Soldier's Glory Memorial Complex

What? - Soldier's Glory Memorial Complex

Description

The Soldier's Glory Memorial Complex is located in the Park named after I.P. Kotliarevskyi on the site of the Old City Cemetery. Between 1941 and 1943, the Nazis tortured more than 3,500 civilians, most of them Jews, prisoners of war, partisans, and underground fighters, on the territory of the cemetery and the nearby concentration camp.

The memorial complex was unveiled in October 1969. It was designed by a group of Poltava sculptors and architects, including Lev Vainhort, Ihor Mezentsev, and Heorhii Kyslyi. Today, the memorial covers an area of about 1 hectare. In the center is a triangular obelisk (22 meters high) faced with gray granite in the shape of a soldier's bayonet with the inscription: “The glory of heroes is immortal”. Next to the obelisk is a 6-meter-high granite figure of a soldier with a shield. The soldier holds a shield depicting Monument of "Glory" and seems to be guarding the peace of his fallen friends.

At the foot of the monument is an eternal flame lit by a torch brought from the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Kyiv. On the central alley of the memorial site are the graves of soldiers who gave their lives defending Poltava and the region. 

Speciality

Some of the burials here were made quite recently. When the monument to the Soviet soldier was dismantled in Estonia, the ashes of the Guards Sergeant Major Stepan Hapikal and a capsule with earth from the grave of the medical service sergeant major Olena Varshavska were sent to Poltava. Today, these two newest burials are the closest to the monument itself.