Hall of Fame on Poklonnaya Hill list. Dioramas of the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War

The exposition of the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War on Poklonnaya Hill tells about the feat of the Soviet people during the years of the most difficult trials. Back in 1942, the first proposals were made to perpetuate the memory of the heroes by creating a memorial; a competition was announced for the best architectural project, but its time came later. In the 1950s, the authorities granted the request of the front-line soldiers and on February 23, 1958, a memorial sign “A monument to the Victory of the people of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 will be built here” was erected on Poklonnaya Hill.

Only in 1983 was the corresponding Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted, and three years later the Ministry of Culture of the USSR signed an order to create a museum on the territory of the future Victory Park. Direct preparations for the opening of the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War began in 1993–1994 with the creation of temporary historical, artistic and military historical exhibitions. The exhibits were received from the funds of the Museum of the Armed Forces, donated by war veterans, and found by search teams at battle sites.

Construction of a museum building. 1991-1993: https://pastvu.com/p/82774 Photo: Yu. Abrosimov

The Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War http://www.poklonnayagora.ru/ was inaugurated on May 9, 1995 in the presence of 55 official delegations from around the world. “The museum is a historical witness of the war that cannot lie. The museum is raising new heroes who will become heirs to the glory and greatness of the country, an endless source of wisdom. The museum shows that a great nation has great people,” US President Bill Clinton wrote in the guest book.

The Hall of Memory and Sorrow is dedicated to the memory of 26 million 600 thousand of our compatriots who died and disappeared. The museum stores about 1,500 volumes of the All-Union Book of Memory, where the name lists of this unique publication, which combines the functions of a reference book and martyrology, contain brief information about the fate of millions of soldiers. The sculptural composition “Sorrow” is made of white marble (sculptor L. Kerbel, marble carvers P. Nosov, I. Kruglov)

In the Hall of Generals there are busts of holders of the Order of Victory, which were awarded to the highest command staff of the Soviet Army (sculptor Z. Tsereteli)

The names of those who were awarded the highest military award - the Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union - are immortalized in the Hall of Fame. In the center is a bronze sculpture “Soldier of Victory” (sculptor V. Znoba). Under the dome of the hall there are bas-reliefs of hero cities.

The military-historical exhibition “Feat and Victory of a Great People” (chief artist - V.M. Glazkov, chief architect - I.Yu. Minakov) opened in 2008 and has more than 6,000 exhibits. The museum presents six dioramas dedicated to the largest military operations of the Great Patriotic War, created by famous masters of the Grekov Studio of War Artists: “Counter-offensive of Soviet troops near Moscow”, “Battle of Stalingrad. Union of Fronts", "Siege of Leningrad", "Battle of Kursk", "Crossing the Dnieper", "Storm of Berlin".

In the late 1930s, European states either watched the militarization of Germany with alarm or made a deal with the devil. Following the participants in the Munich Pact, England and France, the Soviet Union also joined the diplomatic game with Hitler, signing a non-aggression pact. What Ribbentrop's signature is worth under this document will become clear two years later.

Hitler had not previously hidden his claims to world domination and looked carnivorously at the rich eastern expanses, convincing the nation of his superiority over the Slavic peoples. The Soviet Union could only prepare for the inevitable invasion. And the country was being prepared for the inevitability of war. Military maneuvers, civil defense exercises, mass training in Osoaviakhim - all this happened, and it seemed that if tomorrow there was a war, then we would win with little blood, with a mighty blow.

Soviet soldiers and officers had the opportunity to gain combat experience in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War, where they fought on the side of the Republican government against the fascist regime of Franco. But local military conflicts did not give a clear picture of the strength of the Red Army. As a result of the Finnish War of 1940, it was possible to move the borders further from Leningrad, but this winter campaign can hardly be called victorious. The Finns fought desperately on their land and found vulnerabilities in the battle formations of the Red Army. The Red Army suffered heavy losses.

On May 1, 1941, a grandiose military parade took place on Red Square with the participation of hundreds of armored vehicles, including heavy tanks and long-range artillery. It seemed that no enemy could resist such power. All the more stunning was the disaster of June 22, when Germany suddenly, without declaring war, invaded the territory of the Soviet Union along its entire western borders. Carrying out the Barbarossa plan, German troops rapidly advanced inland, aiming attacking wedges at Leningrad, Kyiv, and Moscow.

In difficult times. Artist I. Penzov.
In June 1941, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, headed by Joseph Stalin, and the State Defense Committee were created.

On the Borodino field in 1941. Artist V.Molchanov.
Hitler considered the capture of the capital of the USSR as the main military goal of Operation Barbarossa, but Moscow did not repeat the fate of the European capitals captured by the Nazis. At the cost of huge losses of the Red Army in the battles near Smolensk, they managed to gain time to create new defensive lines. Moscow held out and on December 5, the Soviet command introduced strategic reserves and fresh divisions from Siberia. During the counteroffensive, the Germans were driven back 100-250 kilometers from Moscow. This first great victory in the Great Patriotic War was won under the command of Marshal Georgy Zhukov.

Diorama “Siege of Leningrad”. Artist E.A. Korneev
Having encountered fierce resistance from the defenders of Leningrad and having failed to take the city during the blitzkrieg, the German command changed tactics. On September 8, 1941, Leningrad found itself surrounded by a siege that lasted 872 days.

Artillery shelling and massive bombing destroyed food warehouses, and famine began in a city with a population of three million. With the onset of winter, the water supply and sewage systems froze, and the heating of houses stopped. In the winter of 1941, more than 4,000 residents of Leningrad died every day from hunger and cold.

Children's toys found at the bottom of Lake Ladoga.
Leningraders were evacuated across Lake Ladoga on barges, and in winter across the ice in GAZ-AA and ZIS-5 trucks. Trucks with food and fuel were heading to the besieged city. The Road of Life was covered from air raids by Soviet fighters and anti-aircraft artillery, but Luftwaffe aircraft continued to attack peaceful columns. Only on January 18, 1943, the troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts managed to break through the blockade ring, and Leningrad was completely liberated on January 27, 1944.

In the very first weeks of the war, a mass evacuation of industrial enterprises began, along with workers and engineers, from front-line areas to the Urals, Siberia, and Central Asia. Equipment that was not evacuated in time was subject to destruction. In 1941, 2,500 new plants and factories were built in the rear areas, urgently establishing the production of weapons and ammunition, and a year later the Soviet military industry surpassed the German one. Experienced workers who went to the front were replaced by apprentices and women who worked 12-14 hours at the machines.

On June 29, 1941, the Directive of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks was issued “On the organization of struggle in the rear of German troops”: “In areas occupied by the enemy, create partisan detachments and sabotage groups to fight units of the enemy army, to incite partisan warfare everywhere, to blow up bridges, roads, damage telephone and telegraph communications, set fire to warehouses, etc. In occupied areas, create unbearable conditions for the enemy and all his accomplices, pursue and destroy them at every step, disrupt all their activities...” In 1941-1944 Over the years, 6,200 partisan detachments and formations operated in the occupied territory of the USSR.

The main tactical unit was a detachment, usually numbering several dozen people, and later up to 200 or more fighters. During the war, many detachments united into formations numbering from several hundred to several thousand people. Light weapons predominated in armament (machine guns, light machine guns, rifles, carbines, grenades), but many detachments and formations had mortars and heavy machine guns, and some had artillery.

The German army was rushing towards Stalingrad in the hope of capturing a large industrial city and cutting off vital water and land communications. On July 17, 1942, the Battle of Stalingrad began. It was impossible to retreat and Joseph Stalin turned to the Red Army with order No. 227 - “Not a step back!” High-explosive and incendiary bombs burned the city center to the ground, killing 90,000 people, but Stalingrad did not surrender, fighting continued on the city streets, and firing points were installed in buildings and on the territory of factories. Mamayev Kurgan and the railway station changed hands several times. The Stalingrad Tractor Plant continued to build tanks, which were immediately manned and went into battle. On November 19, 1942, the Red Army began its offensive under the code name “Uranus” and a ring closed around the 6th Army of the Wehrmacht. In January 1943, the German troops caught in the “cauldron” were divided into two groups and liquidated, 20 German divisions surrendered. It was a great victory that caused mourning in Germany and rejoicing in England, France, and the USA.

Diorama “Battle of Stalingrad. Uniting fronts." Artists M.I. Samsonov and A.M. Samsonov

Diorama "Battle of Kursk". Artist N.S.Prisekin
In the summer of 1943, the greatest tank battle in history took place near Kursk with the participation of 6,000 combat vehicles. On July 5, 1943, the Wehrmacht command launched the offensive Operation Citadel using the new Panther and Tiger tanks. This operation did not come as a surprise to Headquarters - thanks to the actions of human intelligence, the plan was known two months before the start of the German offensive and Soviet artillery launched a powerful pre-emptive strike on enemy infantry and tanks. Manstein's tanks tried in vain to break into our defenses, and a week later the climax came: on July 12, up to 1,500 tanks fought in an oncoming battle near Prokhorovka. The Wehrmacht offensive stalled and the Soviet command launched several offensive operations in different directions. In honor of the liberation of Orel and Belgorod, on August 5, the first fireworks display during the war years was fired in Moscow.

On the very first day of the war, enemy aircraft bombed the naval bases of the Baltic and Black Sea fleets. The sailors selflessly defended their bases in the Baltic, but in August 1941 they were forced to withdraw from Tallinn to Kronstadt. The Germans actually blocked the fairway, placing 21,000 mines and powerful mine-netted anti-submarine barriers in the Gulf of Finland. Submarines and torpedo boats went out on missions, but suffered heavy losses. Under these conditions, Soviet naval artillery was installed on coastal batteries, and sailors fought on land. The Black Sea Fleet participated in the defense of Odessa (1941) and Sevastopol (1941-1942), and landing operations on the coast. During the war years, the Black Sea troops sank and damaged 508 enemy ships and vessels, the marines defended Odessa and Stalingrad, Novorossiysk and Kerch.

Pe-2 dive bombers. Artist A. Ananyev
On June 22, 1941, Luftwaffe bombers and attack aircraft destroyed 800 Soviet aircraft at airfields in a surprise attack and gained air superiority. But the Germans underestimated the skill and courage of the pilots, who took on an unequal battle on aircraft that were inferior in flight characteristics. Already in 1942, the USSR produced more aircraft than Germany. Ural factories sent new aircraft to the front, developed by aircraft designers Yakovlev, Lavochkin, and Ilyushin. The most popular aircraft in the Soviet Air Force during the Great Patriotic War were the Il-2 attack aircraft and the Yak-1 fighter. The heroes of the battle in the air were Ivan Kozhedub, who shot down 62 enemy aircraft, and Alexander Pokryshkin, who scored 59 victories.

Diorama "Forcing of the Dnieper". Artist V.K.Dmitrievsky
After the Battle of Kursk, the next task was the liberation of the industrial regions of Ukraine. On August 26, 1943, Soviet divisions launched an offensive along the entire 1,400-kilometer front stretching from Smolensk to the Sea of Azov. The German armies fought their way back to the Dnieper, where the fortifications of the Eastern Wall were being built. The advanced rifle units of the Red Army crossed the river without delay, suffered heavy losses under enemy fire, but were able to gain a foothold on the right bank. The battles for the conquered bridgeheads continued throughout the fall, while Headquarters brought up reserves. The supply of German troops, on the contrary, was worsened by the “Rail War”, which was waged by partisan detachments that blew up enemy trains with ammunition and reinforcements. On November 6, 1943, during the Kyiv offensive operation, the capital of Ukraine was liberated.

In the summer of 1944, the offensive Operation Bagration, which was carefully planned and unexpected for the enemy, was carried out, Belarus and the Baltic states were liberated, the Red Army reached the pre-war borders of the USSR, and the liberation of Europe from Nazi occupation began. On January 27, 1945, the Soviet Army liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Vistula-Oder offensive operation. Of the 7,000 death camps established by the Nazis, Auschwitz was the largest. It is not possible to establish the number of victims of mass executions - the Germans did not count people, but trains with prisoners arriving at the camp. At least one and a half million people were sent to gas chambers.

The Second World War was the largest armed conflict in human history, with 62 states participating in the war to varying degrees. The main allies of the USSR in the anti-Hitler coalition were the USA and the British Empire. Under the Lend-Lease program, a large amount of military equipment, cars, food, steel, and explosives were supplied to the USSR. On June 6, 1944, the Allies landed troops in Normandy and began the liberation of France, forcing Germany to fight on two fronts.

Diorama "Storm of Berlin". Artist V.M.Sibirsky
On April 25, 1945, a ring closed around Berlin. In preparation for the offensive of the Red Army, the Germans turned the capital of the Third Reich into a fortress with 400 reinforced concrete bunkers, firing points in residential buildings, and strong air defense. Soviet tanks on city streets became targets for faustpatrons - disposable dynamo-reactive grenade launchers. The Red Army advanced in assault groups consisting of a rifle company, several tanks and self-propelled guns, sappers and artillery. On April 30, the first floors of the German parliament building, the Reichstag, were taken, which was defended by a garrison of 5,000 SS troops. Early in the morning of May 1, Mikhail Egorov, Meliton Kantaria and Alexey Berest hoisted the assault flag of the 150th Infantry Division over the Reichstag, which later became the main symbol of Victory.

On the evening of May 8, the war ended with the unconditional surrender of Germany.

The standards of the German divisions - trophies of the Soviet Army - were delivered to Moscow and thrown at the foot of the Mausoleum during the historical Victory Parade on June 24, 1945.

Victory Day is a celebration of the victory of the Soviet people over Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, established by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on May 8, 1945 and celebrated annually on May 9. Since 1965, the day became a non-working day, and then the tradition of holding military parades on Victory Day arose. In post-Soviet times, parades involving military equipment and aircraft resumed in 2008.

Everything will change around.
The capital will be rebuilt.
Children awakened by fright
Will never be forgiven.

Fear will not be forgotten,
Furrowed faces.
The enemy will have to do it a hundredfold
You will have to pay for this.

I will remember his shelling.
Time will count in full
When he did what he wanted
Like Herod in Bethlehem.

A new, better century will come.
Eyewitnesses will disappear.
The torment of little cripples
They won't be able to forget.

Boris Pasternak. Scary tale. 1941

Poklonnaya Gora is an interesting historical place in the west of Moscow. Once upon a time, this hill between the Setunya and Filka rivers was located far beyond the city limits. It offered a magnificent view of the surrounding area. Travelers stopped here to bow to the White Stone. This is where the name “bow” comes from. The Victory Park memorial complex is located on Poklonnaya Hill in Moscow.

The architectural ensemble of Victory Park and Poklonnaya Gora includes:

Victory Monument (project architect - Zurab Tsereteli, design and calculation - TsNIIPSK, under the leadership of B.V. Ostroumov)
Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.
Church of the Holy Great Martyr George the Victorious (architect A. Polyansky) (1995)
Memorial Mosque (architect I. Stazhnev) (1997)
Memorial Synagogue and Holocaust Memorial Museum (architect M. Zarkhi) (1998)
Chapel erected in memory of the Spanish volunteers (2003)
Open-air exhibition of military equipment and weapons
Monument to the “Defenders of the Russian Land” (sculptor A. Bichugov)
Monument to “All the Fallen” (sculptor V. Znoba)
Memorial sign “A monument to the defenders of Moscow will be built here”

An integral and at the same time the main part of the Victory memorial complex on Poklonnaya Hill is the Victory Museum.

On the way to the museum

Church of the Great Martyr George the Victorious

Victory Monument. Project architect - Zurab Tsereteli

The main entrance to the museum and the museum ticket office

Eternal flame

There are three main halls in the Victory Museum - the hall Generals, Glory And Memory and sorrow. The permanent exhibition “The Path to Victory” is presented separately. Six dioramas tell about the main events of the Great Patriotic War.

Beginning of the inspection. 1st floor of the museum

Everything for the front! Everything for victory!

Portrait of Colonel General P.A. Artemyeva

Personal items

Hall of Memory and Sorrow

Dedicated to the memory of 26 million 600 thousand of our compatriots who died and disappeared.

The central object of the Hall of Memory and Sorrow is the sculptural group “Sorrow”.

The ceiling is decorated with pendants made of brass chains. The “crystals” attached to the chains symbolize the tears cried for the dead.

Minor music is played in the hall, most often Mozart’s “Requiem”.

On the first floor of the museum there are dioramas:

“Counter-offensive of Soviet troops near Moscow in December 1941.”
“The Battle of Stalingrad. Connecting Fronts"
"Leningrad blockade"
"Battle of Kursk"
"Forcing of the Dnieper"
"Storm of Berlin".

Diorama “Counter-offensive of Soviet troops near Moscow in December 1941”

Diorama "Battle of Stalingrad"

Diorama “Siege of Leningrad”

Diorama "Battle of Kursk"

Diorama “Forcing of the Dnieper”

Diorama "Storm of Berlin"

Small cinema hall

Portraits of our great commanders

Dress uniform of the 1940 model of USSR Army General K.A. Meretskova

All the divisions that took part in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 are marked on the walls of the museum.

“The Motherland is calling!” - famous poster from the Great Patriotic War.

For millions of our soldiers and officers, he became a portrait of the Mother. Everyone saw in him the features of a person dear to him.

The author of the poster is Irakli Moiseevich Toidze. The artist’s wife, Tamara Teodorovna, posed for the image of the Motherland. The artist began work on the poster on the first day of the war, and in mid-July the whole country saw the poster.

Marshal of the Soviet Union Timoshenko S.K.

Hall of Generals. Main staircase

At the top of the main staircase, in front of the entrance to the Hall of Fame, there is the famous exhibition “Shield and Sword of Victory.” This gift to the museum was made by the Moscow government on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Victory. The sword was made by famous craftsmen from the city of Zlatoust and decorated with Ural gems.

The main hall of the museum is the Hall of Fame

the names of those who were awarded the highest military award - the "Order of Victory" - are immortalized

Various ceremonial events take place in the Hall of Fame. Here they take oaths and initiate Suvorov officers.

The domed ceiling of the hall is decorated with the colorful Order of Victory

Under the dome of the hall there are bas-reliefs of hero cities. The laurel wreath symbolizes the triumph of Victory.

On the marble slabs are the names of almost 12 thousand heroes of the Soviet Union and Russia

In the center of the hall is a bronze sculpture “Soldier of Victory”

Touch screens in the center of the room. Very comfortably. You can see the equipment located on the territory of the Victory Park memorial complex.

Gift from the President of the Russian Federation B.N. Yeltsin to the Victory Museum (Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-9145)

Along the outer perimeter of the Hall of Fame are the Guards Halls. The main military-historical exhibition of the museum, “The Feat and Victory of a Great People,” is located here. The exhibition is located on an area of over 3000 square meters. meters and contains more than 6,000 thousand exhibits.

Weapons, military equipment, uniforms, awards, photographs, newsreels, documents from the war, letters from the front, works of art: paintings, sculpture, graphics, posters - a huge collection of items collected over the entire existence of the museum, telling about the Great Patriotic War to the current generation.

The yellowed letters are soldiers' triangles. These news from the past especially touch the soul.

Very beautiful evening lighting

Memorable dates and annual events

Founding date: 03/04/1989
opening date: 05/09/1995
May 9 - Victory Day
June 22 - Day of Remembrance and Sorrow
May 28 - Border Guard Day
December 5 - The day of the start of the counter-offensive of Soviet troops in the battle of
Moscow
January 27 - Day of lifting the siege of Leningrad
February 2 - Victory Day of Soviet troops at Stalingrad
May – International event “Night at the Museum”
February 15 - Day of Remembrance of Internationalist Soldiers
April 11 - International Day of the Liberation of Prisoners of Nazi Concentration Camps
August 23 - Day of the defeat of fascist troops in the Battle of Kursk
July 28 - Beginning of the First World War
December 4 — Winners' Ball

Opening hours of the Victory Museum

Tuesday-Sunday 10.00 - 20.00, except Thursday and Friday

Thursday and Friday 10.00 - 20.30

Tuesday-Sunday 10.00 - 19.30, except Thursday and Friday
Thursday and Friday 10.00 – 20.00

Open areas and exhibition “Motors of War”
Tuesday-Sunday 11:00-18:30
(box office and visitor entry until 18:00)
Closed on Monday

Ticket prices to the Victory Museum

350 RUR - single ticket / 300 RUR - discount ticket
250 RUR – main building of the museum / 200 RUR – discount ticket
250 RUR - open area / 200 RUR - discount ticket
200 rubles - a platform for local wars and armed conflicts
50-80s XX century / 150 rubles - discount ticket

Persons under 16 years of age enter the museum free of charge

Victory Museum (Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War) on the map

HALL OF MEMORY AND GRIEF

The Hall of Memory and Sorrow perpetuates the memory of almost 27 million of our compatriots who died defending the Motherland during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.

In the hall there is a sculptural group “Sorrow”, personifying in the form of a woman all the mothers, wives, sisters and daughters mourning those killed during the war. The sculpture is made of white Koelga marble, mined in the Urals, Chelyabinsk region. The author of the work is sculptor, Hero of Socialist Labor, People's Artist of the USSR, professor L.E. Kerbel.

The “Books of Memory” are kept in the display cases, where the names of soldiers and officers who died during the war are listed.

The All-Russian Book of Memory of Soldiers Who Died in Defense of the Fatherland was created in accordance with the requirements of the Law of the Russian Federation of January 11, 1993. “On perpetuating the memory of those killed in defense of the Fatherland” and other regulations of the Government of the Russian Federation.

The heads of administrations of republics, territories, regions, autonomous entities, the cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Federal Security Service, the Federal Border Service, military commissariats, and the All-Russian Research Institute took an active and direct part in the creation of the Book of Memory documentation and archival affairs, central and regional archives, research center "Destiny", International Association of Peace Foundations and the Russian Peace Foundation, youth search teams and groups, All-Russian and regional councils of war veterans, labor, Armed forces and law enforcement agencies, Russian Committee war veterans and their local organizations, United, All-Russian and regional editorial boards of the Book of Memory, methodological centers and working groups, groups of authors, Military publishing house and regional publishing houses, Institute of Military History, Russian Orthodox Church and other state and public organizations.

Paying tribute to the dead, month after month, year after year, thousands of our citizens of different generations worked and continue to work with great effort, contributing to the preparation and publication of the Books of Memory.

Under the ceiling of the hall there are 2 million 600 thousand bronze pendants with crystal “tears”, symbolizing grief for the dead.

On bronze plaques placed around the Hall of Memory and Sorrow, the names of the associations and formations that participated in the Great Patriotic War are given, according to their status as of October 1945.

The military formations include the Main Directional Commands, fronts, fleets, armies, flotillas, brigade corps and divisions of the first and subsequent formations of the Red Army and NKVD troops, as well as mechanized corps of the first formation, five aviation regiments, including four women's, and foreign military formations that took part in hostilities on the Soviet-German front. In addition to divisions, the Navy includes brigades of submarines, surface ships and marines that were part of the fleets, and the NKVD troops include brigades of Government Communications and Border Districts. All military formations are arranged by type of Armed Forces, military number or alphabet. The list of military formations that were part of the Active Army during the Great Patriotic War (1,622 names) was approved by the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation on October 13, 1994.

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Once upon a time, between the Setun and Filka rivers, far outside the city, travelers stopped to look at the panorama of Moscow from the height of a hill and bow to it. Later this place became known as Poklonnaya Gora. It was here in 1812 that “Napoleon, intoxicated with his last happiness, waited in vain for Moscow on its knees.”

The project for the memorial on Poklonnaya Hill was created back in 1942, but then, for known reasons, it was impossible to implement. It was opened only on May 5, 1995, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the victory over fascism. On Pobediteley Square, to which the central alley leads, is the Victory Museum.

Until the summer of 2017, it bore a different name: the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War.

Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War

What to see

The museum's exhibition is divided into four halls. In the Hall of Generals, which opens the museum's exhibition, the names of the highest command personnel, holders of the Order of Victory are immortalized. Zhukov, Konev, Malinovsky, Montgomery are only part of the galaxy of famous commanders who “welcome” the museum’s guests.

In the Hall of Fame, the names of 11,800 Heroes of the Soviet Union are immortalized on white marble slabs. In the center of the hall there is a bronze sculpture of the “Soldier of Victory”, above which the “Order of Victory” shines.

Subdued light, strings of beads descending from the ceiling like tears, the sculptural composition “Sorrow” is the Hall of Memory and Sorrow. Mozart's "Requiem" completes its atmosphere.

In 1955, Marshal G.K. reminded me of this idea. Then there were many competitions and projects, but the matter did not progress beyond the installation of the foundation stone in 1958 and the construction of Victory Park on Poklonnaya Hill in 1961.

Only in 1986 a project for a museum of the Great Patriotic War appeared. Then they decided to include the museum in the Victory ensemble on Poklonnaya Hill. Particular attention in the concept was paid to the military-historical exhibition of five sections:

USSR on the eve of the Great Patriotic War in the conditions of the growing danger of fascist and Japanese aggression
the first period of the Great Patriotic War (June 1941 - November 1942)
second period of the Great Patriotic War (November 1942 – December 1943)
the third period of the Great Patriotic War and the end of the Second World War (January 1944 - September 1945)
historical significance of the victory over German fascism and Japanese militarism

Temporary historical and artistic exhibitions appeared in 1993–1994. They became the prototype of future stationary exhibitions. At the same time, the idea arose to create an exhibition of military equipment and engineering and fortification structures on Poklonnaya Hill.

The WWII Museum was opened on May 9, 1995 in the presence of fifty-five heads of state of the world.

In the Hall of Fame, the names of 11,800 Heroes of the Soviet Union and Heroes of the Russian Federation are carved on snow-white marble pylons. And in the Hall of Generals there is a gallery of holders of the Order of Victory. The highlight of the museum is 6 dioramas dedicated to the main events of the war:

“Counter-offensive of Soviet troops near Moscow in December 1941”
“The Battle of Stalingrad. Connecting Fronts"
"Leningrad blockade"
"Battle of Kursk"
"Forcing of the Dnieper"
"Storm of Berlin"

And the three-dimensional historical and artistic panorama “The Battle of Berlin. The Feat of the Standard Bearers" allows visitors to feel like a participant in military events.

The museum's holdings contain authentic weapons and military equipment, numismatics, philately and philocarty, household items, a large number of handwritten documentary and photographic materials telling about the Great Patriotic War.

In the museum building there is also a Hall of Memory and Sorrow, where Books of Memory are located in special display cases - 385 volumes with the names of those killed in the war.

The museum is a historical witness to the war that cannot lie. The museum is raising new heroes who will become heirs to the glory and greatness of the country, an endless source of wisdom. The museum shows that a great nation has great people.