Victory Square in Minsk 

Almost every city has a place which symbolizes such a memorable event as the Victory Day. Everyone knows that on that day the Soviet people did the impossible. They won the Great Patriotic War which took place during 1941-1945. The Hero-City of Minsk was no exception. Victory Square in Minsk is a place of respect to our ancestors who lost their lives and health in that uneasy period.

It is obvious that Victory Square in Minsk has become one of the most popular tourist attractions of the city, and it takes its deserved place among the valued places of the capital. The construction of the square was started in 1939, and it was called Round Square up to 1958. It’s interesting that it was due to the fact that the simultaneous construction of two bow-shaped buildings was started, it was the beginning of a circle that is now the part of Independence Avenue. In those years the square configuration really looked like a circle, in the center of which the Victory Monument was lately built. As a result of reconfiguration and metropolitan construction the modern square has an oval shape.

The Victory Monument was built in 1954. The monument is an obelisk with the height of 38 meters with a bronze image of “Order of Victory” at the top. It goes without saying that the Victory Monument, like other monuments in honor of victory, is of no name, and only the date “1941-1945” calls up sorrow moments of our history. Each of the four sides of the obelisk is decorated with bronze theme-based high relieves. They symbolize the events of those terrible times. They are named: “Glory to the Fallen Heroes”, “9 May 1945”, “Belarusian Partisans” and “The Soviet Army in the Years of the Great Patriotic War”.

So far as known, a sword was repeatedly used by the architects as a victorious symbol, and the Victory Monument was no exception. On the monument pedestal there is a sword enlaced with bronze laurel leaves. Besides, there are 4 bronze wreaths adjacent to the monument. It’s an interesting fact that they symbolize 4 fronts of the Soviet Union; they are 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd Belarusian and 1^st Baltic. It is them who liberated Belorussia from the Nazi invaders at that time.

Near the monument there is the Eternal Flame. On 3 July 1961 it was first burnt in a solemn atmosphere by the Hero of the Soviet Union, honorary citizen of Minsk Major General A.S. Burdeiny. The monument composition looks complete with flowerbeds and spruces.

On 1 July 1984 along the perimeter of the monument there were disposed pedestals with the names of Hero-Cities. They are Moscow, Leningrad, Stalingrad, Kiev, Sevastopol, Odessa, Kerch, Tula, Novorossiysk and Brest. In 1985 Smolensk and Murmansk were added.

In 1984 the arcade and Memorial Hall were established under the square surface. The names of 566 Heroes of the Soviet Union are memorialized on the bronze plates. These people were honored with high-ranking awards for their virtues, and certainly they took part in the liberation of Belarus. Their names are on the memorial plates framing the Star of the Hero. In the center of the hall there is a wreath made of glass. It is lit from within, that looks like the Eternal Flame.