Memorial on Victory Square

The memorial complex was opened on 9 May 1975, for the thirtieth anniversary of Victory, on the site of a former market square in the city centre. Voronezh stood on the front line for more than two hundred days; the right-bank part of the city was taken by the enemy and almost completely destroyed, and the monument is dedicated to that defence. The core of the composition is a metal sculptural group by Fyodor Sushkov made up of twelve figures: soldiers of different branches of the forces, a home-guard volunteer, a woman partisan, a woman with a child; the figures are gathered into a dense monolith on a red granite pedestal. The Eternal Flame burns in front of the group. The second dominant element is a stele about forty metres high, made of two narrow pylons with the Order of the Patriotic War, First Class — awarded to the city for its defence — fixed between them. A granite wall runs along the square with the names of the units that defended Voronezh and a metal map of the fighting. By 2020 the square had been reconstructed, with a cascade fountain and new paving added.

On the map