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The subject index / The Green Belt of Glory

The Green Belt of Glory


Categories / Architecture/Sculpture, Monuments

THE GREEN BELT OF GLORY, a complex of memorial installations and parks along the border-lines of the Battle of Leningrad, 1941-44. The idea of the establishment of the complex was suggested by poet and front-line soldier M.A. Dudin on the pages of Smena newspaper on 23 February 1965. The memorial symbols have been placed along the 200-kilometre siege circle, the so-called Road of Life (with memorial mile stones) and on Oranienbaum Beachhead. Such placing was selected due to the location of the border-line of Hitler's army advance, where it was halted in September of 1941. The general design project was completed in 1958-64, by the Leningrad Project Institute (Lenproekt; architects G.N.Buldakov, V.L.Gaykevich, M.A.Sementovskaya). The construction of the memorials was carried out in two stages: 9 May 1967 deadline, and by 9 May 1975 deadline. The memorial complexes include some monuments, erected in 1944-61, mass graves, pillboxes, bunkers, sample models of war equipment. The project engineering of the memorials was conducted by sculptors and architects on pro bono basis. Several sections of The Green Belt of Glory were taken into patronage by city and district councils; the construction work was carried out by workers and employees of Leningrad enterprises, establishments, educational institutions, and military units. The total number of monuments erected is over 80, grouped into 35 memorial complexes (Kirovsky Bulwark, Pulkovsky Border-Line, The Unbroken, The Attack, The Assault, The Garden of Peace, January Thunder, The Remote Border-line etc.). In 1974, The Green Belt of Glory was taken under state protection. Some monuments are of remarkable artistic value, i.e. The Flower of Life (1968, architect A.D. Devenkov and others), Katyusha (1966, architects L.V.Chulkevich, P.I.Melnikov, engineer G.P.Ivanov et al.), The Broken Circle (1966, architect V.G.Filippov, sculptor K.M. Simun, engineer I.A.Rybin et al.) - all these are situated on the Road of Life; The Unnamed hill (1965-68, sculptors G.D.Yastrebenetsky, V.G.Kozenyuk, architect L.I.Kopylovsky) by Ivanovskie rapids; Lembolovskaya stronghold (1967, architect A.I.Gutov, sculptor B.A.Svinin) at the Thirty-Fourth kilometre of Priozerskoe Freeway; The Coast of the Courageous (1967, architects A.G. Kamaldinov, А.Е.Rivkin, sculptor P.A.Yakimovich et al.) not far from Kernovo village, 103 kilometres from St. Petersburg. The memorials of The Green Belt of Glory have become traditional places for holding rituals and ceremonies of mourning in honour of the defenders of the country. See illustrations on page 288. See map on page 298.

References: Порецкина Э. Н. Стойкости и мужеству героев: Памятники и мемор. доски Ленинграда, посвящ. Победе в Великой Отеч. войне: Справ. Л., 1985; Ганшин В. И., Сердобольский О. М. Кольцо памяти, кольцо славы. Л., 1988.

Y. M. Piryutko.

Persons
Buldakov Gennady Nikanorovich
Chulkevich Lev V.
Dudin Mikhail Alexandrovich
Filippov Vladimir Gavrilovich
Gaykovich Vladislav L.
Gutov Alexander Ivanovich
Ivanov Georgy Ivanovich
Kamaldinov A.G.
Kopylovsky Leonid Iosifovich
Kozenyuk Valentin Grigorievich
Levenkov Alexander Danilovich
Melnikov P.I.
Rivkin A.E.
Rybin A.I.
Sementovskaya Maryana Avenirovna
Simun K.M.
Svinin Boris Alexandrovich
Yakimovich P.A.
Yastrebenetsky Grigory Danilovich

Bibliographies
Порецкина Э. Н. Стойкости и мужеству героев: Памятники и мемор. доски Ленинграда, посвящ. Победе в Великой Отеч. войне: Справ. Л., 1985
Ганшин В. И., Сердобольский О. М. Кольцо памяти, кольцо славы. Л., 1988

The subject Index
Battle for Leningrad, 1941-44
Siege of 1941-44
Road of Life
Oranienbaum Bridgehead

Chronograph
1965


Aurora, cruiser

AURORA first rank cruiser was founded in 1897 at the New Admiralty dockyard, and became part of the Baltic Fleet in 1903. It weighed over 6,700 tons (in 1917 - 7

Breaking of the Siege (1943)

BREAKING OF THE SIEGE 1943, 12 - 30 January, an offensive operation, code named "Iskra" (Sparkle), along the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts by Baltic Fleet forces in the region of the Schlisselburg-Sinyavino heights

Buldakov G.N. (1924-1990), arhcitect

BULDAKOV Gennady Nikanorovich (1924-1990, Leningrad), architect, National Architect of the USSR (1984), associate (1974), full member (1988) of the Academy of Fine Arts of the USSR. From 1941, he worked at the Kirov Factory in Leningrad

Dudin M.A. (1916-1993), poet

DUDIN Mikhail Alexandrovich (1916-1993, St. Petersburg), poet, public figure. In 1937 entered the evening department of Faculty of Literature of the Ivanov Pedagogical Institute; in 1939 he was conscripted into the Army

English Park (Peterhof)

ENGLISH PARK is situated in the west part of Peterhof, in the lower course of Shinkarka River, to the north of Egerskaya Settlement and to the northwest of Lugovoy Park. Stary Petergof railway station is situated at its southwest outskirts

Finlyandsky Railway Station

FINLYANDSKY RAILWAY STATION (5 Lenina Square), was built in 1870 by architect P.S. Kupinsky. It was a single-story building with a 2-storied pavilion. The side facade with the pavilion for the members of the Imperial Family was accessed via the

Great Patriotic War, Monuments to (entry)

GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR, MONUMENTS TO. The first monuments devoted to the heroic defence of Leningrad appeared in 1944, immediately after the Lifting of the Siege, with concrete steles depicting the Order of the Patriotic War in Memory of the Defensive

Izhora Battalion

IZHORA BATTALION, a volunteer subunit formed in Kolpino in September 1941 as a separate battalion of Izhora workers, gathered on the basis of previously organized detachments, which mainly consisted of workers form the Izhorsky Factory

Kirovsky District

KIROVSKY DISTRICT is an administrative territorial unit of St. Petersburg. (Its territory administration is located at 18 Stachek Avenue). The district was named in honour of Sergey Kirov in 1934. Its present-day borders were established in 1973

Kolpinsky District

KOLPINSKY DISTRICT, an administrative and territorial unit of Saint Petersburg (with the territorial administration situated in Kolpino, at 1 Uritskogo Street). The name derives from the town of Kolpino which is the centre of the district

Leningrad Region

LENINGRAD REGION, a federal subject of the Russian Federation located in the North-Western Federal District. Formed 1 June 1927, it has existed with its present boundaries since 1945

Neva Bridgehead

NEVA BRIDGEHEAD ("Nevsky Pyatachok"). A bridgehead on the left side of the Neva River near the Moskovskaya Dubrovka settlement and the village of Arbuzovo, occupied by Soviet troops on the night of 20 September 1941

Oranienbaum Bridgehead

ORANIENBAUM BRIDGEHEAD (Primorsky Bridgehead), a territory along the shore of the Gulf of Finland, from the Voronka River to Peterhof (about 65 km long and 25 km deep)

People's Volunteer Militia of 1941

PEOPLE'S VOLUNTEER MILITIA (NARODNOE OPOLCHENIE) OF 1941. Volunteer military units formed at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45, made up of people not subject to immediate draft upon mobilization

Pushkin, town

PUSHKIN, a town and municipal unit situated south of Saint Petersburg. Known until 1918 as Tsarskoe Selo, and in 1918-37 as Detskoe Selo. As of 2002, population totalled approximately 95,000 inhabitants

Sestra, river

SESTRA, a river in the north-west of St. Petersburg, which flows through Sestroretsky District and Kurortny District. The Novgorod Pistsovye Books (Property Registers) of the 15th century record the river as Sestreya (from Finnish word meaning

Tanya Savicheva, Diary of

TANYA SAVICHEVA, DIARY OF. One of the most tragic symbols of the Siege of 1941-44, the Diary of Tanya Savicheva was a notebook belonging to a Leningrad schoolgirl named Tatyana Nikolayevna Savicheva (1930-44)

The Pulkovo Border-Line

Fierce fighting with the Nazi army heading for Leningrad raged at the Pulkovo border-line in September of 1941. A monumental stele rises over a flat ground. It is surrounded with mosaic panels illustrating the life in the city beleaguered by the