The city is a living memory. How Moscow honors the heroes of the Great Patriotic War

Monuments of military glory, streets named after heroes, historical navigation around the city, projects to collect documents, letters, photos and memories of Muscovites about the 1940s—the capital remembers those who defended the country during the Great Patriotic War. On May 9, the 80th anniversary of the Victory, we tell you how Moscow honors the memory of the people’s feat.

Streets named after pilots and a monument to a frontline nurse

In almost every district of the capital there are streets, avenues, squares and alleys that bear the names of defenders of the Motherland or are named in honor of the events of the Great Patriotic War. Many toponyms are associated with legendary military leaders: Marshal Rokossovsky Boulevard, Marshal Zhukov Avenue, Marshal Biryuzov Street. Pilots are not forgotten either. A square, an alley and a street in the Northern Administrative District were named after Marina Raskova—she led a women’s aviation regiment known as the “night witches”. Gastello Street is located in the Sokolniki district. Pilot Nikolai Gastello in the first days of the war made a fiery ram—after he was shot down, he directed the burning plane at a mechanized column of Germans. There is also a monument to the pilot in the street: flames wriggle behind his bust.

In the Filimonkovsky district you can find Alexander Pechersky street. The officer organized the only successful prisoner uprising at the German death camp of Sobibor in 1943. Panfilovsky Avenue, Panfilov Street and Heroes-Panfilovtsev Street are a tribute to the memory of Ivan Panfilov and the rifle division he commanded. It showed valor in the battle for Moscow.

The city also remembers the workers of the rear. Some streets are named after inventors of military aircraft. Among them are Academician Ilyushin, Aircraft constructor Petlyakov and Aircraft constructor Sukhoi streets. In Khamovniki runs Burdenko Street, named in honor of Nikolai Burdenko, the chief surgeon of the Red Army. There is also Victory Square, Victory and May 9 streets in Moscow. In addition, more than 80 educational institutions bear the names of heroes: school No. 141 named after Hero of the Soviet Union Richard Sorge, school No. 185 named after Hero of the Soviet Union, Hero of Socialist Labor V.S. Grizodubova, school No. 1449 named after Hero of the Soviet Union M.V. Vodopyanov, school No. 2044 named after Hero of the Soviet Union A.M. Serebryakov. The latter has a “Hero’s Desk.” This all-Russian project helps to familiarize schoolchildren in an accessible form with the stories of people who have shown courage and performed heroic deeds. Today, more than 80 such desks have been installed in the capital’s educational institutions.

The army would not have won without the help of the men who worked in the machinery and munitions industries. The memorial in Lefortovo reminds us of this: a soldier and a worker walk hand in hand. The sculpture “Frontline Nurse” stands near the city polyclinic No. 109 in Pechatniki. Medics during the war rescued the wounded from the battlefield and cared for soldiers in hospitals. Dogs also played a special role. They helped mine the land, deliver ammunition, letters, and medicine. In Terletsky Forest Park there is a monument to the instructor and his tailed partner. The monument in Avtozavodskaya Square is dedicated to the militiamen of the Proletarsky district, and the monument in Khavskaya Street—to Muscovites who died in bombing raids. The composition depicts a mother with a child in her arms.

Monuments, memorial plaques and graves of the Soviet Union heroes are cared for in Moscow: they are cleaned and, if necessary, repaired or restored. New monuments are unveiled as well. In the recent years, 29 memorial plaques (for example, in honor of artilleryman Colonel General Boris Utkin) and nine monuments have appeared: to the Rostokinsky district militiamen, Soviet scouts Nadezhda Troyan and Gevork Vartanyan, heroes of the Young Guard and others.

Tours of the capital with historical navigation

Victory addresses are posted on the city’s navigation elements. Historical and patriotic directional signs appeared in Moscow to the 75th anniversary of the end of the war, today there are already more than four thousand of them. They lead to the Victory Museum on Poklonnaya Mountain, houses where marshals and heroes of the Red Army lived, military memorials. It is enough to point the smartphone camera at a QR code to learn the history of a memorable place or the biography of a prominent person: Marshals Georgy Zhukov and Konstantin Rokossovsky, pilot Valentina Grizodubova and others.

This year, 240 more signs have been placed to provide shortcuts to 30 sites. For example, on Poklonnaya Mountain, new navigation elements will tell you how to get to the monuments to military sailors and the front dog, the museum “Main Weapon Relics of the Army” (“G.O.R.A.”) and the T-34 tank.

Fates of Muscovites. How to write your father or grandfather into the history with the help of Glavarkhiv 

Not only legendary commanders and war heroes are commemorated in Moscow. The whole country contributed to the Victory. The main archival department of the capital helps residents to write the names of their ancestors into history. Family relics such as photographs, letters, documents and household items from the war can be donated for eternal storage. The project was called “Moscow—with Care about History”. All artifacts are digitized. They become the basis for the exposition of the virtual museum of the same name. In the collection you can find pictures from the front line, on which soldiers are making forced crossings of rivers and writing letters home, shots of the construction of defense lines on the outskirts of Moscow and besieged Leningrad, reports of photojournalists. Also among the exhibits are newspaper clippings, documents from evacuation hospitals, 3D models of medals, and animated battle plans. In the section “Collections” dossiers of heroes of the Fatherland with portraits, biographies, award lists have been published. In the “Library” you can read books about the battle for Moscow, the work of theaters, post-war reconstruction of the city.

You can submit family artifacts by going to any My Documents center. Specialists will carefully package them and transfer them to the Glavarkhiv (Main Archive). If necessary, the relics will be restored, then they will appear in the virtual museum.

Special projects of mos.ru: memories of veterans and celebration of the 80th anniversary of Victory Day

Thanks to special projects of the mos.ru portal you can [virtually] get acquainted with city residents who fought at the front, remember the harsh everyday life of the war and the triumph of 1945. The “Victory Soldier’s Word” project https://veterany.mos.ru/ is a kind of tribune from which veterans share stories. During five years more than five thousand people took part in it: former artillerymen, communicators, tankers, partisans, medics, home front workers, prisoners of German concentration camps, residents of besieged Leningrad. Users can look through their eyes at the events of those years, learn what the first day of the war was remembered for, how the evacuation of the capital took place, how people helped each other and fought, where they met the Victory. Videos, archival photos and short reminiscences are published weekly.

On the interactive map “Living Memory” streets of the city named in honor of war heroes are marked. How many German bombers were shot down by the ace pilot Ivan Kozhedub, how Dmitry Lavrinenko became the most effective Soviet tanker, how famous was the sniper Aliya Moldagulova, how the pilot Viktor Talalikhin, one of the first ones in the USSR, made an air ram—in the project you can learn about the merits of the soldiers.

And the project “Battle for Moscow” was created for the 80th anniversary of the beginning of one of the largest battles of the Great Patriotic War. The city was defended for almost seven months. The result was the first major defeat of the Nazi army and the beginning of a major turning point in the entire Second World War. The project tells what the capital was like in 1941-1942, how the residents saved the wounded, collected firewood and built defense lines, what feats the soldiers performed while defending the heart of the country.

For the anniversary mos.ru has prepared a new special project — “80 Years of the Victory!”. It tells about how the city helps veterans, what expositions operate in the Victory Museum and the State Museum of the Defense of Moscow, how they met May 9 in different years and how they celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Victory.