Belarus President attends opening of Soviet soldier memorial near Rzhev

Today, Alexander Lukashenko attended the opening of a memorial to a Soviet soldier near Rzhev.

The Belarusian leader was invited by his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to unveil the monument together. The memorial is devoted to the memory of Soviet soldiers who died in the battles near Rzhev in the 40s. The lines from the Tvardovsky poem were placed on the marble plate at the barrow. The Heads of the States communicated with the veterans of the Great Patriotic War, laid flowers to the monument. The memory of the fallen heroes was honored with a moment of silence. 

The complex was created on the donations on the initiative of veterans of the Great Patriotic War. The project was implemented with the support of the Union State. Such a memorial is a tribute to the heroes and a symbol of friendship between Belarus and Russia. 


"The Garden of Remembrance" is a symbolic action that unites all CIS countries. The goal is to plant 27 million trees in memory of everyone who died in World War II. 

The central object of the complex is a 25 m high sculpture of a soldier on a 10 m mound. This is a collective image of the defender of the Motherland, which was created from the archival photographs of soldiers who fought near Rzhev. 12 veterans, live witnesses of the battles for their homeland, also participated in the opening of the complex. 

A historical museum telling about the Battle of Rzhev opened not far from the monument. Alexander Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin got familiar with the exposition and left the first entries in the book of honored guests.

During the 17 months of occupation, Rzhev itself and many nearby cities were almost completely destroyed.  Only 150 people out of 20 thousand Soviet citizens who were in the occupation during the liberation of the city in March 1943, survived.