Every year on May 9, Muscovites go to the Eternal Flame to bow to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. However, few people already remember the people who created this memorial. The eternal flame has been burning for 50 years. It seems that he has always been. However, the story of its ignition is extremely dramatic. She had her own tears and tragedies.
Every year on May 9, Muscovites go to the Eternal Flame to bow to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. However, few people already remember the people who created this memorial. The eternal flame has been burning for 34 years. It seems that he has always been. However, the story of its ignition is extremely dramatic. She had her own tears and tragedies.
In December 1966, Moscow was preparing to solemnly celebrate the 25th anniversary of the defense of Moscow. At that time, Nikolai Grigorievich Yegorychev was the first secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee. A man who played a significant role in politics, including in the dramatic situation of the removal of Khrushchev and the election of Brezhnev to the post of general secretary, one of the communist reformers.
The anniversary of the victory over the Nazis began to be celebrated especially solemnly only since 1965, when Moscow was awarded the title of a hero-city and on May 9 officially became a day off. Actually, then the idea was born to create a monument to ordinary soldiers who died for Moscow. However, Yegorychev understood that the monument should not be Moscow, but national. This could only be a monument to the Unknown Soldier.
At the beginning of 1966, Aleksey Nikolayevich Kosygin called Nikolai Yegorychev and said: “I was recently in Poland, laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Why is there no such monument in Moscow? " - "Yes, replies Yegorychev, - we are just thinking about it." And he told about his plans. Kosygin liked the idea. When the work on the project was over, Yegorychev brought the sketches to the "premiere". However, it was necessary to acquaint Brezhnev with the project. And at that time he left somewhere, so Yegorychev went to the Central Committee to see Mikhail Suslov, showed the sketches.
He also approved the project. Soon Brezhnev returned to Moscow. He received the Moscow leader very coldly. Apparently, he learned that Yegorychev had reported everything to Kosygin and Suslov earlier. Brezhnev began to ponder whether such a memorial should be built at all. At that time, the idea was already in the air to make the battles on Malaya Zemlya exclusive. In addition, as Nikolai Grigorievich told me: “Leonid Ilyich understood perfectly well that the opening of a monument close to the heart of every person would strengthen my personal authority. And this Brezhnev did not like even more. However, apart from the question of the “struggle of authorities”, other purely practical problems arose. And the main one is the site for the monument.
Brezhnev objected: “I don't like the Alexander Garden. Look for another place."
Two or three times Egorychev returned to this question in conversations with the General. All to no avail.
Promotional video:
Obelisk in honor of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty in the Alexander Garden, 1914
Obelisk to revolutionaries and thinkers.
Egorychev insisted on the Alexander Garden, near the ancient Kremlin wall. Then it was an unkempt place, with a stunted lawn, the wall itself required restoration. But the biggest obstacle lay elsewhere. Almost at the very place where the Eternal Flame is now burning, there was an obelisk erected in 1913 for the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov. After the revolution, the names of the reigning house were scraped off from the obelisk and the names of the titans of the revolution were knocked out.
The list was allegedly compiled by Lenin personally. To appreciate the further, let me remind you that at that time touching anything connected with Lenin was a monstrous sedition. Egorychev suggested that the architects, without asking anyone for the highest permission (because they would not be allowed), quietly move the obelisk slightly to the right, where the grotto is. And no one will notice anything. The funny thing is that Yegorychev was right. Had they started to coordinate the issue of transferring Lenin's monument with the Politburo, the matter would have dragged on for years.
Egorychev appealed to the common sense of Gennady Fomin, the head of the Moscow head office. Convinced to act without permission. By the way, if something went wrong, for such arbitrariness they could easily have been deprived of all posts, if not worse …
And yet, before starting the global construction work, the approval of the Politburo was required. However, the Politburo was not going to convene. Yegorychev's note on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier lay in the Politburo since May 1966 without movement. Then Nikolai Grigorievich once again went for a little trick.
He asked Fomin to prepare materials on the project of the monument: models, tablets - by November 6, to the anniversary of the revolution - and put them in the rest room of the presidium in the Palace of Congresses. When the ceremonial meeting ended and members of the Politburo began to enter the room, I asked them to come and look at the models. Someone was even surprised: after all, they had nothing to do with the anniversary of the revolution. I told them about the monument. Then I ask: "What is your opinion?" All members of the Politburo say with one voice: "This is great!" I ask if it is possible to proceed with the implementation?
I saw that Brezhnev had nowhere to go - the Politburo spoke in favor …
Memorial complex "Bayonets" near Zelenograd - mass grave from which the ashes of the unknown soldier were transferred for burial in Moscow
The last most important question is where to find the remains of a soldier? At that time, large construction was underway in Zelenograd, and there, during excavation, a mass grave, lost since the war, was found. Alexei Maksimovich Kalashnikov, the secretary of the city committee for construction, was assigned to lead this case.
Then even more delicate questions arose: whose remains will be buried in the grave? What if it turns out to be the body of a deserter? Or a German? By and large, from the height of today, whoever happens to be there, anyone is worthy of memory and prayer.
But in 65 they did not think so. Therefore, everyone tried to check carefully. As a result, the choice fell on the remains of a soldier, on whom the military uniform was well preserved, but on which there were no commander insignia. As Yegorychev explained to me: “If it were a shot deserter, his belt would be removed. He could not have been wounded, taken prisoner, because the Germans did not reach that place. So it was quite clear that this was a Soviet soldier who died heroically defending Moscow. No documents were found in his grave with him - the ashes of this private was truly nameless."
Funeral cortege with the ashes of the unknown soldier, Moscow, 1966:
The military has developed a ceremonial burial ritual. From Zelenograd, the ashes were delivered to the capital on a gun carriage. On December 6, from early morning, hundreds of thousands of Muscovites stood all over Gorky Street. People wept as the funeral cortege moved by. Many old women secretly made the sign of the cross over the coffin. In mournful silence, the procession reached Manezhnaya Square. The last meters of the coffin were carried by Marshal Rokossovsky and prominent members of the party. The only one who was not allowed to carry the remains was Marshal Zhukov, who was then in disgrace …
Eternal flame on the Champ de Mars.
On May 7, 1967 in Leningrad, a torch was lit from the Eternal Flame on the Field of Mars, which was delivered to Moscow by relay. They say that there was a living corridor all the way from Leningrad to Moscow - people wanted to see what was sacred to them. In the early morning of May 8, the cortege reached Moscow. The streets were also packed with people. At Manezhnaya Square, the torch was received by the Hero of the Soviet Union, the legendary pilot Alexei Maresyev. Unique newsreels have survived, capturing this moment. I saw men crying and women praying. People froze, trying not to miss the most important moment - the lighting of the Eternal Flame.
The memorial was opened by Nikolai Yegorychev. And Brezhnev was supposed to light the Eternal Flame.
Leonid Ilyich was told in advance what to do. That evening, in the final news program, they showed a television report how the secretary general takes the torch, approaches the star with the torch, then a cliff followed - and in the next frame they already showed the eternal flame lit. The fact is that during the ignition, an emergency occurred, which was only witnessed by people standing nearby. Nikolay Egorychev: “Leonid Ilyich misunderstood something, and when the gas started, he did not have time to immediately bring up the torch. The result was something like an explosion. There was a clap.
Brezhnev got scared, recoiled, almost fell. Immediately followed by the highest order to cut this impartial moment from the TV report.
As Nikolai Grigorievich recalled, because of this incident, television covered the great event rather sparingly.
Almost all the people involved in the creation of this monument had the feeling that this is the main business of their life and it is FOREVER, FOREVER.
Since then, every year on May 9 people come to the Eternal Flame. Almost everyone knows that he will read the lines engraved on a marble slab: "Your name is unknown, your feat is immortal." But it never occurs to anyone that these lines had an author. And it all happened like that. When the Central Committee approved the creation of the Eternal Flame, Yegorychev asked the then literary generals - Sergei Mikhalkov, Konstantin Simonov, Sergei Narovchatov and Sergei Smirnov - to come up with an inscription on the grave. We stopped at this text "His name is unknown, his feat is immortal." All the writers put their signatures under these words … and left.
Egorychev was left alone. Something in the final version did not suit him: “I thought,” he recalled, “how people would approach the grave. Maybe those who have lost their loved ones and do not know where they found peace. What will they say?
Probably: “Thank you, soldier! Your feat is immortal! "Although it was late evening, Yegorychev called Mikhalkov:" His word "should be replaced with" yours."
Mikhalkov thought: "Yes," he said, "this is better." This is how the words engraved in stone appeared on the granite slab: “Your name is unknown, your deed is immortal” …
It would be great if we no longer had to compose new inscriptions over the new graves of unknown soldiers. Although this is, of course, a utopia. One of the greats said: "Time is changing - but our attitude to our Victories does not change." Indeed, we will disappear, our children and great-grandchildren will leave, and the Eternal Flame will burn.
PS On October 24, 2014, the State Duma declared December 3 a memorable date for Russia - the Day of the Unknown Soldier. The date is set to commemorate all unknown soldiers.
Author: Dmitry Minchenok