Добрый День,
Once again I'm back with more exciting Soviet History. This past Wednesday our group to a tour of the Museum of the Great Patriotic War (World War II). The museum is located in Park Pobedy. It was by far my favorite museum that we have toured thus far. It was incredibly interesting and very moving at the same time. World War II is very important to Russian culture and history. The war totaled somewhere between 62 and 78 million deaths (making it the most deadly war of all time). Russia, well the Soviet Union at the time, accounted for nearly 24 million of those deaths. They by far lost the most people in the war. That 24 million accounted for almost 14% of the population in the Soviet Union prior to the war.
Below are some pictures from around the museum as well as pictures of dioramas depicting different battles of the war. These dioramas were incredible to see. Hope you enjoy!
Entrance to the room featured in the next two photos. It is a round room with the names of soldiers. The entrance reads "Heroes of the Soviet Union"
Crest in the ceiling "USSR Victory"
Statue in the museum saluting the soldiers of the Soviet Red Army.
Flag in the Museum. Lenin's picture in the center. Around him it reads: "For Our Soviet Motherland USSR"
Picture of Red Square in Moscow during the war.
This is the Blockade of Leningrad (St. Petersburg) which lasted 872 days. The city was blockaded in by the Germans.
One more diorama of Leningrad Blockade.
Diorama of the Battle on the Dnieper River.
Again, Battle on the Dnieper.
The taking of Berlin by the Soviets.
Another shot of the diorama depicting the taking of Berlin.
Outside in the park was this big "tribute" to the 65 years of victory.
Outside in the park was this big "tribute" to the 65 years of victory.
Finally here is a picture of the escalator in the metro station Park Pobedy. In an earlier post I talked about how it is the deepest metro in the world. As you can see, you can barely see the end of the escalator...and this picture isn't even from the top.
Hope you enjoyed the mini tour of the coolest museum in Moscow :-)
Пока!
SPECTACULAR! As a very patriotic American I've lived life always seeing Russia as an adversary. The american populous tends to forget that Russia was on our side during WWII. We are certainly unaware of the number of Russian lives that were lost in the name of Freedom. Most Americans arrogantly think we won the war all by ourselves. Thank you for the enlightenment and the wonderful photos.
ReplyDeleteSincerely,
Perry Bell
Hi Ben ....
ReplyDeleteQuite the pictures in this blog. I do not particularly enjoy reading the stats of war and it is an incredible amount of Russians who were killed in WWII - all very sad. They have a great pride in their past - glad you enjoy learning their language and studying their history.
On a much lighter note - that escalator is a trip .... "are we there yet?"
Love,
Mom
Ben-
ReplyDeleteI think you know more about Russian history than I know about American history...in fact I'm sure of it! Can anyone tell me how many American lives were lost in WWII? I may have to look it up! My ignorance aside, the pictures were very moving. Can you imagine a city being under siege for more than 2 years?? I also enjoyed seeing the INSIDES of some of these buildings.
Love, Aunt Patti
PS Cindy-you crack me up!! What a trip!!