Putin to attend unveiling of monument to Russian, Georgian soldiers

MOSCOW, December 21 (Itar-Tass) - Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir
Putin, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, and important figures of Georgia's
political opposition, Nino Burdzhanadze and Zurab Nogaideli, on Tuesday
are expected to attend a ceremony on Moscow's Poklonny Hill where a
monument to Word War II soldiers of all nationalities of the former USSR
will be unveiled.
The monument has been named "We Fought Together Against Fascism".
The organizers of the ceremony have also invited Russian and Georgian
war veterans, public activists, and cultural personalities to attend.
The idea of putting up this monument on Moscow's Poklonny Hill, where
a major museum dedicated to World War II is located, appeared at the end
of December 2009 shortly after a memorial devoted to wartime soldiers was
destroyed in the Geogian city of Kutaisi.
The Kutisi memorial, built in 1981along a design authored by Georgian
Sculptor Merab Berdzenishvili, consisted of a horseman's statue and a
40-meters-tall monument on two pillars.
More than 700,000 Georgians were drafted to the Soviet Army during
World War II operations on the Eastern Front /from June 1941 through to
May 1945/ and about 300,000 of them fell in the battlefield.
About 240,000 received combat orders and medals and 137 persons were
awarded the title of the highest military distinction - the Hero of the
Soviet Union.
The Georgian authorities passed a decision in December 2009 to
dismantle the Kutaisi memorial under the pretext of building a new
national parliament compound on the very same site.
In the process of demolition that took place December 19, 2009, a
woman and a child were killed by stone fragments. Another several people
were injured.
The destruction of the memorial produced a resounding public effect
across the former Soviet Union. The Russian Foreign Ministry called it an
act of blasphemy and state-sponsored vandalism and the Georgian political
opposition apportioned all blame for it to the authorities.
December 22, 2009, Vladimir Putin came up with an initiative of
reproducing the Kutaisi memorial in Moscow. He described its destruction
as "an attempt to erase the memory of a common past shared by peoples of
the former USSR, including its heroic pages."
His proposal rallied an immediate support of the Moscow City
government, the ruling United Russia party, and the Union of Russia's
Georgians.
A foundation stone was laid at the site of the future monument on
Poklonny Hill May 8, 2010. It was unveiled in a gala ceremony by Vladimir
Putin, State Duma speaker Boris Gryzlov, Nino Burdzhanadze, and Zurab
Nogaideli.
A competition for the best design of the monument started out at the
beginning of April. By May 25, aspirants submitted a total of 25 designs
and a board of experts selected the six best ones.
Their public presentation and public voting for the best design was
held in the Hall of Fame on the Poklonny Hill. All the 5,000 people who
visited the exhibition had an opportunity to vote.
The board of trustees and the public council of the Foundation for
Maintenance and Restoration of Monuments to the Heroes of the Great
Patriotic War held a joint session July 12 where they declared the winner
- a group consisting of the artists Salavat Shcherbakov and Andrei
Kovalchuk and the architect Vassily Perfilyev.
The sculptural composition depicts the climax of the war - the
mounting of the Soviet Red Banner at the roof of Reichstag by Sergeant
Mikhail Yegorov, a Russian, and Junior Sergeant Meliton Kantaria, a
Georgian.
The construction works were financed exclusively from private
donations that came from 6,235 rank-and-file people and 317 companies. The
Union of Russia's Georgians took a most actively part in the effort.
-0-kle