Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Mogila Neizvestnovo Soldata)

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Mogila Neizvestnovo Soldata) Review

Dedicated on May 9, 1967, the 22nd anniversary of the Russian victory over Germany in World War II, this red-granite monument within Alexander Garden contains the body of an unidentified Soviet soldier, one of those who, in autumn 1941, stopped the German attack at the village of Kryukovo, just outside Moscow. To the right of the grave there are six urns holding soil from the six "heroic cities" that so stubbornly resisted the German onslaught: Odessa, Sevastopol, Stalingrad, Kiev, Brest, and Leningrad (St. Petersburg). Very likely, no matter what time of year you are visiting, you'll see at least one wedding party. The young couple in full wedding regalia, along with friends and family, customarily stops here after getting married, leaving behind flowers and snapping photographs along the way. The gray obelisk just beyond the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was erected in 1918 to commemorate the Marxist theoreticians who contributed to the Bolshevik Revolution. It was created out of an obelisk that had been put up three years earlier, in honor of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty.