, “Alyosha” is a mandatory item in the program of any tourist, wedding processions come here to take pictures, foreign delegations lay wreaths here, and on May 9, Murmansk people walk from the city center to Green Cape by a multi-thousand column on foot. Just as on the day when the monument was solemnly opened on the highest hill, becoming the hallmark of the hero-city of Murmansk.
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