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Eternal flame- a constantly burning fire, symbolizing the eternal memory of something or someone. Continuous combustion is achieved by supplying gas to a specific combustion site. Usually included in the memorial complex.
History of the eternal flame
Eternal flame in the world
Eternal flame in the USSR and Russia
The first truly Eternal (never stopped burning) fire in the USSR was the fire lit on November 6, 1957 on the Field of Mars in Leningrad. Sometimes Sevastopol is also mentioned as the place where the first Soviet Eternal Flame was lit (Malakhov Kurgan, February 23, 1958).
Moscow
Three Eternal Flames are currently burning in Moscow.
The first Eternal Flame in Moscow was lit at the Preobrazhenskoye Cemetery on February 9, 1961. A number of sources erroneously indicate the year 1956, which is impossible, since the fire was lit from the Eternal Flame on the Field of Mars in Leningrad. By 2004, the pipes supplying gas to the Eternal Flame were so worn out that it was turned off. After repairs, the fire was lit again on April 30, 2010.
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Excerpt describing the Eternal Flame
- That's it! - the count cried, opening his wet eyes and stopping several times from sniffling, as if a bottle of strong vinegar salt was being brought to his nose. “Just tell me, sir, we will sacrifice everything and regret nothing.”Shinshin had not yet had time to tell the joke he had prepared for the count’s patriotism, when Natasha jumped up from her seat and ran up to her father.
- What a charm, this dad! - she said, kissing him, and she again looked at Pierre with that unconscious coquetry that returned to her along with her animation.
- So patriotic! - said Shinshin.
“Not a patriot at all, but just...” Natasha answered offendedly. - Everything is funny to you, but this is not a joke at all...
- What jokes! - repeated the count. - Just say the word, we’ll all go... We’re not some kind of Germans...
“Did you notice,” said Pierre, “that it said: “for a meeting.”
- Well, whatever it was for...
At this time, Petya, to whom no one was paying attention, approached his father and, all red, in a breaking voice, sometimes rough, sometimes thin, said:
“Well, now, daddy, I will decisively say - and mummy too, whatever you want - I will decisively say that you will let me into military service, because I can’t ... that’s all ...
The Countess raised her eyes to the sky in horror, clasped her hands and angrily turned to her husband.
- So I agreed! - she said.
But the count immediately recovered from his excitement.
“Well, well,” he said. - Here’s another warrior! Stop the nonsense: you need to study.
- This is not nonsense, daddy. Fedya Obolensky is younger than me and is also coming, and most importantly, I still can’t learn anything now that ... - Petya stopped, blushed until he sweated and said: - when the fatherland is in danger.
- Complete, complete, nonsense...
- But you yourself said that we would sacrifice everything.
“Petya, I’m telling you, shut up,” the count shouted, looking back at his wife, who, turning pale, looked with fixed eyes at her youngest son.
- And I’m telling you. So Pyotr Kirillovich will say...
“I’m telling you, it’s nonsense, the milk hasn’t dried yet, but he wants to go into military service!” Well, well, I’m telling you,” and the count, taking the papers with him, probably to read them again in the office before resting, left the room.
- Pyotr Kirillovich, well, let’s go have a smoke...
Pierre was confused and indecisive. Natasha's unusually bright and animated eyes, constantly looking at him more than affectionately, brought him into this state.
- No, I think I’ll go home...
- It’s like going home, but you wanted to spend the evening with us... And then you rarely came. And this one of mine...” the count said good-naturedly, pointing at Natasha, “she’s only cheerful when she’s with you...”
“Yes, I forgot... I definitely need to go home... Things to do...” Pierre said hastily.
“Well, goodbye,” said the count, completely leaving the room.
- Why are you leaving? Why are you upset? Why?..” Natasha asked Pierre, looking defiantly into his eyes.
“Because I love you! - he wanted to say, but he didn’t say it, he blushed until he cried and lowered his eyes.
- Because it’s better for me to visit you less often... Because... no, I just have business.
- From what? no, tell me,” Natasha began decisively and suddenly fell silent. They both looked at each other in fear and confusion. He tried to grin, but could not: his smile expressed suffering, and he silently kissed her hand and left.
Pierre decided not to visit the Rostovs with himself anymore.
Petya, after receiving a decisive refusal, went to his room and there, locking himself away from everyone, wept bitterly. They did everything as if they had not noticed anything, when he came to tea, silent and gloomy, with tear-stained eyes.
The next day the sovereign arrived. Several of the Rostov courtyards asked to go and see the Tsar. That morning Petya took a long time to get dressed, comb his hair and arrange his collars like the big ones. He frowned in front of the mirror, made gestures, shrugged his shoulders and, finally, without telling anyone, put on his cap and left the house from the back porch, trying not to be noticed. Petya decided to go straight to the place where the sovereign was and directly explain to some chamberlain (it seemed to Petya that the sovereign was always surrounded by chamberlains) that he, Count Rostov, despite his youth, wanted to serve the fatherland, that youth could not be an obstacle for devotion and that he is ready... Petya, while he was getting ready, prepared many wonderful words that he would say to the chamberlain.
Petya counted on the success of his presentation to the sovereign precisely because he was a child (Petya even thought how everyone would be surprised at his youth), and at the same time, in the design of his collars, in his hairstyle and in his sedate, slow gait, he wanted to present himself as an old man. But the further he went, the more he was amused by the people coming and going at the Kremlin, the more he forgot to observe the sedateness and slowness characteristic of adult people. Approaching the Kremlin, he already began to take care that he would not be pushed in, and resolutely, with a threatening look, put his elbows out to his sides. But at the Trinity Gate, despite all his determination, people who probably did not know for what patriotic purpose he was going to the Kremlin, pressed him so hard against the wall that he had to submit and stop until the gate with a buzzing sound under the arches the sound of carriages passing by. Near Petya stood a woman with a footman, two merchants and a retired soldier. After standing at the gate for some time, Petya, without waiting for all the carriages to pass, wanted to move on ahead of the others and began to decisively work with his elbows; but the woman standing opposite him, at whom he first pointed his elbows, angrily shouted at him:
- What, barchuk, you are pushing, you see - everyone is standing. Why climb then!
“So everyone will climb in,” said the footman and, also starting to work with his elbows, he squeezed Petya into the stinking corner of the gate.
Petya wiped the sweat that covered his face with his hands and straightened his sweat-soaked collars, which he had arranged so well at home, like the big ones.
Petya felt that he had an unpresentable appearance, and was afraid that if he presented himself like that to the chamberlains, he would not be allowed to see the sovereign. But there was no way to recover and move to another place due to the cramped conditions. One of the passing generals was an acquaintance of the Rostovs. Petya wanted to ask for his help, but thought that it would be contrary to courage. When all the carriages had passed, the crowd surged and carried Petya out to the square, which was completely occupied by people. Not only in the area, but on the slopes, on the roofs, there were people everywhere. As soon as Petya found himself in the square, he clearly heard the sounds of bells and joyful folk talk filling the entire Kremlin.
At one time the square was more spacious, but suddenly all their heads opened, everything rushed forward somewhere else. Petya was squeezed so that he could not breathe, and everyone shouted: “Hurray! Hurray! hurray! Petya stood on tiptoes, pushed, pinched, but could not see anything except the people around him.
There was one common expression of tenderness and delight on all their faces. One merchant's wife, standing next to Petya, was sobbing, and tears flowed from her eyes.
- Father, angel, father! – she said, wiping away tears with her finger.
- Hooray! - they shouted from all sides. For a minute the crowd stood in one place; but then she rushed forward again.
Petya, not remembering himself, clenched his teeth and brutally rolled his eyes, rushed forward, working with his elbows and shouting “Hurray!”, as if he was ready to kill himself and everyone at that moment, but exactly the same brutal faces climbed from his sides with the same shouts of “Hurray!”
“So this is what a sovereign is! - thought Petya. “No, I can’t submit a petition to him myself, it’s too bold!” Despite this, he still desperately made his way forward, and from behind the backs of those in front he glimpsed an empty space with a passage covered with red cloth; but at that time the crowd wavered back (in front the police were pushing away those who were advancing too close to the procession; the sovereign was passing from the palace to the Assumption Cathedral), and Petya unexpectedly received such a blow to the side in the ribs and was so crushed that suddenly everything in his eyes became blurred and he lost consciousness. When he came to his senses, some kind of clergyman, with a bun of graying hair back, in a worn blue cassock, probably a sexton, held him under his arm with one hand, and with the other protected him from the pressing crowd.
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Eternal Flame Compiled by: teacher-defectologist Kirchenkova E.A. Ryazan, 2015
The eternal flame is a constantly burning fire that burns in winter and summer, day and night. It symbolizes that the memory of the feat of the defenders of the Motherland will live forever.
On Victory Day in the Great Patriotic War (May 9), and on other days, they bring flowers to the Eternal Flame, come to stand, be silent, and bow to the memory of the heroes...
In the main city of our country - the city of Moscow - three Eternal Flames were installed in memory of those killed in the Great Patriotic War. One of them is located at the “Tomb of the Unknown Soldier” in the Alexander Garden (it is the main component of the “Tomb of the Unknown Soldier” complex).
The memorial architectural ensemble “Tomb of the Unknown Soldier” was opened on May 8, 1967. L.I. Brezhnev lights the Eternal Flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (1967)
Since 1997, State Post No. 1 has been transferred to the Eternal Flame from the Mausoleum, to which the honor guard of the Presidential Regiment takes over. The Honor Guard Post at the Eternal Flame in Moscow at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Post No. 1) is the main guard post in the Russian Federation. In accordance with the Decree of Russian President Boris Yeltsin (dated December 8, 1997), the Guard of Honor stands guard in the Alexander Garden near the Eternal Flame every day from 08.00 to 20.00. Post No. 1 Changing of the guard
There are many such graves on our land. These graves contain the remains of soldiers who died on the battlefield during the Great Patriotic War. Many soldiers died in that war. Not all of the dead could be identified, and not all of them had documents. The ashes of one of these soldiers are buried near the Kremlin wall in Moscow. Therefore, on the tombstone it is written: “Your name is unknown.” - Why do you think the grave is called the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier? - What does the second part of the inscription mean: “Your feat is immortal”? - This inscription means that people will always remember: the soldiers buried here died defending the Motherland, their relatives and friends, their children and grandchildren.
Two other Eternal Flames in Moscow are installed on Poklonnaya Hill and Preobrazhenskoye Cemetery. Eternal Flame (Fire of Memory and Glory) on Poklonnaya Hill Eternal Flame at Preobrazhenskoye Cemetery
The eternal flame in memory of those killed in the Great Patriotic War burns in many cities of the former Soviet Union. The Eternal Flame on the Champ de Mars is the first Eternal Flame in the Soviet Union. All other eternal fires throughout the territory of our country were lit precisely from this fire. Eternal Flame on the Champ de Mars (St. Petersburg). Year of creation of the Eternal Flame on the Champ de Mars: 1956.
It is interesting that Post No. 1 in the city of Rostov-on-Don is one of the few, and perhaps the only place in Russia where high school students perform the guard of honor. The changing of the guards takes place every 15-20 minutes. The guards are dressed in full dress uniform and armed with machine guns. Schoolchildren study the charter, engage in marching, drill exercises and take a solemn oath. The post has been in effect since 1975. The Eternal Flame and Post No. 1 in Rostov-on-Don (are part of the memorial complex “Fallen Warriors”)
In our city (Ryazan) the Eternal Flame is located on Victory Square.
At the Eternal Flame, the tulips are drooping and looking at the ground. The ninth of May is the holiday of soldiers: So that you and I could live, they fought... Tulips are burning - flowers are like fires. The fire blazes at the mass graves, So that no one forgets the feat of the dead: The color is scarlet - the color of blood shed by war... But the fire is eternal - that means the hero is eternal! N. Samoniy Many poems, songs, and stories have been composed on the theme of the Eternal Flame.
Eternal flame Eternal flame. Alexander Garden. Eternal memory to the heroes. Who was he, the unknown soldier, Honored by the Great Country. Maybe he was still a young cadet, or a simple militiaman. Maybe he was killed because he did not kneel before the enemy. Maybe he went into the attack at full height, the bullet reached him at the end of his life. Or he was an unknown sailor, the one who died at the helm. Maybe he was a pilot, or maybe a tanker; It doesn't matter today. We will never read this sheet, That paper triangle. Eternal flame. Alexander Garden. Monument to thousands of lives. The eternal flame is the memory of soldiers who honestly served their homeland. Yu. Schmidt
On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War in 2005, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation issued a 10 ruble coin, on the reverse of which the Eternal Flame is depicted and the inscription “No one is forgotten, nothing is forgotten.”
The eternal flame remains, despite all political changes, a symbol of heroism, national independence and true love for the Motherland. We will disappear, our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will leave, and the Eternal Flame will burn. “Time changes - but our attitude towards our Victories does not change” (c)
Thank you for your attention!
Every year on May 9, Muscovites go to the Eternal Flame to bow to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. However, few people already remember the people who created this memorial. The eternal flame has been burning for 46 years. It seems like he has always been there. However, the story of its ignition is extremely dramatic. It had its own tears and tragedies.
In December 1966, Moscow was preparing to solemnly celebrate the 25th anniversary of the defense of Moscow. At that time, the first secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee was Nikolai Grigorievich Egorychev. A man who played a significant role in politics, including in the dramatic situation of the removal of Khrushchev and the election of Brezhnev to the post of Secretary General, one of the communist reformers.
The anniversary of the victory over the Nazis began to be celebrated especially solemnly only in 1965, when Moscow was awarded the title of Hero City and May 9 officially became a non-working day. Actually, then the idea was born to create a monument to ordinary soldiers who died for Moscow. However, Yegorychev understood that the monument should not be Moscow, but nationwide. This could only be the monument to the Unknown Soldier.
One day at the beginning of 1966, Alexei Nikolaevich Kosygin called Nikolai Yegorychev and said: “I was recently in Poland, laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Why is there no such monument in Moscow?” “Yes,” Yegorychev answers, “we are thinking about this right now.” And he told about his plans. Kosygin liked the idea. When work on the project was completed, Yegorychev brought the sketches to the “premier”. However, it was necessary to familiarize Brezhnev with the project. And at that time he left somewhere, so Yegorychev went to the Central Committee to Mikhail Suslov and showed the sketches.
He also approved the project. Soon Brezhnev returned to Moscow. He received the Moscow leader very coldly. Apparently, he learned that Egorychev had reported everything to Kosygin and Suslov earlier. Brezhnev began to wonder whether it was worth building such a memorial at all. At that time, the idea was already in the air to give exclusivity to the battles on Malaya Zemlya. Moreover, as Nikolai Grigorievich told me: “Leonid Ilyich understood perfectly well that the opening of a monument close to the heart of every person would strengthen my personal authority. And Brezhnev did not like this even more.” However, in addition to the issue of the “struggle of authorities,” other, purely practical problems arose. And the main one is the place for the monument.
Brezhnev insisted: “I don’t like the Alexander Garden. Look for another place.”
Two or three times Yegorychev returned to this issue in conversations with the General. All to no avail.
Yegorychev insisted on the Alexander Garden, near the ancient Kremlin wall. Then it was an unkempt place, with a stunted lawn,
the wall itself required restoration. But the biggest obstacle was something else. Almost on the very spot where the Eternal Flame now burns stood an obelisk built in 1913 for the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov. After the revolution, the names of the reigning house were scraped off the obelisk and the names of the titans of the revolution were knocked out.
The list was supposedly compiled by Lenin personally. To evaluate what follows, let me remind you that at that time touching anything connected with Lenin was monstrous sedition. Egorychev suggested that the architects, without asking anyone for the highest permission (because they wouldn’t allow it), quietly move the obelisk a little to the right, to where the grotto is located. And no one will notice anything. The funny thing is that Yegorychev turned out to be right. If they had started to coordinate the issue of moving the Lenin monument with the Politburo, the matter would have dragged on for years.
Egorychev appealed to the common sense of the head of the Moscow architectural department, Gennady Fomin. Convinced to act without permission. By the way, if something went wrong, for such arbitrariness they could easily be deprived of all positions, or worse...
And yet, before starting global construction work, the approval of the Politburo was required. However, they did not intend to convene the Politburo. Yegorychev’s note on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier had been lying in the Politburo since May 1966, without movement. Then Nikolai Grigorievich once again resorted to a little trick.
He asked Fomin to prepare materials for the monument project: models, tablets - by November 6, the anniversary of the revolution - and display them in the presidium lounge in the Palace of Congresses. When the ceremonial meeting ended and members of the Politburo began to enter the room, I asked them to come and look at the models. Some were even surprised: after all, they had nothing to do with the anniversary of the revolution. I told them about the monument. Then I ask: “What is your opinion?” All members of the Politburo unanimously say: “This is great!” I’m asking if it’s possible to get started?
I see that Brezhnev has nowhere to go - the Politburo spoke in favor...
The last most important question is where to look for the remains of a soldier? At that time, a lot of construction was going on in Zelenograd, and there, during excavation work, they found a mass grave that had been lost since the war. The secretary of the city committee for construction, Alexei Maksimovich Kalashnikov, was assigned to conduct this matter. Then even more thorny questions arose: whose remains would be buried in the grave? What if it turns out to be the body of a deserter? Or a German? By and large, from the heights of today, no matter who ends up there, anyone is worthy of memory and prayer. But in 1965 they didn’t think so. Therefore, they tried to check everything carefully. As a result, the choice fell on the remains of a warrior whose military uniform was well preserved, but which did not have any commander’s insignia. As Yegorychev explained to me: “If it was a deserter who had been shot, the belt would have been removed from him. He could not have been wounded or captured, because the Germans did not reach that place. So it was absolutely clear that this was a Soviet soldier, who died heroically defending Moscow. No documents were found in his grave - the ashes of this private were truly nameless."
The military developed a solemn burial ritual. From Zelenograd the ashes were delivered to the capital on a gun carriage. On December 6, from early morning, hundreds of thousands of Muscovites lined Gorky Street. People cried as the funeral cortege moved past. Many old women quietly made the sign of the cross over the coffin. In mournful silence, the procession reached Manezhnaya Square. The last meters of the coffin were carried by Marshal Rokossovsky and prominent party members. The only one who was not allowed to carry the remains was Marshal Zhukov, who was then in disgrace...
On May 7, 1967, in Leningrad, a torch was lit from the Eternal Flame on the Field of Mars, which was carried by relay to Moscow. They say that all the way from Leningrad to Moscow there was a living corridor - people wanted to see what was sacred to them. Early in the morning of May 8, the motorcade reached Moscow. The streets were also filled to capacity with people. At Manezhnaya Square, the torch was accepted by Hero of the Soviet Union, legendary pilot Alexei Maresyev. Unique chronicle footage has been preserved that captured this moment. I saw men crying and women praying. People froze, trying not to miss the most important moment - the lighting of the Eternal Flame.
The memorial was opened by Nikolai Egorychev. And Brezhnev was supposed to light the Eternal Flame.
Leonid Ilyich was explained in advance what needed to be done. That evening, in the final news program, a television report was shown of the Secretary General accepting the torch, approaching the star with the torch, then a cliff followed - and in the next frame they showed the lit Eternal Flame. The fact is that during the ignition an emergency occurred, which was witnessed only by people standing nearby. Nikolai Egorychev: “Leonid Ilyich misunderstood something, and when the gas started, he did not have time to immediately bring the torch. As a result, something like an explosion occurred. There was a bang.
Brezhnev got scared, recoiled, almost fell." Immediately came the highest order to cut out this unpleasant moment from the TV report.
As Nikolai Grigorievich recalled, because of this incident, television covered the great event rather sparingly.
Almost all the people involved in the creation of this monument had the feeling that this was the main work of their lives and it was FOREVER, FOREVER.
Since then, every year on May 9, people come to the Eternal Flame. Almost everyone knows that they will read the lines engraved on a marble slab: “Your name is unknown, your feat is immortal.” But it never occurs to anyone that these lines had an author. And it all happened like this. When the Central Committee approved the creation of the Eternal Flame, Yegorychev asked the then literary generals - Sergei Mikhalkov, Konstantin Simonov, Sergei Narovchatov and Sergei Smirnov - to come up with an inscription on the grave. We settled on the following text: “His name is unknown, his feat is immortal.” All the writers signed these words... and left.
Egorychev was left alone. Something in the final version did not suit him: “I thought,” he recalled, “how people would approach the grave. Maybe those who have lost their loved ones and do not know where they found peace. What will they say?
Probably: “Thank you, soldier! Your feat is immortal!” Although it was late in the evening, Yegorychev called Mikhalkov: “The word “his” should be replaced with “yours.”
Mikhalkov thought: “Yes,” he said, “this is better.” So the words carved in stone appeared on the granite slab: “Your name is unknown, your feat is immortal”...
It would be great if we no longer had to write new inscriptions over new graves of unknown soldiers. Although this, of course, is a utopia. One of the greats said: “Time changes, but our attitude towards our Victories does not change.” In fact, we will disappear, our children and great-grandchildren will leave, and the Eternal Flame will burn.
To the point:
The news especially emphasized that this particular Eternal Flame was the first in the USSR. At the end of the 1990s, it stopped burning continuously and was ignited from a gas cylinder only once a year on May 9. In the spring of 2013, reconstruction was carried out, as a result of which it became possible to resume the constant operation of the Eternal Flame. The “return” ceremony took place on May 6, on the eve of Victory Day. The first part of the ceremony took place in the regional center on Victory Square, the second - in the village itself. According to employees of the local history museum and a war veteran, an eyewitness and participant in those events, the Eternal Flame at the mass grave was lit on the initiative of a front-line soldier, the director of a local gas plant, on May 9, 1955, and two years later, in 1957, a monument was erected “The Mourning Warrior”, after which the memorial took on its modern appearance.
The eternal flame on the Field of Mars in Leningrad was lit on November 6, 1957, and in Sevastopol on Malakhov Kurgan on February 23, 1958. Consequently, the first Eternal Flame in the USSR was lit in a village near Tula. Until 2013, almost no one knew about this.
According to preliminary information, the ceremony was supposed to begin in Tula on Victory Square at 9.00 and then continue in the village itself. To be sure, I tried to find more detailed information about the event on the Internet, but to no avail. This surprised me, since the program for celebrating May 9 in the regional center was posted on all news portals in the city several weeks before the holiday itself. Later it turned out that the event was closed and included only specially invited guests.
In 1941, in this area there was a field along which the front line of the city’s defense passed. For 45 days, in October-December 1941, Tula was almost completely surrounded, subjected to artillery and mortar fire, and air raids, but the city was not surrendered. After the war it grew rapidly; on the territory where the fighting took place, a bus station, a hotel, residential and administrative buildings were built, the space between them was landscaped and made pedestrian, and in 1965 it turned into Victory Square. On the 25th anniversary of the defeat of the Nazi invaders near Moscow (1966), Tula was awarded the Order of Lenin, and ten years later, on December 7, 1976, it was awarded the title of “Hero City” with the presentation of the Gold Star medal.
At the foot of the monument burns the Eternal Flame, lit from the flame from the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Kremlin Wall in Moscow and delivered to Tula on an armored personnel carrier, accompanied by an honorary escort of motorcyclists, as well as cars with participants in the city’s defense. The right to light the Eternal Flame was granted to the leaders of regional party organizations and defense participants. During the Soviet period, “post number one” was installed at the memorial, which was carried daily by Tula Komsomol members and pioneers, replacing each other.
On May 6, 2013, a torch lit from the memorial on Victory Square was supposed to be taken to the village of Pervomaisky from Tula. The square is a developed social space: it is a pedestrian zone, there are benches along its perimeter, and from early morning until late evening it is filled with citizens and guests of the city. According to my observations, regardless of the proximity of Victory Day, in good weather, citizens and visitors often take pictures and spend time at the memorial.
Coming out to the square, I saw several policemen in front of anti-aircraft guns standing in front of the memorial: the area around the monument was cordoned off, and entry was only allowed by invitation. Parked on the road were two Pobeda cars and an open military vintage car, in the trunk of which there was a portable fire burner. By this time, a guard of two artillery school cadets was already standing at the memorial; the cadets were also on both sides of the road leading to the car with the burner. As it turned out later, this was the route of the torchbearer. Passing people stopped for a few minutes to watch the action, and then continued on their way. I had already resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn’t be able to come closer, but one of the policemen asked me in surprise: “So you just want to take a photo?” - after which he allowed me to go through the cordon. That's how I ended up at the ceremony.
The topography of the ceremony was as follows. If you turn your back to the avenue, to the right of the “Three Bayonets” and the Eternal Flame stood six veterans (of war and labor), behind them were young people in wartime tunics. Next to the veterans stood the regional governor, his deputies and representatives of public organizations, as well as the hosts of the ceremony - everyone had St. George ribbons on their chests. Opposite the memorial there were groups of young people: junior students and cadets. The rest of the space around the flame, between veterans and youth, was occupied by journalists from federal and local television channels, as well as print media. Students from Tula State University took part in the torch lighting ceremony: as part of the “Flame of Victory” campaign, they brought plastic lamps lit from the Eternal Flames in other hero cities of the country.
The event began around 9 a.m. and lasted approximately 20 minutes. The memorial event was opened by a metronome counting down the seconds. The presenters (a man and a woman) read poems that said that “fire is a symbol of memory.” Next, a participant in the Great Patriotic War, an honorary citizen of Tula, addressed those present with words of greeting, calling on the younger generation to remember this war and be “always ready to defend their homeland, which has many enemies.” The regional governor emphasized that the passing of the torch to light the Eternal Flame in the village of Pervomaisky is a unique and important event, that “we should not be Ivans who do not remember our kinship, we should be people who know how to defend their victory.” As in 1968, a student activist spoke, but from Tula State University. The ceremony culminated with the lighting of the torch by the governor and the veteran. Then the veteran carried a lit torch through the honor guard of artillerymen at a marching pace; from this torch a mobile gas burner mounted in the car was lit. After which the fire went as part of an honorary column of vintage cars and bikers to the village of Pervomaisky. Meanwhile, students and cadets laid red carnations at the memorial and took photographs against its background.
In Pervomaisky, the solemn meeting began at about 10.30 and lasted about an hour. The venue was a memorial located on the territory of the village, at the intersection of the Tula-Shchekino road (part of the Simferopol federal highway) and the highway connecting Pervomaisky with the city-forming chemical enterprise. The memorial is a complex whose main monument is a sculptural group of two mourning warriors (sometimes the monument is called the “Mourning Warrior”). In front of the monument is the Eternal Flame and four mass graves. The burials contain the remains of soldiers and officers of the 217th and 290th Infantry Divisions of the 50th Army, who died in the battles for the defense and liberation of the villages of the Shchekino region: Vorobyovka, Kochaki, Yasenki, Kaznacheevka, Yasnaya Polyana, Staraya Kolpna, Grumanty, Myasoedovo, Baburinka, Deminka, Vealinka, as well as those who died from wounds and illnesses in hospitals. A total of 75 people are buried in mass graves. Of these, the names of 44 are known, and they are carved on memorial plaques.
Young people stood along the perimeter of the memorial, their T-shirts and caps formed a repeated Russian flag, and they held plastic lamps in their hands. The police were present, but very discreetly and in much smaller numbers than in Tula. It was possible to move freely throughout the entire territory; there was only one unspoken taboo - not to damage the fresh lawn.
In front of the memorial, employees of the local history museum set up a mobile exhibition with archival photographs, including from the opening of the monument, and findings of the local search team. One of the main exhibits was a copy of a photograph depicting the lighting of the Eternal Flame by the director of the gas plant, front-line soldier Sergei Jobadze, and a pioneer schoolgirl. According to the director of the museum, on the back of the original photograph there is a handwritten inscription: “May 9, 1955” - this valuable exhibit was given to the museum by the director’s widow. Part of the exhibition was dedicated to his military and labor achievements. A chronicle of the opening of the Eternal Lights in the USSR, which began precisely in Pervomaisky, was also presented.
The “return” ceremony in its program was very reminiscent of the May 9 celebration. The audience at the event was very diverse: representatives of the administration; teams of workers from gas and chemical enterprises who supervised the memorial at different times; veterans of war and labor; schoolchildren, cadets, soldiers, students, pensioners. A feeling of celebration reigned, which was facilitated by the sound of war songs and the concert program of a local creative group, which began after the official words of greeting.
The governor, heads of the municipality and local administration, as well as the management of the gas companies that installed the new burner addressed the audience. Its installers (gas welder, excavator driver, repairman) were presented with certificates of gratitude . After melodic recitations on the theme of memory and the Eternal Flame as its symbol, the Tula veteran lit a torch from a mobile burner and handed it to a 91-year-old veteran of the Great Patriotic War, Honored Teacher of Russia, resident of the village of Pervomaisky Vasily Novikov, who, with the help of cadets, lit the Eternal Flame. “I want to appeal to the younger generation,” said the veteran. “Take care of Russia, make it a great and invincible power!” . This was followed by a dance performance with lamps given by a local amateur group, after which the presenters invited everyone present to lay flowers, wreaths and a traditional garland of fir branches, which is woven annually by teenagers from the village special school. Senior schoolchildren placed the words “We remember” with lamps (later assembled by teachers), then a gun salute thundered. The ceremony ended with a small concert, after which mass photography began against the backdrop of the monument and the Eternal Flame. The veterans were not allowed to leave for a long time by journalists and local residents who wanted to take pictures or present flowers.
This is how Vasily Novikov told journalists about the lighting of the Eternal Flame:
“Death is oblivion... The eternal flame was lit on May 9, 1955. The monument was opened in 1957. Burials were moved here from the local cemetery. The first reburial took place in 1948. I went to the front at the age of 18. Was a pilot. When the fire was lit, I was 33 years old. The weather was sunny, the same as today, only warmer, and at the end it started to rain warmly. There were a lot of people, even more than now. Everyone was cheerful, life was getting better. The memory of the war and Victory was everywhere, only ten years had passed. Now, looking at the Eternal Flame, thoughts come about the fire of war, killing people, and peaceful fire. When the fire just went out, there was resentment: how can this be, this is a memory... But we understand, those were the times. I would like to wish young people to love Russia!”
Fire in sacred and public spaces
Fire as a sacred element or a sign of the presence of a deity exists in many mythologies, religions and cults. A constantly or temporarily maintained flame in a specially designated place is found in ritual practices dedicated to gods (Zoroastrianism), kings and warriors (Media), priests (Persia), cattle breeders and farmers (Parthia). Fire temples were founded everywhere in honor of victories. The Old Testament instructs us to continually keep the fire burning on the altar.
There was a menorah in the tabernacle and in the Jerusalem temple until it was destroyed again by the Romans in 70. - a golden seven-barreled lamp, which was lit by the high priest at dusk and burned all night. The eternal flame was kept inside the Temple of Apollo at Delphi in Greece. The Temple of Vesta in Rome symbolized the main home - the "hearth of the state", until in 394, by order of Emperor Theodosius, it was closed.
In Catholic and Orthodox churches, the eternal light - a lamp or candle, signifying the constant presence of the Holy Spirit - burns in front of the tabernacle. In Orthodox churches, continuous burning is also maintained in unquenchable lamps in front of a particularly revered shrine (icon, relics and graves of revered saints).
Of the folk rituals, the closest to this tradition is the custom of southern Russian peasants at Christmas time to “warm the dead” (or “parents”), the purpose of which is to warm deceased relatives and increase productivity. Dmitry Zelenin attributed this custom to the cult of ancestors and the agricultural cult.
In public space, the first fire was lit on the anniversary of the signing of the armistice in the First World War on November 11, 1923, at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. After this war, ceremonial reburials of the remains of unidentified fallen soldiers were carried out in many participating countries.
Eternal flame in the USSR
By 1937, the Eternal Flame was lit at the graves of the Unknown Soldier in Belgium, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Czechoslovakia. In the USSR, one of the most famous is the Eternal Flame on the Champ de Mars in St. Petersburg. In most studies, it is considered to be the first in the USSR, which is not surprising, given its location and ideological significance. In 1917, a public burial was held on the Champ de Mars for revolutionaries and victims of armed street clashes. The first reconstruction of this memorial was carried out in 1920, as a result of which a square was laid out with a monumental fence around the graves of the fighters for the victory of the revolution. The tombstone “with an unquenchable lamp” at the burial site of the victims of the Great October Socialist Revolution was built in the fall of 1957 on the eve of its 40th anniversary.
There are two versions of who and how lit the Eternal Flame on the Champ de Mars. According to one of them, it was steelmaker Zhukovsky, who lit it with a torch from open-hearth furnace No. 1 from the Kirov plant. According to another, more substantiated version, based on an article in Leningradskaya Pravda, it was lit by the oldest communist of Leningrad, Praskovya Kulyabko, and the secretary of the Komsomol city committee, V.N. Smirnov. However, another worker of the Kirov plant, Pyotr Zaichenko, on May 9, 1960, lit a torch from the fire on the Champ de Mars to open a memorial at the Piskarevskoye cemetery. It is noteworthy that in the same article of Leningradskaya Pravda and in the Bulletin of the Executive Committee of the Leningrad City Council of Working People, the decision to open the tombstone and light the fire in the fall of 1957 is presented as an exclusively local, Leningrad initiative of the executive committee of the Leningrad City Council of Working People's Deputies and personally the first secretary of the Leningrad City Party Committee.
The lighting of the Eternal Flame on the Champ de Mars realized the idea of People's Commissar of Education Anatoly Lunacharsky about self-sacrifice in the name of the common good, which ensures the memory, and therefore the immortality of heroes. It was he who designed the inscriptions for the 1919 granite memorial dedicated to the soldiers of the revolution:
“Not victims - heroes lie under this grave. It is not grief, but envy that your fate gives birth to in the hearts of all grateful descendants. In the red, terrible days you lived gloriously and died wonderfully.”
Despite the fact that the Eternal Flame was lit almost 40 years after the creation of this epitaph, the idea of continuity of generations and memory of descendants was embodied in the opening ceremony itself, in which representatives of several generations of Soviet people participated.
History of the memorial in Pervomaisky
As already mentioned, the “return” of the Eternal Flame to Pervomaisky became a noticeable news item in the local press. Naturally, I was interested in the fact that the first Eternal Flame in the USSR was lit not in Leningrad and Moscow, but in a small workers’ village; that the initiators of its lighting were the front-line soldiers who worked at the plant, and not high-ranking Soviet ideologists. A pilot survey conducted at a solemn meeting on May 9 showed an almost complete lack of historical knowledge about the memorial (not duplicating information given in the media) among respondents in the age category under 70 years old and/or among people who are not related to the memorial due to their professional responsibilities. Therefore, I decided that to study the history of the memorial, the most productive method would be interviews and conversations with experts, who were selected as employees of the administration of Pervomaisky (military registration table), the municipal archive, the military registration and enlistment office and the local history museum of the city of Shchekino, war and labor veterans, and also an activist in the local youth association.
In written sources, I found two options for dating the creation of the memorial and the lighting of the Eternal Flame: September 1956 and May 9, 1957. The first, most accessible source turned out to be a very informative website of the municipality of Pervomaisky. When reading the “Historical Information” I was surprised by its tone: a lot of personal memories and details. As it turned out later, the certificate was an almost verbatim extract from the memoirs of Pyotr Sharov, director of the Shchekino Chemical Plant (1962-1976). These memoirs are the most comprehensive chronicle of the village and the memorial; they list 1956 as the date of creation of the monument:
“On the territory of the former village of Kochaki, where there was an administrative settlement (now called Temporary) next to the St. Nicholas Church, there was a mass grave on which stood a small wooden obelisk with a star. During the construction of the village in 1948, it was decided to transfer the remains of fallen soldiers to a new burial ground. A new mass grave was built on the site of the modern monument; a concrete obelisk with a fence was installed above it. In 1956, on the initiative of the local military registration and enlistment office, the remains of fallen soldiers were transported from different places in the area to the location of the concrete obelisk. The question immediately arose about the construction of a new monument with tombstones and the Eternal Flame.”
My next step was to search for information about the memorial in local history literature. In the two most detailed works on local history of the Shchekinsky region, this memorial is written extremely sparingly. For example, in one of them the entire sentence is dedicated to him: “The eternal flame burns on mass graves and at the obelisks in Shchekin and the village of Pervomaisky.” A little more information is contained in another work: “In 1956, a monument was erected at the mass grave of Soviet soldiers and the first Eternal Flame in the area was lit.” Thus, 1956 is once again indicated as the year of lighting the Eternal Flame, which, however, did not bring final clarity to this issue.
In the absence of information, I also studied the stages of development of the plant. It turned out that the Shchekino gas plant was put into operation on May 15-17, 1955, then household gas was supplied to Tula, and the first stage of the Moscow - Shchekino gas pipeline was launched on May 30. It is known that the gas for the Eternal Flame was local, that is, it is logical to assume that the lighting of the Eternal Flame and the launch of the plant should have been interconnected. In addition, I came across two versions of when the village was supplied with gas. One at a time - in 1956, the first in the Shchekinsky region. According to the local newspaper Shchekinsky Khimik, the village was gasified after the launch of the Shchekinsky gas plant in 1955, at the same time the director of the enterprise proposed lighting the Eternal Flame at the mass grave.
It must be said that the launch of the plant was premature, the enterprise was not ready for it: almost immediately three of the four gas generators failed, requiring expensive dismantling and re-installation of structures; as a result, the old director of the plant was removed, and front-line soldier and experienced organizer Sergei Jobadze was appointed in his place. By the fall of 1956, the plant still did not fulfill the plan, since it was officially launched in May 1955, but in fact it was still being installed. As a result, the Moscow gas pipeline was connected to the Stavropol - Tula natural gas pipeline. In 1957, the plant began to operate at full capacity. Thus, the lighting of the Eternal Flame in Pervomaisky was not only closely associated with the fresh memory of the war, but was also an inspiring symbol of the final commissioning of the plant, new to the gas production area, which was so difficult for everyone who worked on it in this post-war decade.
The next stage of my research was the study of the filing for the 1950s of the regional newspaper, which during its existence was renamed several times and at different times was called “Iskra” (1931-1934), “Shchekinsky Miner” (1936-1954) and “Banner of Communism” "(since 1955) (now the newspaper is called "Shchekinsky Chemist"). In the reports on the celebration of Victory Day for 1955 and 1956, there was no mention of the opening of the Eternal Flame in Pervomaisky, however, according to these reports, it is possible to reconstruct the celebration of May 9 in that period. They talk about the solemn anniversary of the 10th anniversary of the Victory, rallies that took place at mass graves and monuments. The real find was an article in the Banner of Communism dated May 12, 1957. This is how the “ceremonial meeting” was described in that festive issue:
“Here, on May 9, thousands of workers of the gas plant, the Shchekingazstroy trust and other enterprises, employees of institutions, and school students gathered here for a rally dedicated to the opening of the monument. At five o'clock in the evening, the chairman of the village council, Comrade Strizhkov, opens the meeting. The Anthem of the Soviet Union is played. There is a small marble arch in front of the warriors' grave. It is engraved on it: “The memory of you will not fade for centuries.” Pioneer Lyuba Korotkikh approaches the arch and lights a gas torch. The director of the gas plant, Comrade Jobadze, and the manager of the Shchekingazstroy trust, Comrade Volkov, remove the white cloth from the monument - and a sculptural group is presented in front of thousands of people gathered: on a marble pedestal, two warriors with bare heads. One, bowed, holds a wreath, and the other holds a battle banner. On the pedestal is inscribed in gold: “Eternal glory to the heroic warriors of the Soviet army and partisans who fell in battles for the freedom and independence of our Motherland in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.” The floor is given to the Secretary of the Shchekino City Committee of the CPSU, Comrade Ukhabov. He talks about the glorious military exploits performed by the Soviet people under the leadership of the Communist Party during the Great Patriotic War. Representatives of the workers speak one after another: Comrade Rakhmanov, manager of the Shchekingazstroy trust, Comrade Volkov, deputy chairman of the factory committee of the gas plant, Comrade Pisarevskaya, fourth-grade student Bazdereva. Representatives of enterprises, institutions, public organizations, and schools lay wreaths at the foot of the monument. Three-time fireworks go off. The mournful melody is replaced by the powerful wave of the Anthem of the Soviet Union. The rally is over. The memory of the soldiers who gave their lives for our beloved Motherland will never fade in the hearts of Soviet people.”
It follows from the article that on the evening of May 9, 1957, six months earlier than on the Field of Mars, in the village of Pervomaisky, Shchekinsky district, Tula region, at the opening of a memorial to those who fell in the battles for the liberation of their homeland in the Great Patriotic War, the Eternal Flame was lit. Thus, it is the first Eternal Flame in the USSR, dedicated to the memory of the heroes of the Great Patriotic War, and in general - the first Eternal Flame in the USSR.
I was interested not only in the question of the opening date, but also in the authorship of the monument. In the work of the bibliographer of the Shchekino Municipal Central Library, dedicated to all the memorials of the Great Patriotic War in the Shchekino region, there is information that the monument was made at the Kaluga Plant of Monumental Sculpture (now the Kaluga Sculpture Factory) and its author is unknown. The monument was accepted for state protection on April 9, 1969 by decision of the Tuloblis Executive Committee. In this work, 1957 is indicated as the year of the “capital equipment of the grave”: the installation of a sculptural monument and the Eternal Flame, which is listed in the inventory of the memorial as an “unquenchable torch.”
According to the historical information on the village’s website and the memoirs of Pyotr Sharov, the sculptural group was ordered from Kyiv architectural workshops, and the design of the pedestal and layout were developed by the plant’s managers together with the architect Ekaterina Nezhurbida. Granite, facing and tombstone slabs were brought from Moscow. The first gas for the flare was supplied from a gas plant, then it was switched to natural gas.
I had an idea about how the discrepancy in dating could have occurred after I got acquainted with the registration cards of war memorials with burials at the military commissariat for the Tula region in the Shchekinsky district. According to these documents, in the Shchekinsky district there are 17 military graves, which were built from 1949 to 1971. Among them, 14 monuments were made at the Kaluga Plant of Monumental Sculpture, as evidenced by their registration cards - in some cases it is indicated that the author is unknown or that this is mass production. The card for the May Day memorial only notes that the author is unknown, but does not indicate the place of manufacture, and also indicates 1957 as the date of creation. This may have confused the compiler of a very detailed publication about the area's memorials.
In local history literature and local periodicals, I looked not only for dates, but also for references emphasizing that the May Day Eternal Flame was the first in the USSR. I only discovered this in an article by the secretary of the Komsomol committee of the Azot plant, which also repeats the opening date of the memorial in 1956 and emphasizes the assistance of Sergei Jobadze in implementing this initiative:
“The war left many such monuments in central Russia, but this monument is special. Exactly 24 years ago, on May 9, 1957, the Eternal Flame was lit over the grave. This was the first Eternal Flame for the heroes of the Great Patriotic War. It was lit by workers of the gas plant, now the Azot production association. […] Despite the difficult situation with construction, the former director of the gas plant S.A. Jobadze and the manager of the Shchekingazstroy trust V.A. Volkov allocated funds for the construction of the monument and specialist builders.”
Subsequent publications also talk about the construction of the monument in 1956 and that it was the first Eternal Flame in the USSR:
“In September 1956, this monument was built by the staff of the Shchekino Gas Plant. And then, for the first time in our country, it was here that the Eternal Flame was lit over a mass grave.”
Pyotr Sharov especially emphasizes in his memoirs that this Eternal Flame “was lit for the first time in the Soviet Union. And it was the workers of our factory who did this.”
Only the Shchekinazot veterans’ council helped me shed light on the confusing situation with the dates: as it turned out, the memorial was opened twice. On May 9, 1957, the second opening took place, timed to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution, and the first opening of the monument and the lighting of the Eternal Flame took place in September 1956 and was dedicated to the 15th anniversary of the liberation of Shchekin and Yasnaya Polyana from the Germans. fascist invaders (December 1941).
According to the recollections of my informant, in September 1956 a solemn meeting was held, which was attended by a lot of people. The event was supervised by the Shchekino military registration and enlistment office. The fire was lit by the military: either personnel or participants in the Great Patriotic War, front-line soldiers with the right to wear military uniforms. At that time, the memorial was not fully landscaped (apparently, the perimeter and borders around the monument, the Eternal Flame and mass graves were not fully designed), the design of the burner itself was temporary: household gas for the torch was supplied from the factory. In 1957, it was connected to a compressor station with natural gas, and the memorial acquired its final appearance, which it retained with minor changes until reconstruction in 2013.
It should be noted that neither in the funds of the former party archive of the Tula region (now the Center for Contemporary History) - the archives of the Azot production association and the Shchekino Komsomol - nor in the minutes of meetings of the Shchekino City Executive Committee (Shchekino Municipal Archive) did I find any direct evidence of the opening of the monument and the lighting of the Eternal Flame. A search in the funds of the State Archive of the Russian Federation also did not produce any results.
The main experts on the history of the memorial were employees of the local history museum; they gave interviews to journalists and organized a traveling museum exhibition at the “return” ceremony of the Eternal Flame. According to the director of the museum, war and labor veterans who lived and worked in the village in the 1950s were interviewed. It turned out that there were almost no living witnesses to the lighting of the fire: some had memory failures - which is not surprising, given their venerable age; someone remembered only the opening of the monument, but did not remember the moment of lighting; someone remembered the crying of women during the reburial of the remains of the fallen. Conflicting versions have been expressed. Only one veteran was able to remember that the Eternal Flame was lit on May 9, 1955, and two years later, in 1957, a monument was erected. The director of the museum was told that the Eternal Flame was the first in the USSR by the head of the May Day film club at the House of Culture, who is no longer alive. The museum staff also made an attempt to find either the mature pioneer who lit the Eternal Flame, or information about her, for which an advertisement was placed in the local newspaper. It turned out that she died in a traffic accident in the 1970s. The museum is inclined to believe that the Eternal Flame was lit in 1955, and the monument was unveiled in 1957, since in the same archival photograph that captured the opening of the memorial, the monument is not yet there, although the angle suggests its presence.
The first May Day Eternal Flame did not become the main one not only in the USSR, but even in the Tula region, although other fires were lit from it - but only within the Shchekino region. So, on May 9, 1975, a torch with fire from the village of Pervomaisky was delivered by car to the city of Shchekino. On that day, the obelisk stela “To the Shchekin warriors who died in battles for their Motherland during the Great Patriotic War” was unveiled and the Eternal Flame was lit, and at the same time the Eternal Flame was lit at the mass grave in the city of Sovetsk, Shchekinsky district. The eternal flame in Tula was already lit from the flame from the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Kremlin wall in October 1968.
Concluding remarks
The first monuments created on Soviet territory during the war were tombstones on the graves of Red Army soldiers; they were made mainly in the form of pyramid-obelisks topped with a star. The materials from which they were made were the most accessible at that time: wood, stone, brick, plaster, concrete, and sometimes iron. The first military sculptural monuments in the USSR began to be erected in the territories liberated by the Red Army. Researchers have noted characteristic trends in the monumental memorialization of each post-war decade. For example, it is believed that in the 1950s the most common was the creation of individual monuments to fallen heroes (Alexander Matrosov in Velikiye Luki, Young Guards in Krasnodon, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya in Moscow). And the second half of the 1960s (after the large-scale celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Victory) is called the time of widespread creation of memorial complexes with a repeating set of visual images.
How have these trends been implemented in local contexts? As a veteran of the search movement told me, under the leadership of local military personnel, collective farmers collected and searched for the remains of fallen soldiers for workdays. The regional military commissariat was in charge of the burials. According to his archival information, on April 2, 1945, in the Shchekinsky district there were 2 mass graves and 15 individual graves, and in May 1946 there were already 17 mass graves and 8 individual graves.
On April 5, 1945 and May 29, 1946, the executive committee of the Shchekino district executive committee of workers' deputies approved the resolution “On the improvement and cultural maintenance of mass and individual officer and Red Army graves located in the region,” according to which it obliged all village council chairmen to clarify the number of graves on their territories and entrusted the protection and maintenance of graves to specific collective farms. The production of fences, pyramid monuments and tablets with inscriptions, the equipment of graves (turf and flowers, planting trees) were entrusted to collective farms, mines and enterprises located on the territory of the village council. It was also ordered to involve the local Komsomol organization in the repair and “loving courtship” of the graves. Subsequently, the enterprises and schools supervising them were assigned to each memorial. By 1970, only three of the seventeen mass graves had not had their obelisks replaced with monuments, which was corrected a year later. In the 1990s, the memorials were transferred to the balance of local administrations, and their condition began to be controlled by regional military commissariats. In accordance with the Law of the Russian Federation dated January 14, 1993 No. 4292-1 “On perpetuating the memory of those killed in defense of the Fatherland” and the order of the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation dated April 10, 1993 No. 185 “On measures to implement” this law, before May 9 the military commissariat sends heads of district administrations request to conduct surveys of memorials and provide written reports on their condition.
Memorials in large cities were created by famous sculptors and architects, their designs preserved either in private or state archives. The history of such monuments is less controversial, since they have been the focus of attention since their creation (reference books, guidebooks, newspaper articles, sets of postcards). Monuments in small settlements, as a rule, are standard mass-produced monuments, however, they are much more variable in terms of visual images than it might seem at first glance. For example, in the Shchekinsky district there are more than twenty different sculptural monuments dedicated to those who fell in the Great Patriotic War, and in only two cases the names of the authors are known.
At the beginning of my research, I sought to reconstruct how things “really” were, so that the pieces of the puzzle would connect, without the contradictions that so confused me in various sources. My initial desire to find out in what year the Eternal Flame was lit gradually faded away, as I came to the conclusion that this was simply impossible. I cannot say with complete certainty which document or whose testimony is the most comprehensive and convincing. At first, I was inclined to the version of May 9, 1957, since the archived issue of the newspaper with a report on the opening of the monument and the lighting of the Eternal Flame seemed to me the most reliable source (as they told me in the archive: “There is a document, there is a fact”). Then I learned about the first opening of the monument in September 1956 and the second one in 1957, timed to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the revolution, and this version explained many remaining questions and also seemed quite plausible. Nevertheless, over and over again I peered at the photograph in which the director of the plant and the pioneer lit the unquenchable torch, compared it with other old photographs of the memorial, turned on my spatial imagination and agreed with the museum staff that from this angle the monument should have entered the frame if If only he were standing there at this time, but he is not.
Now, almost two years after the start of the research, I am not thinking about what year the Eternal Flame was lit on May Day, but about how the memory of a particular event is preserved and transmitted. How to determine the degree of its significance in the local history of a single locality? Does it depend on the scale of the event and how to evaluate this scale? How and for how long is the memory of an event retained? How many years will eyewitnesses remember him, how detailed will their descendants have an idea of him almost 60 years later? What evidence will the archives preserve?
On the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Victory, interest in memorials and their fate is especially great. Retrospectively, the lighting of the first Eternal Flame in the USSR is a significant event, and not only on the scale of the district and region. But was it perceived in a similar way at the moment when it happened, did contemporaries notice it, and how can we judge it now? I suggest that a given event, on the one hand, can be considered as a potential “site of memory,” that is, “a significant unity of a material or ideal order which the will of people or the work of time has transformed into a symbolic element of the heritage of memory of some community.” On the other hand, using his example one can trace the transition from individual-communicative memory to collective-cultural memory and vice versa
The eternal flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the Alexander Garden has been burning for fifty years: it was lit on May 8, 1967. Why does it never go out? The answer is known to the person who participated in the development of the unquenchable burner.
“I can’t say about ‘never’,” smiles the inventor of the Eternal Flame burner, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Honored Inventor of Russia Kirill Reader,— but the resource will last for a long time!”
Half a century ago, a group of young employees of the Mosgazproekt research department received an important task from the Moscow City Council: in 2.5 months, invent and construct a device that would become one of the symbols of Victory.
“We were “children of war,” recalls Kirill Fedorovich, “so this work had special meaning for us. We survived the war too young and, due to our age, did not have time to do anything for Victory. Therefore, our contribution to it had to be the Eternal Flame, which, with our help, would perpetuate the memory of the heroes in the very center of Moscow. We had to come up with a burner that would work in any weather conditions, including rain, snow, and strong wind loads. A whole series of samples were prepared, we compared, selected the best, spent a long time calculating, experimenting, and arguing. We were young, but well-trained and well-trained, and also hardworking: we came to work early in the morning and left with the last tram. My mother called me “tenant” because I only came home to spend the night. There was a lot to do, but I always liked this lifestyle. He hasn't changed over time. My wife is not offended: she has long been accustomed to the fact that I am constantly at work...”
Kirill Reader and General Director of Mosgaz OJSC Hasan Gasangadzhiev during the maintenance of the Eternal Flame burner in the Alexander Garden. Photo: RIA Novosti / Ilya Pitalev
How it works
Fifty years ago, the conditions were difficult, the order was difficult, but young scientists managed, and now the fire can withstand winds of up to 18 meters per second. The secret of the “eternity” of the fire lies not only in the burner itself, but also in careful care of the device. Once a month, late in the evening, when the flow of tourists and walkers in the Alexander Garden dries up, a team of employees of JSC MOSGAZ comes to the Eternal Flame. They bring with them a temporary burner (a device the size of a household gas stove), onto which they transfer the fire from its main place with a special torch, and then stop the gas supply to the main burner. The eternal flame continues to burn, simply moving to another place, this does not harm it at all. Meanwhile, the main burner is inspected, thoroughly cleaned and all necessary technical manipulations are carried out. The whole procedure takes no more than 40 minutes, after which the gas supply is resumed, and the flame is transferred to a permanent “eternal” place using the same torch.
“This responsible attitude allows you to operate the burner without any unpleasant consequences,” says Reeder. — Sometimes we get calls from other cities: they say, help, what to do, the fire at the memorial goes out, and not even 10 years have passed! Of course, we help with advice and consult. But the main thing here is proper care. And this is precisely what is often missing.”
Reader invented and developed another famous Eternal Flame in Moscow: the one that burns today on Poklonnaya Hill. Wind loads there are much more serious, but the burner is ready to withstand gusts even up to 58 m/sec (this is already a hurricane wind). So there is no doubt that the fire dedicated to the warriors of the holy war will never go out.
Guard of honor at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, 1982. Photo: RIA Novosti / Runov
The future of heating technology
The invention of the Eternal Flame burner is, of course, a very serious milestone in Kirill Fedorovich’s career, but not the only one. He begins to remember everything that he invented and developed in his life (boiler houses located on the roofs of multi-storey buildings, burners for burning biogas at aeration stations, devices for burning combinations of natural gas and fuel oil), and considers each invention important and interesting. A man who has worked for many years at MosgazNIIproekt and is trying to make human life warmer in the literal sense, is now doing the same thing: trying to economically and safely warm as many people as possible. Reader is the general director of the Ecoteplogaz enterprise. There are only two entries in his work book.
An interesting fact: at his dacha he installed a domestically produced heating boiler. “My neighbor comes to me and wonders why his foreign boiler, worth 30 thousand dollars, goes out every now and then, while mine, worth 9 thousand rubles, burns properly! — Kirill Fedorovich laughs. — But the fact is that imported units cannot withstand gas pressure drops in the networks, while ours tolerate them well. Changes occur during a sharp cold snap, when gas production increases significantly. Nothing can be done about this fact; these are the characteristics of our climate. Russian developers of heating equipment know this and provide for such a nuance in their products.”
According to Reeder, the future of heating engineering lies in hydrogen fuel. Scientists have been working on the problem of burning hydrogen for many years, and sooner or later they will solve it. Reader has no plans to retire yet. His work experience has already spanned 55 years, but there is no talk of rest in the foreseeable future. “No, I won’t retire, it’s boring! - he says. “I get up in the morning in a good mood, I always go to work with pleasure, which I love very much, and along the way I make plans for the day. In general, I’m happy with a lot.”
This is the “perpetual motion machine” of the inventor of the Eternal Flame.