So the other day as I went to interview one of my German refugees in 'old-East Berlin', I came across this memorial to Soviet soldiers who died during 'the Great Patriotic War' (I think that is what the Russians, still to this day, call WWII).
I found it very interesting, surprisingly 'peaceful' and beautiful - and I did feel a 'reverence' of sorts there.
The 'Battle for Berlin' in the end (and even then who knows for sure/there are different totals), but more or less, 'they' say, 30,000 civilians died; 30,000 German soldiers died; and 30,000 Soviet soldiers died. As I said, I don't know if these numbers are true, but....
Did I mention I HATE WAR! This is no 'peacenik' thing either, this is a 'what a waste of everything/humanity' disliking for war...anyway...
How's your Russian? Well, it clearly says "expose your head (take off your hat)! Here are Soviet soldiers, heroes of the great Fatherland-ish War, 1941-1945. To eternal peace bedded (laid down). They gave their lives for your future."
Oh oops ;) Did you all see this one? How embarrassing...ok, so I cheated. The same message is written opposite in German ;)
That is honestly an idea that I wonder about, if it was new or if the Soviets claimed it during WWII - that they were 'liberators', come to Germany to save the German people from Hitler and the fascists....
And oh did the East German government ever catch on to that idea! Probably in some respects because they were forced to, but it also made it 'nice' to see the Soviets as 'liberators' rather than occupiers.....
A view of the whole thing...
Like I said, it was very peaceful there....
I loved the 'order in nature' of it all - nicely designed (I think it was built in 1947 - it was written in Russian, but looked like a 'we made this in 1947 - 1949' 'signature' on two stones by the entrance....
Those are plaques with the names of the soldiers, and I am big-time assuming that the 'green' areas are where these soldiers are buried (but I've seen that in other graveyards in Berlin - and in another Soviet soldier graveyard in Potsdam).
On the front, in Russian, it talks about 'to eternal rest...the Soviet sons who fought for the independence of their socialist Fatherland and who gave their lives for the freedom and progress of Mankind.'
And then on the back in German...
There were a PLE-thora of hammer and sickles all over I must say...
'Not in vain was the death and spilt blood of the Soviet heroes.'
'In vain were not the grief and tears of the mothers, widows and orphans.'
'They call to fight for the lasting peace amongst peoples.'
I must be a li'l Commi - I love this stuff! It's so moving...amazing how the East German communists/Soviets used their war dead to get the East German people to 'follow along' with the 'new system'. Hmm....
The names of more fallen soldiers...
A quote from Stalin AKGCH! Let me just say that Stalin killed MORE of his OWN people than Hitler did, and Stalin killed more people TOTAL than Hitler (this does not mean I like Hitler), just amazes me how Stalin is considered to be 'less' a monster than Hitler...I guess because of the whole 'racism' thing....but still....
STALIN = ARGH-ACH-UGH-BLECH!
(This talks about how the Red Army fulfilled its historical responsibility honorably....)
This was the 'skylight' of one of the 'urn' portals...
Mosaic for communist times....
And another mosaic, near the entrance...
All in all, I truly enjoyed my time at the Soviet Soldier Memorial. It's odd, but when I think about it, some of the soldiers there could have been some of the hundreds/thousands of Soviet soldiers who raped/killed German refugee women along the way....did I mention I hate war?
