Monday, September 17, 2012

Kiev, Ukraine - Museum of the Great Patriotic War

This sculpture forms part of the «The National Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945» complex opened in 1981. There is an 18-gallery Museum, an eternal flame (that at the moment is not eternal at all, i.e. there is no flame...perhaps symbolic of the Russian gas to Ukraine and Europe issue?) and military vehicles and equipment. Towering over everything, and looking out over the Dnipro river, is the 62 meter tall Motherland Monument, 12-ton sword in hand. The same story is told here, similar to the urban myth doing the rounds in Skopje about the Alexander the Great, aka The Warrior on the Horse monument, that the pedestal supporting it is not sufficient to support the colossal weight. 

Standing over three meters high the «Heroes of the Front and the Rear» sculpture is for me the most sobering aspect of the complex. 


























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