photo: Andrii Moskalenko
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On April 16, Soviet symbols started to be dismantled on the Hill of Glory in Lviv. They will be handed over to the exposition of the «Territory of Terror» Museum, located on Chornovola Avenue. This was announced by First Deputy Mayor Andriy Moskalenko.
Hill of Glory is a memorial complex where Russian and Soviet soldiers are buried. It is located in the eastern part of Lviv at the beginning of Pasichna Street.
The entrance to the memorial is decorated with two pylons of red sandstone, made in the form of lowered flags. The central part of the cemetery is designed in the form of a circle divided in half by the Alley of Heroes. A total of 65 soldiers are buried in the cemetery in joint burials and 255 individual ones. On the right, there are two sculptural groups «Oath» and «Motherland» (sculptor Mykhailo Lysenko), on the left – the sculpture «Warrior with a flag» (sculptor Vasyl Forostetsky). To the right of the main entrance, there is the burial place of a Soviet saboteur, NKVD agent, spy Nikolai Kuznetsov.
It will be recalled that last October, the Star with the Sickle and the Hammer, the Soviet Order of the Patriotic War, was transferred to the Lviv Museum of Terror. It was dismantled from the Marsove Pole (Field of Mars) near the Lychakiv cemetery. Due to the dismantling of the Soviet symbol in Lviv, the Russian Foreign Ministry sent a note of protest to Ukraine.
Also in Lviv, the last fragments of the Monument of Glory were dismantled – the sculpture «Motherland» and the Soviet Warrior. The dismantling of the monument cost the city almost 300,000 hryvnias. The process of dismantling the Monument of Glory began in 2018. Lviv City Council declared it emergency. In March 2019, a 30-meter stele with 5 high reliefs of Soviet soldiers was demolished. They are stored in the «Territory of Terror» Museum. In April 2021, the dismantling was continued, and in July, the last high reliefs of the monument were completed.
Famous Lviv sculptors Dmytro Krvavych, Emmanuel Mysko and Yaroslav Motyka worked on the creation of the Monument of Glory. The high-reliefs were made at the Lviv Ceramic and Sculpture Factory, and two sculptures – «Motherland» and the Warrior – were made at the locomotive plant. The authors managed to create an atypical monument at that time, which contains hidden Ukrainian national elements.
Translated by Vitalii Holich
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