Monument to the Fallen of the NKVD in the Battle for Stalingrad

Posted on 16/08/2025 by Michael

‘It is impossible to overestimate the importance of the NKVD troops during the war. They became an indestructible shield that protected our country. It was with their help that it was possible to stop the retreating army, overcome the demoralized state of a number of army units, protect the country from the invasion of enemy saboteurs and bandits with personal participation, organize a powerful partisan movement behind enemy lines, stop the enemy’s armed forces in the most important strategic directions, such as Moscow, the Caucasus , Stalingrad.’

[Introductory paragraph from ‘Pages of the history of the internal affairs bodies: the feat of the 10th division of the NKVD’

At the southern end of Stalingrad city centre there’s a small park which hosts an impressive monument to those members of the NKVD who fought and died in the Battle of Stalingrad. Even if you don’t know immediately who is commemorated by the monument if you know the name of the square you are given a clue by it’s name. The location of the park is known as Chekist Square – the colloquial name of the security organisation, established soon after the October Revolution in 1917, was the Cheka and even though the official name changed a number of times over the years the ‘nickname’ persisted.

The number of troops involved involved in NKVD formations were obviously many more than would have existed in peace time and these divisions became much more ideological – formed by those Communists who were fighting for much more than the liberation of their country from the Nazi invaders but for the international cause of Socialism. They were sent to some of the fiercest fighting and consequently suffered some of the heaviest losses and played a much more prominent role in various battlefronts than their numbers would suggest. Although the formation of such fighting forces had its positives the negative consequence of this was that after the victory of the Red Army over the fascist invader the forces of committed Communists was weakened – a consequence of which was felt in the Soviet Union after the death of JV Stalin in 1953.

The Monument

The monument consists of a pillar on top of which stands a uniformed soldier with his right arm raised high above his head and in his hand he is holding a sword. In November 1932 JV Stalin sent a message of congratulations to the then OGPU addressing them as ‘the bared sword of the working class’.

There’s a pentagon at the base of the pillar and on the five sides there’s;

a plaque (in Russian)

Чекистам, сотрудникам контрразведки Сталинградского фронта и военной полиции, погибшим при защите города от немецко-фашистских захватчиков с августа 1942 – февраль 1943 года

which translates as;

To the Chekists, to the counter-intelligence officers of the Stalingrad Front and the military police officers who died while defending the city from the Nazi invaders, August 1942 to February 1943;

a large, metal image of the symbol of the NKVD – which has the Hammer and Sickle superimposed on a vertical sword;

a large, metal image of the Medal for the Defence of Stalingrad;

another plaque (in Russian)

В СУРОВЫЙ ЧАС.

КОГДА ВРАГ ЧЕРНОЙ ТУЧЕЙ НАВЕС НАД СТАЛИНГРАДОМ,
МЫ КЛЯНЕМСЯ БЕСПОШАДНО УНИЧТОЖАТЬ НЕНАВИСТНОГО ВРАГА, ГДЕ БЫ ОН НЕ ПОЯВИЛСЯ.

МЫ ОБЕЩАЕМ, ЧТО В ТЯЖЕЛЫЙ МОМЕНТ НЕ ДРОГНЕМ ПЕРЕД ЛИЦОМ СМЕРТЕЛЬНОЙ УГРОЗЫ.

МЫ ПОКАЖЕМ СТОЙКОСТЬ, ВЫСОКУЮ ДИСЦИПЛИНУ, ВЫДЕРЖКУ.

МЫ ПОТОВЫ ЛЕЧЬ КОСТЬМИ, НО НЕ ДОПУСТИТЬ ВРАГА В СТАЛИНГРАД.

КЛЯНЕМСЯ ЧТО БУДЕМ ДОСТОЙНЫМИ СЫНАМИ СВОЕЙ РОДИНЫ!

КЛЯТВА БОЙЦОВ И КОМАНДИРОВ 10-ОЙ СТРеАКоВОЙ ВОйСК НКВА

which translates as;

In the fateful hour, when the enemy loomed over Stalingrad like a black cloud, we will never repent of relentlessly destroying the hated enemy no matter how he appears.

We promise that in difficult moments we will not flinch in the face of a deadly threat.

We will show resilience, high discipline and self control.

We would lay down our lives to prevent the enemy from entering Stalingrad.

We swear we will be worthy sons of our Homeland.

Oath of the soldiers and commanders of the 10th Infantry Division of the NKVD troops

and another emblem of the NKVD but this time with the addition of an honorific, a Star between the Hammer and Sickle and the Sword

The platform upon which all this stands has five sets of steps up to the pentagon. On two sides of the wall that flanks these steps are mirrored images of; three Soviet flags lowered as a sign of respect for the fallen, the Hammer and Sickle over which lies a sheaf of wheat and the corner is formed by a vertical sword, point at the top (similar to that in the hand of the NKVD soldier at the top of the column).

The monument is at the highest point in this small park and slightly away from the main road. There’s seating, much of it in the shade of the trees and appears to be a place where people come to rest from the hustle and bustle of the city and away from the heat in summer.

There’s another monument to the NKVD, this time over a grave of those killed in the battle, next to the statue of VI Lenin, in Lenin Square, just a couple of kilometres to the north of this monument, along the main road in the direction of Mamyev Kurgan.

Further information;

Division of the NKVD in the defense of Stalingrad. The feat of the NKVD division in the battle of Stalingrad. Participation of internal troops in interethnic conflicts

Location;

Chekistov Square and Park, located at the southern end of the Astrakhansky Bridge on the edge of the town centre.

GPS;

78.70155 N

44.50653 E

How to get there;

The Pionerskaya Metro station is on the other side of the Astrakhanskya Bridge. Also many buses pass over this bridge when heading south and west of Stalingrad city centre.

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Central Museum of the Armed Forces of the USSR/Central Armed Forces Museum – Moscow

Posted on 29/06/2025 by Michael

Glory to the Soviet Union!

Central Museum of the Armed Forces of the USSR/Central Armed Forces Museum – Moscow

The main reason I wanted to go to the Central Museum of the Armed Forces of the USSR/Central Armed Forces Museum in Moscow was because I had learnt that it was there that the Nazi banners that had been thrown into the mud at the base of the Lenin Mausoleum (with Comrade Stalin accepting them on behalf of the Soviet people) on the first Victory Day on May 9th, 1945, were presently on display.

On my first visit to Moscow (way back in 1972) these banners were in a huge glass case which covered the whole floor of a room in what was then the Museum of the Revolution. This was up by Pushkin Square and close to the Izvestia offices. However, following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the chaos that followed in the 1990s anything which smacked of revolution was a no-no and that particular museum went through a number of manifestations. In the process much that had been on display pre-1990 disappeared and it is only relatively recently that some of it has begun to be, yet again, on display to the general public.

(What used to be the Museum of the Revolution is now called the Museum of the Modern History of Russia – Muzey Sovremennoy Istorii Rossii. Although there are some interesting and valuable artefacts which help in the telling of the history of the Soviet Union following the October Revolution it is generally a poor shadow of what it once was. The final section, ‘bringing things up to date’, is more like something you’d expect at an international exhibition than a museum.)

However, I think the Central Museum of the Armed Forces of the USSR/Central Armed Forces Museum has much more to offer than just the Nazi banners on the floor. There is a manner in which to display objects to show utter contempt for what they represent. From my memory that was achieved in the original location in the centre of the city but there’s less of that impression (to my mind) in their present location, even though they are still displayed in cases on the floor.

From my experience Russian museums are crammed full of artefacts. Sometimes so many that very soon you feel assaulted by so many different objects. That being the case the best approach is to ‘skim’ what you pass, taking more time on anything, perhaps more unusual, that might catch your eye.

The starting point in the first room is the War of Intervention or the Civil War. This was when the Red Army was formed, first out of Bolsheviks and irregulars who volunteered to defend the Revolution from the reactionaries, both national and international. However, within a very short time this army took on the aspects of a fully organised and structured army which eventually was able to defeat all attempts to strangle the Revolution from birth.

Later rooms go through the events of the Great Patriotic War and into later, sometimes not well chosen wars (such as that in Afghanistan) and through to the present with a small room dedicated to the Special Military Operation in the Ukraine.

In the slide show at the end of this post you will see that I have concentrated on the various banners and standards under which those fighting to defend the Revolution fought, as well as artistic representations of those battles and achievements. There’s a limited depiction of military hardware as, with a few exceptions, these are more or less generic and were used by all fighting forces in any particular epoch or conflict. I find what is unique to the Soviet Union (the way it presented itself; the battle of ideas through posters and other types of propaganda; and how the struggles were presented to the masses to be much more interesting.

In any visit to the museum here are a few suggestions of what to look out for;

the large bust of VI Lenin at the top of the stairs immediately facing the main entrance;
the whole wall covering mosaic on the wall on the first floor landing – depicting on the right the struggle to maintain the Revolution during the civil war into the 1920s and on the other the Great Patriotic War and the defeat of German invading Nazism;
the large painting in the second room (on the left had side on entering the room) which depicts the members of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party at the time of the October Revolution. This is an unusual way to present the individuals who were the leading cadres of the Revolution. I foolishly didn’t take note of the artist or when the painting was created but note Trotsky skulking at the extreme left hand side;
the many banners, representing factories and places of work, of the volunteers who went to fight against the Whites and the fourteen, intervening imperialist powers;
the propaganda posters produced by both sides in the conflict;
the machine gun fitted to the back of a horse drawn buggy;
the various sculptures demonstrating the unity of the workers and the peasants;
the make-shift armoured vehicles;
the multi-ethnic and multi-national extent of the revolutionary forces;
the distinctive uniform of the first Red Army;
the ceramic vase with an image of Joseph Stalin, Mikhail Frunze and other civil war military commanders;
the huge, wooden fist with the words ‘пролстарский кулак врагм ссср’ which translates as ‘the proletarian kulak is an enemy of the USSR’;
the images of VI Lenin and JV Stalin on the banners of the Great Patriotic War;
the porcelain statue of an embrace and a kiss;
images of heroism;
‘the battle in the rear’;
the Nazi standards on the floor in the Victory Room;
the Iron Crosses;
the shattered eagle that used to stand on top of the Reichstag in Berlin;
Hitler’s personal standard;
the image of Marshal Zhukov riding his horse over the Nazi standards in Red Square on May 9th 1945;
the fine bust of JV Stalin, together with his military dress uniform;
the shattered remains of the U2 American spy plane;
the Red Army and and women flanking the main entrance to the museum;

among much more.

Location;

Soviet Army Street, Moscow

GPS;

55.78503 N

36.61708 E

How to get there;

The museum is a little over a five minute walk from the Dostoyevskaya Metro station on the Line 10 (Green). Leave by the exit that leads to the Red Army Theatre. Go past the right hand side of the theatre and at the road junction/pedestrian crossing take the right, once on the other side go left and the museum is about 100 metres on the right.

We are together in the fight against fascism – Park Pobeda – Moscow

Posted on 02/05/2025 by Michael

: We are together in the fight against fascism

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We are together in the fight against fascism

This particular sculpture, impressive as it is, poses and challenge to me when being asked ‘What is a piece of Socialist Realist art?’ Art can be realist without having any reference to socialism even though it might represent a worker or workers sympathetically. But what takes one piece of work from a mere representation of a person or an event to a different level, to imbue it with a meaning that is over and above what is merely in front of the viewer.

My simple interpretation of that has been the intention of the artist at the time of the work’s creation, the intended audience and what was hoped would be achieved by it’s presentation to the public. But these intentions and hopes are not concrete. They can exist in one period of time but can just disappear if (and unfortunately) or when the social system reverts to what it was pre-Revolution – as happened in the Soviet Union (and all the other post-Socialist societies).

But if, as it did, Revisionism took control soon after the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953 can those works of art produced after that date until 1991 still be considered works of Socialist Realism? They were still produced for the same audience as were the target in the 1930s and 1940s but for a different purpose, after the mid-50s the aim was to project an image of being in favour of revolutionary change whilst at the same time doing everything practically to avoid such a transformation occurring.

The history (or more accurately to say, its genesis) of this particular monument is quite unique and exceptional, fitting in more with the political agenda of the Russian Government at the time rather than a desire to remind future generations of the sacrifice made by those during the Great Patriotic War or the desire to foment a willingness of self sacrifice amongst a population who are attempting to build Socialism.

On 19th December 2009 a Soviet era monument, the Kutaisi Glory Memorial, which had been unveiled in 1981, was blown up by Georgian fascists under the cloak of ‘nationalism’ and ‘reconstruction’ of the city. The location of the monument was to be the site of the new Parliament building.

The original plan was for the monument to be destroyed on 21st December (coincidentally the anniversary of Stalin’s birth) and a mass demonstration had been planned to oppose this desecration of the memory of all those Soviet citizens (including those from Georgia) who had died in the fight against fascism. The decision the destruction should take place two days earlier than originally planned is considered to have made to circumvent any opposition. Because the task was rushed it was botched with pieces of concrete flying all over the place, some of it killing a woman and her eight year old daughter who lived close by.

But the destruction of this monument also has to be taken in the context of what was happening in the region at the time. This was just after the short war between Russia and Georgia, in 2008, over the separatist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia – one started by Georgia under the encouragement of the US. This was all part of a strategy to surround (with hostile NATO states) and eventually dismember the Russian Federation – which had been the intention of the neo-liberals in the west since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

For that reason the demolition of the memorial was more than an attack on the memory of all those who died fighting fascism it was part of the present war against Russia. This created a sense of urgency, an advert for the commission was circulated and by July 2009 there were already six maquettes of the proposed statue to be erected on a site in Park Pobeda (Victory Park) in Moscow. These designs were on display in the Great Patriotic War Museum, awaiting a popular vote.

At the same time the maquettes were on display in Moscow Hilary Clinton was visiting Tbilisi, adding fuel to the conflict and mouthing her meaningless phrases about the US in support of national liberation of those countries ‘occupied’ and vowing never ending US support for ‘the fight for freedom’. Similar declarations, before and subsequently, ultimately led to the situation we have in the Ukraine at the moment and have led to continued efforts by the US to destabilise other countries in eastern Europe – cut short recently by Trump’s rethink on how to allocate resources to maintain the US’s ‘full spectrum dominance’ in the region.

So a somewhat unique genesis of a World War II monument.

The design of the monument follows many, well established tropes for such statues. In general it depicts the events surrounding the Fall of Berlin, the occupation of the fascist liar by Soviet troops, the raising of the Red Flag over the Reichstag and the first ever Victory Day Parade in Red Square in Moscow.

A common theme of the three, separate components of the statue is the dominance of Soviet over Nazi weaponry, imagery and culture. At the very top two Soviet soldiers are in the process of raising the Red Flag, one of the soldiers pointing his weapon at the pile of German weapons that lay discarded on the ground. Amongst this pile of weapons and debris is a toppled German eagle. We’ve won, you’ve lost!

On the left hand side we have a group of Soviet soldiers who are greeting others, unseen, as they stand beside the burnt out dome of the Reichstag building. Under their feet and before them, discarded on the ground, are Nazi weapons, ruined machinery, barbed wire, destroyed Nazi standards (with the swastika broken) and on top of all this detritus a dove of peace is in the process of alighting.

On the right hand side we have the depiction (the only example I’ve seen in a monumental form) of an episode that took place during the first Victory Parade where Soviet solders entered Red Square with dozens of captured Nazi banners, marched to the Lenin Mausoleum, upon which Comrade Stalin and other members of the Soviet leadership were standing to review the parade, and there the troops threw the Nazi standards down into the mud at the door of Lenin’s resting place. In the background of the monument can be seen the Spasskaya Tower and the building that used to be the Lenin Museum but which is now the Museum of the Patriotic War of 1812.

However, there are two aspects which differentiate this monument from those that would have been created even in the Revisionist period of the Soviet Union. And both these are on the right hand side. Amongst the group of soldiers cheering there is one face that is looking out directly at the viewer whilst all the rest are looking to the front. Also, tucked behind the folds of the flag on that side is an incongruous figure on a horse. This figure is long haired and bearded and is totally out of place. A Christ figure? And I couldn’t work out what he has in his hand.

At the rear of the monument are two plaques. One explaining the reason for its existence and the other with the names of those involved in its creation.

Translation of the plaques on the rear of the monument. (Machine translated so apologies for any eccentricities.)

Monument to the Unity of the Peoples of the Soviet Union who fought and won together in the Great Patriotic War.

Symbolising the inviolability of monuments to victorious soldiers

It was opened in 2010 in memory of the Glory Memorial which was barbarously destroyed in the city of Kutaisi on December 19, 2009

Built with folk remedies

Sculptors/Architects; – the names listed. However, I don’t know the exact level of their involvement but assume that Shcherbakov was the principal sculptor.

S A Shcherbakov

A N Kovalchuk

I N Voskresenskiy

B V Perfiliev

V V Seliverstov

A A Ustenko

E H Zhivotinsky

G J Gattenberger

In the centre of the concave, stone wall set back a few metres from the statue the high structure pays homage to the monument that was blown up in Tbilisi. The large letters (in Russian) declare the name of the ensemble – ‘We are together in the fight against fascism’. Lower down and on either side are smaller images of other memorials from other Soviet Republics. I can identify Mother Armenia in Yerevan, the original monument in Kutaisi and the Motherland Calls! in Stalingrad but have problems with the others.

On either side of the installation stand two pillars upon which is place a horizontal, large, golden star.

Closest public transport;

Park Pobeda Metro station

Location;

In Victory Park (Park Pobeda), Moscow

GPS;

55.72845 N

37.50152 E

How to get there:

From the metro station head towards the obelisk and main museum but take a path off to the left which goes beside the church. Keep on this track as it goes past the entrance to the Military Weapons Museum (on your left) and then rises as it skirts around the left of the principal, circular structure. The monument is on the left hand side of the track.

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