Vake Park, Tomb of the Unknown Warrior and the Mother of the Place, Tbilisi

The War Memorial in Vake Park, on the edge of Tbilisi centre, has gone through a process of evolution (and then regressed) over the years. However, it’s not easy to find definitive information of when and who.

The park, which might have existed before the Great Patriotic War, became Victory Park in 1946 and a war memorial installed. This would seem to have been a relatively simple affair, possible just a simple ground level marble slab covering the ‘Unknown Warrior’ in front of which was an eternal flame.

Although I’m not certain of the exact chronology it seems matters remained simple until the beginning of the 1980s. Between 1981 and 1985 there was a major construction project that; involved the building of the cascade and fountains in the hill behind the flame; the installation of the 18-meter bronze statue of the Mother of the Place at the very top of the monument; the installation of the eight (of what have now been called the) Georgian Warrior Heroes, guarding the tomb; then the installation of the statue above the tomb and the resitting of the eternal flame, this time with the flame emerging from a red marble star rather than just being an open flame.

All this happened in stages as is illustrated in a photograph from the period.

Tomb of Unknown Warrior and Eternal Flame before 1981

The sculptor of the Mother of the Place and the eight Warriors were created as a package and are the work of Gogi Ochiauri. To me the ‘warriors’ seemed out of place in this park and, although many years later, someone else agreed as in 2009 they were moved and now are installed in a small garden just below the fortress in the town of Gori (the town of Stalin’s birth and the location of the Stalin Museum).

Vake Park – 03

As far as I understand the architects of the reconstruction were; V. Aleksi-Meskhishvili, O. Litanishvili, K. Nakhutsrishvili.

Zurab Tsereteli is also listed as being involved. He was a sculptor and artist who specialised in mosaics – he was responsible for, among others, the Russian-Georgian Friendship Monument at Gudauri, off the ‘military road’ from Tbilisi to the Russian border – so it’s likely he was responsible for the decoration of the fountains and cascade, the line of Georgian red and white flags at the rear of the lower pond and the numbers 1941 and 1945 – the years between which it took to defeat the Nazi hoard.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Georgian: უცნობი ჯარისკაცის საფლავი) commemorates the hundreds of thousands of Georgian soldiers who served and died in the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War. It’s possible the creator of this monumental sculpture was Nikola Nikolov. The monument was opened officially by Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev and First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Georgian SSR Eduard Shevardnadze, as part of the diamond jubilee of the republic in 1981.

Vake Park – 02

The monument used to be guarded by a ceremonial guard from the National Guard of Georgia, changing every hour in a formal ceremony, as is/was the case in many such locations throughout the Soviet Union. However, this has ceased since elements in Georgia started to court the ‘West’.

Whether the ‘eternal’ flame is ever lit now I can’t say. It’s possible it might be in operation when Georgian veterans of war and residents of the capital gather at the tomb to commemorate holidays such as Victory Day (9th May). As for the fountains those lower down might be functioning but I have my doubts of those above the level of the tomb.

This area has been neglected for years. The area around the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior is still kept tidy(ish) but the waterfalls that were created by water cascading from just below the statue of the Mother of the Place high up the hill are now little more than ruins. The steps on either side of the cascades are now no longer easy to negotiate by soil brought down by the rains as there is no longer any regular maintenance.

Stalingrad Railway Station

Stalingrad (Volgograd) Railway Station

It is located in the Central District of the city at Railway Station Square, 1. The station is one of the largest in Russia and serves long-distance trains and suburban trains.

The first railway to serve Tsaritsyn (now Stalingrad/Volgograd) was the Volga-Don railway in 1862. The first railway station was constructed of wood. In 1871 the station was replaced with a brick structure.

Stalingrad Railway Station – October 1942

During the Second World War, the building was almost completely destroyed in the Battle of Stalingrad. In the period from July 1951 to May 1954 the new station building was erected on the site of the old building. The station commissioned June 2, 1954. In 1997 the building of the railway station was designated an architectural monument. In 2005, the station building was renovated for the 60th anniversary of Victory Day, the capitulation of Nazi Germany to the Soviet Union in the Second World War.

On December 29, 2013, the station was the site of a suicide bombing in which at least 16 people were killed. The station was re-opened after reconstruction on May 7, 2014, just in time for Victory Day holidays.

The station is a three-story building with a ground floor tower crowned with a spire. The building is made of a combination of brick and concrete, the facade consists of ornamented granite. The interior walls are mainly marble. The ceiling is decorated with stucco and several paintings of the battles that took place in the city.

Text above from Wikipedia.

Aspects of the building;

Sculpture in the pediment at the front of the building

Stalingrad Station – 07

The Apotheosis of Labour – sculptors M. Pavlovskii, N. Pavlovskaya, V. Bezrukov.

I read somewhere that this is supposed to be a ‘copy’ but with no more information. So don’t really understand that as I don’t think this sculpture was installed in the building that was destroyed in the siege – but I might be wrong.

Note the image on the cover of the folder the male on the left is holding – it’s that of the station building itself.

Ceiling murals

There are three of these ceiling panels – one circular over the ticket hall, another circular over the seated waiting area and the third is rectangular in a large room off the ticket hall that used to be a cafe but which is now a VIP/1st Class lounge – which no one seems to use. However, when I asked to take pictures of that ceiling panel, and the room itself, there was no problem.

Stalingrad Station – 05

The first circular panel represents Tsaritsyn/Stalingrad in war – or more specifically, at the very end of war. The first depicts an image of the Red Army in the city after the victory over the White (reactionary and supported by the imperialist countries) forces in 1918 when it was known as Tsaritsyn. Opposite, on the same panel is an image of the events following the defeat of the Nazi invaders in 1943 when the city – now named Stalingrad – could commence reconstruction as the Red Army went on to victory in Berlin.

Stalingrad Station – 04

The second circular panel depicts landmarks in the civilian life of the city. The first, in 1952, is the opening of the Volga Hydroelectric Station and the other is the opening of the Volga-Don canal in 1961.

Note the trees that are on the left and right of each panel, which play the role of separating the two events. In 1918 there is barely a leaf on the tree, there are more come 1943 but when we go into the 1950s and 60s we see the tree come into full leaf, mirroring the successes of the construction of Socialism.

Stalingrad Station – 06

The rectangular panel depicts a bucolic scene of workers on a State/collective farm in the area. Here note the presence of the electricity pylon commemorating the achievement of the electrification of the whole country, a challenge Lenin posed to the country in declarations in the early 1920s.

The artist of all the panels was Yakov Skripkov.

Bas-reliefs at the front of building

Stalingrad Station – 03

On either side of the main entrance to the station, under the tower and clock, are bas reliefs that depict, on the left, a representation of the Civil War and on the right the Siege of Stalingrad in the Great Patriotic War. Note the Nazi standard being trampled underfoot in the second bas relief.

Stalingrad Station – 02

Information boards

Stalingrad Station – 01

On my visit in late May 2024 there were a number of information panels on display on either side of the main station building entrance basically telling the story of the role of the building in the history of the city from the time of the Civil War, through the siege to reconstruction after the war. This was soon after the celebration of Victory Day of May 9th so they may only have been there temporarily.