Victory Square (; ) is a square in

Minsk Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administra ...

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

, located at the intersection of Independence Avenue and Zakharau Street. The square is located in the historic centre of Minsk with the Museum of the 1st Congress of RSDLP, the main offices of National State TV and Radio and the City House of Marriages nearby. A green park stretches from Victory Square to the Svislach River and to the entrance to Gorky Park. Holiday parades typically go through Victory Square, while newlyweds traditionally take their picture at the square.

Victory Monument

A replica of the

Order of Victory The Order of Victory () was the highest military decoration awarded for World War II service in the Soviet Union, and one of the rarest orders in the world. The order was awarded only to Generals and Marshals for successfully conducting combat ...

crowns a granite column of erected in the centre of the square. The Sacred Sword of Victory is at the base of the monument. The monument was built in 1954 in honour of the soldiers of the Soviet Army and the partisans of Belarus. ''Sculptors'': Z. Azgur, A. Bembel, S. Selikhanau. ''Architects'': U. Karol, G. Zagorski. The four facets of the pedestal hold bronze relief thematic images: "May 9, 1945", "Soviet Army during the Great Patriotic War", "Belarusian Partisans", "Honour to Heroes who gave their lives for liberation". The four bronze wreaths around the obelisk signify the four Fronts. The soldiers of these fronts gave their lives fighting to liberate Belarus from German Fascist invaders.

Post #1

Post #1 at Victory Square refers to guard duty that is carried out by members of the armed forces and among students of general education schools and vocational schools in Minsk. Post #1 was initiated on 3 July 1984, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the liberation of Minsk. The guard of honor serves at Post No. 1 for one week from 9.00 to 17.00 in the cold and from 9.00 to 18.00 in the warm time of the day. The duration of each shift is 10 to 20 minutes. The only breaks in maintaining the honorary were from 15 May to 1 November 1988, from 1 June to 20 November 2003, and from 1 December 2003 to 20 April 2004.

History of Construction

Prior to 1958 the square held a name "Kruglaya" (Round). Builders led by architect R. Stoler started constructing two round buildings around the square. During the

Great Patriotic War The Eastern Front, also known as the Great Patriotic War (term), Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union and its successor states, and the German–Soviet War in modern Germany and Ukraine, was a Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II ...

the buildings were partially destroyed. R. Stoler returned to

in 1957 to help rebuild these buildings. Before the

a street car was running on Sovetskaya street through the square. Before the construction of the Victory Monument there was a memorial stone fenced with a chain. In 1946 the

BSSR The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR, Byelorussian SSR or Byelorussia; ; ), also known as Soviet Belarus or simply Belarus, was a republic of the Soviet Union (USSR). It existed between 1920 and 1922 as an independent state, and ...

government opened a competition for the design of a Victory Memorial. Initially the site was planned in the vicinity of the current " Kastrychnitskaya" (October) square. Selected design provided for a monument made of white pink marble. To open the memorial by the 10th anniversary of liberation of Belarus, the design was adjusted to use gray granite and make the column shorter. Ukrainian quarries near

Dnepropetrovsk Dnipro is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper River, Dnipro River, from which it takes its name. Dnipro is t ...

and

Zhytomyr Zhytomyr ( ; see #Names, below for other names) is a city in the north of the western half of Ukraine. It is the Capital city, administrative center of Zhytomyr Oblast (Oblast, province), as well as the administrative center of the surrounding ...

provided the granite for construction. The

Leningrad Academy of Arts The Imperial Academy of Arts, informally known as the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, was an art academy in Saint Petersburg, founded in 1757 by Ivan Shuvalov, the founder of the Imperial Moscow University, under the name ''Academy of the ...

crafted the mosaic for the

. Ukrainian carvers indented the granite reliefs. Leningrad factory " Monumentskulptura" cast bronze reliefs, sword and wreaths. On 3 July 1961, on the 17th anniversary of liberation of Minsk, Honourable Citizen of Minsk,

Hero of Soviet Union The title Hero of the Soviet Union () was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded together with the Order of Lenin personally or collectively for heroic feats in service to the Soviet state and society. The title was awarded both t ...

colonel-general

Alexei Burdeinei Aleksey Semyonovich Burdeyny (, Ukrainian language, Ukrainian: ''Олексій Семенович Бурдейний''; 18 October 1908 – 21 April 1987) was a Soviet colonel general who held corps command during World War II. Early life and p ...

lit the

eternal flame An eternal flame is a flame, lamp or torch that burns for an indefinite time. Most eternal flames are ignited and tended intentionally, but some are natural phenomena caused by natural gas leaks, peat fires and coal seam fires, all of which ca ...

at the foundation of the obelisk. In 1984, architects B. Larchenko, B. Shkolnikov, and K.Vyazgin re-designed the square from round into oval to fit the exits from metro station. On 1 July 1984 granite blocks were mounted with capsules containing soil from several Soviet hero cities:

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

Volgograd Volgograd,. formerly Tsaritsyn. (1589–1925) and Stalingrad. (1925–1961), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Volgograd Oblast, Russia. The city lies on the western bank of the Volga, covering an area of , with a population ...

Kiev Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

Odessa ODESSA is an American codename (from the German language, German: ''Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen'', meaning: Organization of Former SS Members) coined in 1946 to cover Ratlines (World War II aftermath), Nazi underground escape-pl ...

Sevastopol Sevastopol ( ), sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea and a major port on the Black Sea. Due to its strategic location and the navigability of the city's harbours, Sevastopol has been an important port and naval base th ...

Kerch Kerch, also known as Keriç or Kerich, is a city of regional significance on the Kerch Peninsula in the east of Crimea. It has a population of Founded 2,600 years ago as the Colonies in antiquity#Greek colonies, ancient Greek colony Pantik ...

Novorossiysk Novorossiysk (, ; ) is a city in Krasnodar Krai, Russia. It is one of the largest ports on the Black Sea. It is one of the few cities designated by the Soviet Union as a Hero City. The population was History In antiquity, the shores of the ...

, Tula,

Brest Fortress Brest Fortress (; ; ; ), formerly known as Brest-Litovsk Fortress, is a 19th-century fortress in Brest, Belarus. In 1965, the title Hero Fortress was given to the fortress to commemorate the defence of the frontier stronghold during the fi ...

. In 1985 capsules with soil from Hero Cities

Smolensk Smolensk is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River, west-southwest of Moscow. First mentioned in 863, it is one of the oldest cities in Russia. It has been a regional capital for most of ...

and

Murmansk Murmansk () is a port city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast in the far Far North (Russia), northwest part of Russia. It is the world's largest city north of the Arctic Circle and sits on both slopes and banks of a modest fjord, Ko ...

were added. On 8 May 1985, in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of Victory in

, a Memorial Hall opened in the pedestrian underpass under the Victory Square. The Hall honours the Heroes of Soviet Union who gave their lives to liberate

from Nazi occupation. A circular gallery under the square connects the underpass with the Memorial Hall. Artist V. Pozhyak crafted a highlighted glass wreath in the center of the Hall. A bronze star, of

, is embedded in the hall's wall. 566 names of natives from Belarus and other Soviet republics are also listed on the wall, of those who fought to liberate Belarusian soil and were awarded the title of

for their heroic deeds. In 2003, the square was slightly updated to improve the monument's stability due to damage from metro trains running under it, as well as to replace the grown-up firs with grass lawns.

External links

The original 50th look of the squareMinsk Victory Square
a
official site of the Republic of BelarusKey landmarks in Minsk

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Victory, circus Squares in Minsk