Khimki War Memorial

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Khimki War Memorial is a memorial to two Soviet pilots and four Red Army soldiers in Novoluzhinskoe cemetery, Khimki, Russia.

Soviet Union 1922–1991 country in Europe and Asia

The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was a federal sovereign state in northern Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. Nominally a union of multiple national Soviet republics, its government and economy were highly centralized. The country was a one-party state, governed by the Communist Party with Moscow as its capital in its largest republic, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. Other major urban centers were Leningrad, Kiev, Minsk, Tashkent, Alma-Ata, and Novosibirsk. It spanned over 10,000 kilometers (6,200 mi) east to west across 11 time zones, and over 7,200 kilometers (4,500 mi) north to south. It had five climate zones: tundra, taiga, steppes, desert and mountains.

Red Army Soviet army and air force from 1917–1946

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, frequently shortened to Red Army, was the army and the air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after 1922, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The army was established immediately after the 1917 October Revolution. The Bolsheviks raised an army to oppose the military confederations of their adversaries during the Russian Civil War. Beginning in February 1946, the Red Army, along with the Soviet Navy, embodied the main component of the Soviet Armed Forces; taking the official name of "Soviet Army", until its dissolution in December 1991. The former official name Red Army continued to be used as a nickname by both sides throughout the Cold War.

Khimki City in Moscow Oblast, Russia

Khimki is a city in Moscow Oblast, Russia, 30 kilometres northwest of central Moscow.

Contents

The memorial and the graves were originally located near Leningradskoye Shosse, a major highway leading from Moscow to the international Sheremetyevo Airport. The remains of the pilots and soldiers were exhumed under the sanction of Khimki authorities in April 2007, and reburied later with military honours to a newly built memorial on the Alley of Heroes in the Novoluzhinskoe cemetery, in the centre of Khimki.

Moscow Capital of Russia

Moscow is the capital and most populous city of Russia, with 13.2 million residents within the city limits, 17 million within the urban area and 20 million within the metropolitan area. Moscow is one of Russia's federal cities.

Soldiers buried in Khimki War Memorial: [1] [2]
 
1. Mikhail Alexandrovich Rodionov (died June 1942),
   Junior Lieutenant, pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union
2. Boris Alexandrovich Borodavkin
   (died February 13, 1943), Lieutenant
3. Ivan Azarovich Chistiakov
   (died January 1942), Lieutenant
4. Alexey Georgievich Levin
   (died 1941), Sergeant, pilot
5. Sergey Vasilyevich Maximov
   (died August 26, 1942), Private
6. Ivan Alexeyevich Pupychkin
   (died November 30, 1941), Private

"Removal" controversy

The original "demolition" of the war memorial on April 18 created a controversy in Russia. [3] Several sources reported that the remains of the war heroes were lost. [4] According to an early report, officials used bulldozers to demolish the memorial, leaving some of the remains on site. [5] Several sources reported that the remains of the war heroes were lost. [4] [6] [7] This was later proved to be not true.

Bulldozer heavy machine equipped with a substantial metal plate

A bulldozer is a crawler equipped with a substantial metal plate used to push large quantities of soil, sand, rubble, or other such material during construction or conversion work and typically equipped at the rear with a claw-like device to loosen densely compacted materials.

Among the reasons for the relocation the officials of Khimki cited the complaints about prostitutes hanging around at night. [5] Another incentive for the removal of the graves was the need to widen the highway. [8]

The communist columnist, Anatoly Baranov, argued that it was the prostitutes who were to be lifted, not the veterans. [9] On Sunday, April 22, a group of members of the Union of Communist Youth staged a protest at the site. The militsiya dispersed the meeting with force, as it was not sanctioned by the authorities. Several of those taking part were arrested; they later claimed to have been beaten and declared a hunger strike. [10] [11]

Militsiya police force in USSR and some other countries

Militsiya, was the name of the police forces in the Soviet Union and in several Soviet bloc countries (1945–1991), as well as in the non-aligned Yugoslavia of 1945–1992; the term continues in common and sometimes official usage in some of the individual former Soviet republics such as Belarus, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, as well as in the unrecognised republics of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria.

The Khimki war memorial relocation incident was widely and not always appropriately [12] [13] used in relation to the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn controversy at the time. [11] [14]

Bronze Soldier of Tallinn Soviet World War II war memorial in Tallinn, Estonia

The Bronze Soldier is the informal name of a controversial Soviet World War II war memorial in Tallinn, Estonia, built at the site of several war graves, which were relocated to the nearby Tallinn Military Cemetery in 2007. It was originally named "Monument to the Liberators of Tallinn", was later titled to its current official name "Monument to the Fallen in the Second World War", and is sometimes called Alyosha, or Tõnismäe monument after its old location. The memorial was unveiled on 22 September 1947, three years after the Red Army reached Tallinn on 22 September 1944 during World War II.

Reburial

The reburial of war heroes on May 6, 2007. Khimki Reburial May 6 2007.jpg
The reburial of war heroes on May 6, 2007.

On 6 May 2007, the major TV channels of Russia showed the footage of the reburial of the exhumed remains at the Novoluzhinskoe cemetery, located in the centre of the city. [15] The solemn ceremony was attended by about 1,000 people, including many veterans. An armoured carrier led the funerary procession. "The fallen heroes were remembered with a triple gun salvo from a Moscow Military District regiment." [2] [16]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ Обращение депутатов Совета депутатов городского округа Химки Московской области (in Russian). Khimki Administration. 2007-04-27. Retrieved 2007-05-10.
  2. 1 2 3 Фоторепортаж из Химок (in Russian). drugoi. 2007-05-06. Archived from the original on 2007-05-09. Retrieved 2007-05-10.External link in |publisher= (help)
  3. ↑ Спор о берцовой кости [Controversy over Tibia] (in Russian). Nezavisimaya Gazeta. 2007-05-24. Retrieved 2007-06-07.
  4. 1 2 На месте бывшего захоронения героев Великой Отечественной войны остались брошенные кости (in Russian). Novye Izvestiya. 2007-04-20. Archived from the original on 2007-04-27. Retrieved 2007-05-10.
  5. 1 2 "War Dead Exhumed Over Prostitutes". The Moscow Times. 2007-04-20. Retrieved 2007-05-10.
  6. ↑ "Mystery Swirls in Khimki Over Whereabouts of War Remains". The Moscow Times. 2007-04-20. Retrieved 2007-05-10.
  7. ↑ "Russian parliament urges political, economic sanctions for Estonia". The Raw Story. 2007-04-27. Archived from the original on 2007-10-07. Retrieved 2007-05-10.
  8. ↑ Провокаторы (in Russian). Khimki Administration. 2007-04-18. Retrieved 2007-05-10.
  9. ↑ Героев выкинули вместо проституток (in Russian). KPRF. 2007-04-18. Archived from the original on 2007-05-02. Retrieved 2007-05-10.
  10. ↑ Милиционеры избили защитников воинских захоронений в Химках (in Russian). Агентство Национальных Новостей. 2007-04-23. Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2007-04-29.
  11. 1 2 "Botched reburial of veterans in Moscow prompts Russian to ask: "why are we complaining about the Estonians?"". Eesti Elu. 2007-04-26. Retrieved 2007-05-10.
  12. ↑ Парламентарии: Химки - не Тынисмяги (in Russian). Regions.ru. 2007-05-07. Retrieved 2007-05-10.
  13. ↑ Мелкие пакости (in Russian). Your Day (newspaper). 2007-05-10. Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2007-05-10.
  14. ↑ Блоггер раскрыл ложь СМИ о Братской могиле (in Russian). Nezavisimaya Gazeta. 2007-05-24. Retrieved 2007-09-21.
  15. ↑ Памятник советских воинов в Химках. Справка (in Russian). RIA Novosti. 2007-04-20. Retrieved 2007-05-10.
  16. ↑ "Russian pilots reburied in solemn ceremony". United Press International. 2007-05-06. Retrieved 2007-05-10.[ permanent dead link ]

Coordinates: 55°53′45″N37°25′5″E / 55.89583°N 37.41806°E / 55.89583; 37.41806

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