|
On
the side of Red Square, along Kremlin wall, is Kremlin
necropolis, sort of revolutionary pantheon, where many
well-known Communist figures were buried. Among those
buried here are victims of revolutionary fighting in
Moscow, heroes of the civil war, politicians, public
figures, writers and military commanders of the Soviet
period of Russian history.
The
first common graves appeared along Kremlin wall between
Nikolsky (St. Nicolas) and Troitsky (Trinity) Gates, by
order of Moscow Military-Revolutionary Committee. It was
decided that the participants in the seven-day
revolutionary fighting in Moscow, in November 1917, should
be buried there. All in all, 240 people were buried there
from November 10 to November 17. To date, over 300 people
are buried in “Red Graveyard”, as Vladimir Mayakovsky
called the place.
Later,
Y. Sverdlov (1919), M. Frunze (1925) and F. Dzerzhinsky
(1926) were buried at the foot of Senate Tower. Urns with
the mortal remains of “outstanding leaders of the
Communist Party and the Soviet State” were set into
Kremlin wall and hidden behind granite plaques. There, one
will find the names of M. Gorky, V. Chkalov, I. Kurchatov,
Y. Gagarin, and M. Keldysh, i.e. writers, pilots,
scientists, and cosmonauts. Between the Mausoleum and the
Senate Tower, there are graves of some Soviet leaders
surmounted by bronze busts. Buried there are M. Kalinin,
A. Zhdanov, I. Stalin, L. Brezhnev, Y. Andropov, K.
Chernenko, and others.
In
1967, memorial of “Grave of the Unknown Soldier” was
erected near Kremlin wall, at the foot of the corner
Arsenal Tower. The architects D.I. Burdin, V.I. Klimov,
Y.R. Rabayev and the sculptor N.V. Tomsky, designed the
memorial. There, the remains of unknown soldier from a
common grave at the village of Kryukovo, where the
defenders of Moscow stood to death, were ceremoniously
reburied to commemorate 25th anniversary of the
Nazi troops’ defeat near Moscow. In 2000, the Eternal
Flame burns there in memory of all those killed in the
Great Patriotic War (1941-1945).
Lenin
Mausoleum stands close to Kremlin wall in Red Square.
The
first wooden building of the mausoleum, by the architect
A.V. Schusev, was built up in three days following
Lenin’s death, and on January27, 1924, the coffin with
Lenin’s body was placed there. In the summer of 1924,
new building of mausoleum built of oakwood replaced the
old one to last for another five years. Its shape and
proportions were taken up the architect Shchusev as a
model for the design of a new mausoleum built in 1930. The
walls of the mausoleum are made of brick faced with
granite. Other materials used for decorating the exterior
and interior of the mausoleum were marble, laboratories
and porphyry. In 2000, it remains as it was in those days.
In
the same year, tribunes for the public were set up on both
sides of the mausoleum. The upper part of the mausoleum is
arranged as a tribune from whom the leaders of USSR used
to greet the marching soldiers and the demonstrators. In
1953, the embalmed body of I.V. Stalin was placed in the
mausoleum, but later it was reburied near Kremlin wall.
During the Great Victory parade, in the spring of
1945, the banners and standards of the defeated Hitlerism
Reich were thrown at the foot of the mausoleum.
.
|
