The National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War ( uk, Музей історії України у Другій світовій війні) is a memorial complex commemorating the German-Soviet War located in the southern outskirts of the Pechersk district of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, on the picturesque hills on the right-bank of the
Dnipro River
}
The Dnieper () or Dnipro (); , ; . is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is the longest river of Ukraine and B ...
.
The museum was moved twice before ending up in the current location where it was ceremonially opened on May 9 ( Victory Day) in 1981 by the Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. On June 21, 1996, the museum was accorded its current status of the National Museum by the special decree signed by Leonid Kuchma, the then- President of Ukraine.
It is one of the largest museums in Ukraine (over 300 thousand exhibits) centered on the 62-meter tall Motherland statue, which has become one of the best-recognized landmarks of Kyiv. The museum has been attended by over 21 million visitors.
Memorial complex
The memorial complex covers the area of 10 hectares (approximately 24.7 acres) on the hill, overlooking the Dnieper River. It contains the giant bowl "The Flame of Glory", a site with World War II military equipment, and the "Alley of the
Hero Cities
A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or a main fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or strength. Like other formerly gender-specific terms (like ''actor''), ''hero ...
". One of the museums also displays the armaments used by the Soviet army post World War II. The sculptures in the alley depict the courageous defence of the Soviet border from the 1941 German invasion, terrors of the Nazi occupation,
partisan
Partisan may refer to:
Military
* Partisan (weapon), a pole weapon
* Partisan (military), paramilitary forces engaged behind the front line
Films
* ''Partisan'' (film), a 2015 Australian film
* ''Hell River'', a 1974 Yugoslavian film also know ...
The monumental sculpture of the "Motherland" ("Мати-Батьківщина"), built by Yevgeny Vuchetich stands 62 meters tall upon the museum building with the overall structure measuring 102 m and weighing 530 tons. The sword in the statue's right hand is 16 m long weighing 9 tons, with the left hand holding up a 13 m by 8 m shield with the emblem of the Soviet Union. The Memorial hall of the museum displays marble plaques with carved names of more than 11,600 soldiers and over 200 workers of the home-front honored during the war with the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union and the Hero of Socialist Labor. On the hill beneath the museum, the traditional flower shows are held.
Name change
Until July 2015 the official name of the museum was ''Museum of the Great Patriotic War''. In April 2015, the parliament of Ukraine outlawed the term " Great Patriotic war" as well as Nazi and communist symbols, street names, and monuments. On 16 May 2015 Minister of Culture
Vyacheslav Kyrylenko
Vyacheslav Anatoliiovych Kyrylenko ( uk, В'ячеслав Анатолійович Кириленко) is a Ukrainian politician; former Minister of Labor and Social Policy, Vice Prime Minister, former party leader of Our Ukraine and former ...
Korrespondent
''Korrespondent'' (russian: links=no, Корреспондент; uk, links=no, Кореспондент; literally: ''Correspondent'') is a weekly printed magazine published in Ukraine in the Russian and Ukrainian languages. It is part of Unite ...