Treptower Park, Soviet War Memorial in Berlin

So this is the first of several photo collections of my visit to Berlin last weekend.

Soviet War Memorial Berlin

I had never been to the Soviet War Memorial in Treptower Park before. This was built to commemorate over 20,000 Soviet soldiers who died in the Battle for Berlin in 1945.

Soviet War Memorial Berlin

It hard not to be moved by the place. The massive statue of the Red Army Soldier, with the German girl in his arm, the sword oh and the trampling of the smashed Swastika.

Soviet War Memorial Berlin

The place was very Stalinist, have to say I was rather surprised to see so many Stalin quotes etched onto the walls. There was a purge from Khrushchev in the early fifties on anything to do with Josef Stalin.

Soviet War Memorial Berlin

Of course I could not reconcile this huge memorial to the story it portrays of the Russian heroes.  I remember being shocked after reading Anthony Beever’s Downfall of Berlin. The Red Army were not the heroes they liked to paint themselves as. Mass rapists and butchers more like. Of course in a historical context you have to balance this with the atrocities committed by the German Army as it invaded the Soviet Union. Tough times.

This park of course was in the former East Germany, I sat for awhile and imagine the German Democratic Republics leaders paying their respects with their Russian counterparts. Whilst the local East Germans were probably sick of it. Had they been liberated by the Brits or the Yanks things would have been very different.

Soviet War Memorial Berlin

Click here for more Photos of the Soviet War Memorial Berlin.

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