Memorial

Memorial of the Unknown Soldier, or

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

is a war memorial, dedicated to the Soviet soldiers killed during World War II.  It is located at the Kremlin Wall in the Alexander Garden in Moscow and was unveiled in 1967.

 The Alexander Gardens were created in 1812 after the Neglinnaya River was channeled underground.  It is a peaceful garden that borders the Kremlin wall.  

In 1997, a Guard of Honor of the Kremlin Regiment, which had guarded the Lenin Mausoleum, was restored at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by federal law.  A Changing of the Guard Ceremony takes place every hour.

To the left of the tomb is a granite wall with an inlay stating:  "1941 - to Those Who Have Fallen For The Motherland - 1945".

To the right of the tomb, lining the walkway are dark red porphyry blocks with incapsulated soils from hero cities, such as Leningrad, Kiev, Stalingrad, etc.

The dark red porphyry monument is decorated with a bronze sculpture of a laurel branch and a soldier's helmet laid upon a banner.

In front of the monument, there is a five-pointed star in a square field of labradorite.  The Eternal Flame is in its center.  There is an inscription that reads:  "Your name is unknown, your deed is immortal."

(another monument in Alexander Gardens)

Also: The section of Kremlin wall behind Lenin's mausoleum was first used as a necropolis in 1917 when the bodies of 238 Bolshevik revolutionary fighters were buried in mass graves there.  Since then over 100 Soviet heroes have had their ashes interred in the wall and marked with plaques.  Twelve Soviet statesmen, including every leader except Khrushchev, are honored with individual tombs.

visited:  Sunday, November 22, 2015