and its prototype - Soviet soldier Nikolai Masalov
68 years ago, on May 8, 1949, a monument to the Soldier-Liberator in Treptow Park was solemnly opened in Berlin. This memorial was erected in memory of 20 thousand Soviet soldiers who died in the battles for the liberation of Berlin, and became one of the most famous characters Victory in the Great Patriotic war. Few people know that the idea for the creation of the monument was real story, and the main character of the plot was the soldier Nikolai Masalov, whose feat was undeservedly forgotten for many years.
Monument to the Soldier-Liberator in Berlin
The memorial was erected at the burial place of 5 thousand Soviet soldiers who died during the capture of the capital Nazi Germany. Along with the Mamaev Kurgan in Russia, it is one of the largest and most famous of its kind in the world. The decision to build it was made at the Potsdam Conference two months after the end of the war. 
Nikolai Masalov - the prototype of the Liberator Warrior
The idea for the composition of the monument was a real story: on April 26, 1945, Sergeant Nikolai Masalov, during the storming of Berlin, carried a German girl out of the shelling. He himself later described these events as follows: “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 fiddling with her mother's belt and calling: "Mutter, mutter!" No time to think here. I am a girl in an armful - and back. And how she sounds! I'm on the go and so and so I persuade: shut up, they say, otherwise you will open me. Here, indeed, the Nazis began to shoot. Thanks to our people - they helped us out, opened fire from all trunks. The sergeant was wounded in the leg, but the girl was reported to his own. After the Victory, Nikolai Masalov returned to the village of Voznesenka, Kemerovo Region, then moved to the city of Tyazhin and worked there as a supply manager in a kindergarten. His feat was remembered only after 20 years. In 1964, the first publications appeared about Masalov in the press, and in 1969 he was awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of Berlin. 
Ivan Odarchenko - a soldier who posed for the sculptor Vuchetich, and a monument to the Liberator Warrior
The prototype of the Warrior-Liberator was Nikolai Masalov, but another soldier, Ivan Odarchenko from Tambov, who served in the Berlin commandant's office, posed for the sculptor. Vuchetich noticed him in 1947 at the celebration of the Day of the Athlete. Ivan posed for the sculptor for six months, and after the monument was erected in Treptow Park, he stood guard near him several times. They say that people approached him several times, surprised by the similarity, but the private did not admit that this similarity was not at all accidental. After the war, he returned to Tambov, where he worked at a factory. And 60 years after the opening of the monument in Berlin, Ivan Odarchenko became the prototype of the monument to the Veteran in Tambov. 
Monument to the Veteran in the Tambov Victory Park and Ivan Odarchenko, who became the prototype of the monument
The model for the statue of a girl in the arms of a soldier was supposed to be a German woman, but in the end, the Russian girl Sveta, the 3-year-old daughter of the commandant of Berlin, General Kotikov, posed for Vuchetich. In the original version of the memorial, the warrior held a machine gun in his hands, but it was decided to replace it with a sword. It was an exact copy of the sword of the Pskov prince Gabriel, who fought along with Alexander Nevsky, and this was symbolic: the Russian soldiers defeated the German knights on Lake Peipus, and a few centuries later they defeated them again. 
Ivan Odarchenko against the backdrop of the monument to the Liberator Soldier, for which he posed
Work on the memorial was carried out for three years. Architect Y. Belopolsky and sculptor E. Vuchetich sent a model of the monument to Leningrad, and a 13-meter figure of the Liberator Warrior weighing 72 tons was made there. The sculpture was transported to Berlin in parts. According to Vuchetich, after it was brought from Leningrad, one of the best German casters examined it and, finding no flaws, exclaimed: “Yes, this is a Russian miracle!” 
Monument to the Soldier-Liberator in Berlin
Vuchetich prepared two drafts of the monument. Initially, it was planned to place a statue of Stalin with a globe in his hands as a symbol of conquering the world in Treptow Park. As a fallback, Vuchetich proposed a sculpture of a soldier with a girl in his arms. Both projects were presented to Stalin, but he approved the second one. 
Monument to the Soldier-Liberator in Berlin
Treptow Park in Berlin
The memorial was solemnly opened on the eve of the 4th anniversary of the Victory over fascism, May 8, 1949. In 2003, a plaque was erected on the Potsdam Bridge in Berlin in memory of the feat of Nikolai Masalov accomplished in this place. This fact was documented, although eyewitnesses claimed that during the liberation of Berlin there were several dozen such cases. When they tried to find that very girl, about a hundred German families responded. The rescue of about 45 German children by Soviet soldiers was documented. 
Monument to the Soldier-Liberator in Berlin
... And in Berlin on a festive date
Was erected to stand for centuries,
Monument to the Soviet soldier
With a rescued girl in her arms.
It stands as a symbol of our glory,
Like a beacon glowing in the dark.
He is the soldier of my state -
Keeping peace throughout the world!
G. Rublev
On May 8, 1950, one of the most majestic symbols of Great Victory. A warrior-liberator with a German girl in his hands climbed to a multi-meter height. This 13-meter monument has become epochal in its own way.
Millions of people visiting Berlin try to visit this place in order to bow to the great feat. Soviet people. Not everyone knows that, according to the original idea, in Treptow Park, where the ashes of more than 5 thousand Soviet soldiers and officers are buried, there should have been a majestic figure of Comrade. Stalin. And in the hands of this bronze idol was supposed to hold a globe. Like, "the whole world is in our hands."
This is exactly the idea that the first Soviet marshal, Kliment Voroshilov, imagined when he called the sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich to himself immediately after the end of the Potsdam Conference of the Heads of the Allied Powers. But the front-line soldier, the 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 one. And he only asked to replace the machine gun in the hands of a soldier with something more symbolic, for example, a sword. And for him to cut the fascist swastika...
Why 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 a furious attack on 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! Permit! And a second later he rushed in search. Weeping came from under the bridge. However, it is better to give the floor to Masalov himself. Nikolai Ivanovich recalled this: “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 fiddling with her mother's belt and calling: "Mutter, mutter!" No time to think here. I am a girl in an armful - and back. And how she sounds! I'm on the go and so and so I persuade: shut up, they say, otherwise you will open me. Here, indeed, the Nazis began to shoot. Thanks to our people - they helped us out, opened fire from all trunks.
At this moment, Nikolai was wounded in the leg. But he didn’t leave the girl, he informed 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 common version that the soldier Nikolai Masalov (1921-2001) was the historical prototype for the monument. In 2003, a plaque was erected on the Potsdamer Bridge (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, eyewitness accounts were collected about other similar cases throughout Berlin. There were several dozen of them. Before the assault, many inhabitants 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 the work on the sculpture, he held a German girl in his arms, but then she was replaced by the little daughter of the commandant of Berlin.
Interestingly, after the opening of the monument in Treptow 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 modest Ivan never told that it was he who posed for the sculptor. And the fact that the original idea to hold a German girl in her 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 far-fetched, but an exact copy of the sword of the Pskov prince Gabriel, who, together with Alexander Nevsky, fought against the “knight dogs”. The weight of this sword was about two pounds.
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 passes to the warrior depicted on the monument "Rear to the Front" (Magnitogorsk), and which then raises the Motherland on Mamaev Kurgan in Volgograd.
The "Supreme Commander" is reminded of his numerous quotes carved on symbolic sarcophagi in Russian and German. After the reunification of Germany, some German politicians demanded their removal, referring to the crimes committed during the Stalinist dictatorship, but the entire complex, according to interstate agreements, is under state protection. No changes without the consent of Russia are unacceptable here.
Reading Stalin's quotes today evokes ambiguous feelings and emotions, makes us remember and think about the fate of millions of people in Germany and the former Soviet Union who died in Stalin's times. But in this case quotations should not be taken out of the general context, they are a document of history necessary for its comprehension.
After the Battle of Berlin, the sports park near Treptower Allee became a military cemetery. The mass graves are located under the alleys of the memory park.
The work began when the Berliners, not yet separated by a wall, were rebuilding their city from the ruins brick by brick. Vuchetich was assisted by German engineers. The widow of one of them, Helga Köpfstein, recalls that many things about this project seemed unusual to them.
Helga Köpfstein, tour guide: “We asked why a soldier does not have a machine gun in his hands, but a sword? We were told that the sword is a symbol. A Russian soldier defeated the Teutonic Knights on Lake Peipsi, and a few centuries later he reached Berlin and defeated Hitler.
60 German sculptors and 200 masons were involved in the manufacture of sculptural elements according to Vuchetich's sketches, and a total of 1,200 workers participated in the construction of the memorial. All of them received additional allowances and food. German workshops also made bowls for eternal flame and a mosaic in the mausoleum under the statue of a warrior-liberator.
Work on the memorial was carried out for 3 years by the architect Y. Belopolsky and the sculptor E. Vuchetich. Interestingly, granite from the Reich Chancellery of Hitler was used for the construction. 13 meter figure Warrior Liberator 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 in the most accurate way examined the sculpture made in Leningrad 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 Treptow Park, monuments Soviet soldiers Immediately after the war, they installed in two more places. Around 2,000 fallen soldiers are buried in the Tiergarten park in central Berlin. There are over 13,000 in the Schönholzer Heide park in Berlin's Pankow district.
During the GDR memorial Complex in Treptow Park served as a venue different kind official events, had the status of one of the most important state monuments. On August 31, 1994, a thousand Russian and six hundred German soldiers, 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 agreement concluded between the FRG, the GDR and the victorious powers in World War II. According to this document, the memorial is guaranteed an eternal status, and the German authorities are obliged to finance its maintenance, ensure integrity and safety. Which is done in the best way.
It is impossible not to talk about further destinies Nikolai Masalov and Ivan Odarchenko. Nikolai Ivanovich, after demobilization, returned to his native village of Voznesenka, Tisulsky district, Kemerovo region. A unique case - his parents took four sons to the front and all four returned home with a victory. Nikolai Ivanovich could not work on a tractor due to shell shocks, and after moving to the city of Tyazhin, he got a job as a supply manager in Kindergarten. This is where the journalists found him. 20 years after the end of the war, fame fell upon Masalov, which, however, he treated with his usual modesty.
In 1969 he was awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of Berlin. But talking about his heroic deed, Nikolai Ivanovich did not tire of emphasizing: what he accomplished was no feat, many would have done so in his place. So it was in life. When the German Komsomol decided to find out about the fate of the rescued girl, they received hundreds of letters describing such cases. And the rescue of at least 45 boys and girls by Soviet soldiers was documented. Today Nikolai Ivanovich Masalov is no longer alive ...
But Ivan Odarchenko still lives in the city of Tambov (information for 2007). He worked in a factory and then retired. He buried his wife, but the veteran has frequent guests - his daughter and granddaughter. And Ivan Stepanovich was often invited to parades dedicated to the Great Victory to portray a 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 to Berlin.
Last year, a scandal erupted in Germany around the monuments to Soviet liberators erected in Berlin's Treptow Park and the Tiergarten. In connection with the recent events in Ukraine, journalists from popular German publications sent letters to the Bundestag demanding that the legendary monuments be dismantled.
One of the publications that signed the frankly provocative petition was the newspaper. Journalists write that Russian tanks have no place near the famous Brandenburg Gate. "Bye 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,” write angry media workers. In addition to the authors of 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 graduation cold war Russia is trying to suppress the peaceful revolution in Eastern Europe", - write German journalists.
The scandalous 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 Bild and Berliner Tageszeitung. Many believe that the newspapermen deliberately escalate the situation around the Ukrainian issue.
For sixty years, this monument has truly become accustomed to Berlin. He was on postage stamps and coins, in the days of the GDR 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 have repeatedly beaten marble slabs and painted swastikas on obelisks. But every 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-kept monuments in Berlin. Germany spent about three million euros on its reconstruction. Some people were very annoyed.
Hans Georg Buchner, 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 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 one 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 look at their history. And in the old GDR guidebooks, and on modern travel sites - this is a monument to the "Soviet soldier-liberator". To the common man who came to Europe in peace.
As it turned out, few of the guests of the city know where the monument to the Soviet soldier in Berlin is located. However, this is not tricky, because. in the main it is not always possible to find.
So, the monument to the soldier of the liberator in Berlin is located in Treptow Park in the eastern part of the city. In order to get to the park, you need to get to the S-Bahn train station "Treptow Park". From there, walk for about 5 minutes. I advise you to immediately look at the map in which direction to move, because. despite the fact that the monument stands quite high, it is not visible at all through the trees.
In one of my notes, I already wrote that solemn events are taking place related to the anniversary of the liberation of Germany from fascism.
It is unfortunate that in recent times this topic has received a completely wild coloring. We have all heard various crazy things on this topic, we will not focus our attention on them. Those who are interested in this monument will understand me.
So, on May 8 and 9 there are a lot of people here. People come to bow to the Soviet soldier-liberator and honor the memory of their grandfathers. Every time I am surprised how many Germans come to the monument to lay flowers. Also nearby on the site are various events of anti-fascist organizations. The audience is going, shall we say, motley. People walk late.
The monument is in perfect condition, which requires considerable investment. I am very glad that money is allocated for this. Although in Germany this is the norm.
Very few people know that in Berlin there is another very well-groomed and no less solemn memorial complex - this is the cemetery of Soviet soldiers. This complex is located in the district of Reinickendorf, away from public transport. The memorial is also in perfect condition; a major overhaul was carried out last year.
Here is the place on the map
Who will have half a day of time, I recommend to look into this place. Please note that the monument closes at 6 pm. This is probably due to possible vandalism. I will not approve, but I ask myself the question, why close a large memorial to the castle. This is very unusual for Berlin. Here such places are always open.
If I already started talking about our military monuments, then two more places with this theme should be mentioned. This is a monument to the soldiers-liberators behind the Brandenburg Gate ( on the map) and the Russian-German military museum in Karlshorst ( on the map). By the way, it was there that it was signed unconditional surrender fascist Germany. Here you can see the hall in which, in fact, the signing of the document, which meant the end of the war, took place. The museum has many different military exhibits. Highly recommend this place!
I wish you a pleasant stay in Berlin!
A small German girl is frightened pressed against the chest of a Soviet soldier who is standing on the fragments of a swastika with a lowered sword. This is the world-famous monument to the Soldier-Liberator in Berlin's Treptow Park. The memorial was officially opened on May 8, 1949. The group of authors was headed by architect Yakov Belopolsky and sculptor Evgeny Vuchetich.
Not everyone knows that according to the original idea, in Treptow Park, where the ashes of more than 5 thousand Soviet soldiers and officers are buried, there should have been a majestic figure of Stalin with a globe in his hands. This is exactly how the first Soviet marshal, Kliment Voroshilov, imagined the monument when, immediately after the end of the Potsdam Conference of the Heads of the Allied Powers, he summoned the sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich to his place. However, the front-line soldier Yevgeny Vuchetich, just in case, made the second option - with a Red Army soldier holding a German girl in his arms. Both projects were presented to Stalin, and he chose the "fallback" option.
The prototype of the "Warrior-Liberator" was Sergeant Nikolai Masalov, who on April 26, 1945, during the battle, carried a three-year-old German girl out of the firing zone. The hero himself recalled his feat in this way: “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 fiddling with her mother's belt and calling: "Mutter, mutter!" No time to think here. I am a girl in an armful - and back. And how she sounds! I'm on the go and so and so I persuade: shut up, they say, otherwise you will open me. Here, indeed, the Nazis began to shoot. Thanks to our people - they helped us out, opened fire from all trunks.
Marshal Chuikov was the first to tell about the feat of Masalov. The very fact of Masalov's feat is documented, but during the GDR, eyewitness accounts were collected about dozens of other similar cases throughout Berlin. Before the assault, many inhabitants 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." After the war, Yevgeny 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.
However, Vutechich chose a completely different person as a sitter. At the celebration of the Day of the athlete, the sculptor noticed 21-year-old private Ivan Odarchenko, who participated in running competitions. It is curious that Odarchenko, who served in Berlin, was on guard of the monument to the “Liberator Warrior” several times. People constantly approached Ivan and were amazed at the resemblance to the monument, but the private guard did not reveal to the visitors the secret of this resemblance. According to the memoirs of Ivan Odarchenko, the model for the statue of the girl that the warrior holds in his arms was first a German girl, and then a Russian - 3-year-old Sveta - the daughter of the commandant of Berlin, General Kotikov.
Many believed that the sword was out of place in the statue of the Liberator Warrior, and advised the sculptor to change it to some modern weapon, for example, to a machine gun. But Vuchetich insisted on the sword. In addition, he did not make a sword at all, but exactly copied the sword of the Pskov prince Gabriel, who, together with Alexander Nevsky, fought for Russia against the “knight dogs”.
Work on the memorial was carried out for 3 years. Interestingly, granite from the Reich Chancellery of Hitler was used for the construction. The 13-meter bronze figure of the "Warrior-Liberator" was made in St. Petersburg and weighed 72 tons. In Berlin, it was transported in parts by sea.
In the autumn of October 1, 2003, the sculpture of the warrior was dismantled and sent for restoration. In the spring of 2004, a monument to soldiers Soviet army, who fell in battles with fascism in Berlin, was returned to its original place.
The status of the monument and all Soviet military cemeteries is enshrined in a separate chapter of the "two plus four" unification agreement concluded between the FRG, the GDR and the victorious powers in World War II. According to this document, the memorial is guaranteed an eternal status, and the German authorities are obliged to finance its maintenance, ensure integrity and safety. Which is done in the best way.
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MONUMENT IN BERLIN Georgy Rublev It was in May, at dawn. At the pillar, trembling, she stood, Then he remembered how saying goodbye in the summer But then, in Berlin, under fire And, stroking with a gentle hand, How many children have their childhood returned And in Berlin, on a festive date, It stands as a symbol of our glory, |
This touching and unforgettable poem was written by the poet Georgy Rublev under the impression real feat Sergeant Nikolai Masalov, which he committed on the eve of the Great Victory.
On April 6, 1945, during the capture of Berlin, an hour before the start of artillery preparation for the capture of the Tempelhof airfield, the flagman of the 220th Guards Rifle Regiment of the 79th Guards Rifle Division, Sergeant Nikolai Masalov, brought the banner of the regiment to the Landwehr Canal. ... The path to the center of the Tiergarten from the south was blocked by a deep canal with steep concrete banks. Bridges and approaches to it are densely mined and tightly covered by machine gun fire. ...Fifty minutes remained before the attack of the guards. There was silence, as before a storm, anxious, tense. And suddenly in this silence, broken only by the crackling of fires, a child's cry was heard. As if from somewhere out of the ground, the voice of a child sounded muffled and inviting. Crying, he repeated one word, understandable to everyone: “Mutter, mutter ...” “It seems that this is on the other side of the canal,” Masalov told his comrades. He approached the commander: "Let me save the child, I know where he is." Crawling to the Humpback Bridge was dangerous. The area in front of the bridge was shot through by machine guns and automatic cannons, not to mention mines and land mines hidden underground. Sergeant Masalov crawled forward, clinging to the asphalt, sometimes hiding in shallow craters from shells and mines. So he crossed the embankment and took cover behind the ledge of the concrete canal wall. And then I heard the child again. He called his mother plaintively, insistently. He seemed to rush Masalov. Then the guardsman rose to his full height - tall, powerful. Glittered on the chest military orders. This will not be stopped by bullets or shrapnel. Masalov jumped over the canal barrier... A few more minutes passed. For a moment, the enemy machine guns fell silent. With bated breath, the guards waited for the voice of the child, but it was quiet. They waited for five, ten minutes... Was Masalov risking it in vain? . Several guards, without saying a word, prepared to throw. And at that time everyone heard Masalov's voice: “Attention! I am with a child. Cover me with fire. Machine gun on the right, on the balcony of the house with columns. Shut his throat! .. ”The artillery preparation began here.
Thousands of shells and thousands of mines, as it were, covered the exit Soviet soldier from the death zone with a three-year-old German girl in her arms. Her mother probably tried to escape from the Tiergarten, but the SS began to shoot her in the back. Saving her daughter, she took refuge under the bridge and died there. Having handed over the girl to the nurses, Sergeant Masalov again stood at the banner of the regiment, ready to rush forward. This military episode served as the prototype for the world-famous Vuchetich monument in Treptow Park in Berlin. A warrior with a lowered sword in one hand and a little girl, whom he carefully supports with the other, stands on a pedestal, the pedestal itself is on a green hill, and it seems that the warrior rises not only above the platform, but soars over the park and the whole country. And N. I. 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. Last years Nikolai Ivanovich did not get out of bed - fragments of German shells left in his legs and chest made themselves felt. His only daughter, Valentina, almost weekly called an ambulance, but doctors are not omnipotent ... In December 2001, at the age of 79, he died and was buried at the local cemetery. And in the center of Tyazhin, during the life of a soldier, the same monument was erected as in Treptow Park, only much smaller. And there are always flowers near him. Live…
