Poklonnaya Hill

Poklonnaya Hill is a gentle rise in the Dorogomilovo district of western Moscow, by Kutuzovsky Prospekt. From the 14th century until the present memorial was built, the old Smolensk road ran across it, the route by which foreign envoys entered the city and Russian troops returned from their campaigns; today the site is occupied by Victory Park, one of Russia's largest memorial complexes dedicated to the victory in the Great Patriotic War.

The hill's name is explained in more than one way. One version holds that travelers heading west, or returning from abroad, climbed it for a last or first bow (poklon) to the panorama of Moscow spread out below — as the historian Ivan Zabelin put it, "from its height the Russian people have long been accustomed to bow to mother Moscow." Another version ties the name to a Church of the Intercession built here in the 18th century. For a time the hill was even nicknamed the "Moscow Mont Blanc", after the Alpine peak. In the autumn of 1812 it was on Poklonnaya Hill that Napoleon waited for several hours for a delegation to bring him the keys to the Kremlin, a surrender that never came.

The idea of marking the site with a victory memorial dates back to 1942, when architect Yakov Chernikhov proposed a monument to the defenders of the homeland, an idea Marshal Zhukov also supported that same year, though wartime conditions ruled out building it. In 1958 a granite foundation stone announcing the future monument was set on the hill, and the first trees of the park were planted around it. An all-Union design competition drew about one hundred fifty entries, and in 1987 hundreds of Muscovites protested a construction plan that threatened to level the hill itself. Donations toward the monument — 194 million rubles in all — were collected nationwide through the 1970s and 1980s, and sculptor Evgeny Vuchetich gave the complex its final form. Construction stretched over a decade, from 1985 to 1995, finishing only after the Soviet Union had dissolved. The memorial complex and the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War were ceremonially opened on 9 May 1995, for the 50th anniversary of Victory, with heads of fifty-five states attending a military parade.

The park's centerpiece is the obelisk on Victors' Square, 141.8 meters tall — the figure recalls the war's 1,418 days and nights. It is crowned by a four-meter bronze figure of the goddess of Victory, Nike, holding a laurel wreath and supported by two angels, while a statue of Saint George slaying the dragon stands at its base; both sculptures are the work of Zurab Tsereteli. An eternal flame burns beside the obelisk. The museum building, designed by architect Anatoly Polyansky and occupying 16 hectares of the park, holds roughly half a million items, including paintings, sculpture and wartime posters; the exhibition continues outdoors with a display of military hardware — tanks, aircraft and captured German vehicles. Next door, the G.O.R.A. museum shows small arms and heavy weapons from the 1930s through the 1980s, arranged by themed sections.

The park also holds memorial places of worship for three faiths, honoring fallen soldiers of different religions: the Orthodox Church of St. George the Victorious, consecrated by Patriarch Alexy II in May 1995; a memorial mosque with a sixty-meter minaret, opened in 1997; and a memorial synagogue, designed by an Israeli architect and opened a year later. A chapel also commemorates the Spanish volunteers who fought in the Red Army. Other monuments scattered through the park include the sculptural group "Tragedy of the Peoples", dedicated to victims of genocide, the fountain complex "Years of War" with 225 jets — one for each week of the war — and later memorials to veterans of Afghanistan, to heroes of the First World War, to liquidators of the Chernobyl disaster, and to military dogs.

The nearest metro stations are Park Pobedy and Minskaya; the main entrance faces Kutuzovsky Prospekt, and the park is open to visitors around the clock, free of charge.