MINSK, 3 July (BelTA) – Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko took part in solemn events timed to Independence Day of the Republic of Belarus on 3 July, BelTA has learned.
The head of state laid a wreath at the foot of the Mound of Glory. Then top-ranking officials laid flowers at the memorial.
War veterans, representatives of worker collectives and public associations, participants of military patriotic clubs and youth organizations also took part in the solemn ceremony.
The Mound of Glory of the Soviet Army is a monument erected in honor of the heroic feat accomplished by soldiers of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd Belarusian Fronts and the 1st Baltic Front as part of the offensive Operation Bagration in Belarus. Fierce fighting to liberate Belarus took place in the area where the memorial complex is located. As many as 105,000 Nazi troops were encircled by the Soviet forces back then. The event was described as the Minsk cauldron.
The Mound of Glory was founded on 30 September 1966. It contains soil from hero cities of the Soviet Union and from other places that have become famous due to heroic feats of work and combat. Back then everyone deemed it an honor to contribute a handful of soil to create the monument and give part of their hearts to the winners. The memorial was unveiled on 5 July 1969.
The authors of the complex are the sculptors Andrei Bembel and Anatoly Artimovich, the architects Oleg Stakhovich and Lev Mitskevich, the engineer Valery Laptsevich. They won a BSSR State Prize in 1970 in recognition of the majesty, the depth of the idea, and the artistic design of the monument.
The mound’s height is 35 meters. At the top, there are four titanium-clad obelisks (one for each front) that are 35.6 meters high. Two staircases, each with 241 steps, lead to an observation deck at the top of the mound.
Follow us on:
