Why is it referred to as "The Great Patriotic War"?

[mendeleyev]

To give readers more of a glimpse of how deeply the Great Patriotic War and the horrors of that period remain a part of the common citizen, I'll take you to a monument at Metro Dubrovka. I like to shop at Dubrovka because it is a place where industry meets retail. The factories around this district are concentrated on auto parts and clothing. Items made here include shoes and luggage along with mufflers and brake pads.

Metro Dubrovka is not far from the Mendeleyev Journal and we can go there quickly by Metro, bus, Marshrutka, or trolleybus. Today we'll go by Metro.



Just prior to exiting the station at street level you'll see the "Exit to City" sign and then under it the name of the street, Sharikopodshipnikovsku (Шарикоподшипниковскую) as in Sharikopodshipnikovskaya ultiza.



Upon exiting the Metro we look across the street and as you can see from the top of one of the buildings the words for clothing, shoes, etc. Inside are shop after shop of individual small stores, typically run by Caucasian merchants selling everything from shoes to jackets to socks to luggage to smaller items like the custom Russian Federation passport holder that I use for my US passport and which confounds American Customs officials every time I grace their booths.



Here on street level is the Metro station on the photo immediately below. (All photos: Mendeleyev Journal. Click on photo to enlarge.)



To our right and adjacent to the Metro station is a small area dedicated to the citizens who lost their lives at the Ball-bearing factory that was located where we're standing. You see, that long and difficult to pronounce street name means "ball bearing" and on this site is a memorial to the workers of Ball Bearing factory #1 who perished in the Great Patriotic War.




The names of each ball-bearing factory worker who died in the Great Patriotic War is listed on the wall behind this monument. Each day you can see fresh flowers placed at the base of the monument and it is not uncommon to watch passersby stroll past then stop momentarily to pay their respects to those who gave their lives while supplying the Red Army over 60 years ago.


(Some of you may remember this Metro station and the Ball Bearing factory for a more modern tragedy--the Moscow Theatre site is nearby where on 23 October 2002 a group of 41 heavily armed Chechen rebels took stormed into the museum area of of the Ball-Bearing factory taking hostages who were put on a bus and driven to the Dubrovka theatre. With a total of 850 hostages from the factory and the theatre audience, the rebels demanded that Russia end the war on Chechnya. President Putin authorized a still undisclosed gas be pumped into the theatre on the third day of the siege. The gas killed all 41 Chechens and 130 of the hostages, including 9 foreigners.)

[Boethius]

mendy, VDay is a huge celebration in Kyiv, as well.  My better half 's neighbourhood had a fair number of veterans, many with every medal imaginable.  One was a tank driver, who drove to Berlin and back.  His wife was a nurse who met him on the front.  My husband knew many, many Red Army soldiers, including his Grandfather, who suffered a horrific injury on the front.  He was the only one in his foxhole to have survived, and I recall the war medals which his Grandmother displayed prominently after Grandfather's death.

Stalin is making some comeback in parts of Ukraine, as well.  The reason there is because of order and security.  The fear is unknown, most of his victims are deceased, so it's easy to ignore the terror.
 

[mendeleyev]

Some of our readers may know that my wife is an artist, spending several years as the principal artist-in-residence at the Moscow Gallery of Fine Art and currently in private practice as well as serving as one of the artists in residence for the Hero Recognition programme for the Central Museum of the Armed Forces. The Hero Recognition programme engages a core of artists whose task is to paint portraits of the surviving decorated heroes from the Great Patriotic War.

Mrs. Mendeleyeva is one of a small group of artists currently working on this project which began three years ago. The artist is assigned a group of veterans in their home region although as a senior artist in the project she has done some travel to meet heroes in other regions. Interviews are conducted and recorded and hundreds of photos are taken as portraits are generally produced based on both the in-person interviews and the photos.

Once a portrait is completed the subject/hero is invited to assist in final production with the selection of a frame. A presentation unveiling date is scheduled at the museum and the hero and their family and friends are treated as honoured guests. The museum keeps the original portrait which is signed by the artist and the subject. The hero receives a high quality copy signed by the artist. In some cases due to ages of the heroes, the portrait is completed after their passing and the presentation is made to their families in the same museum setting.

Portraits remain for a time in the museum hero recognition display and then are circulated on loan to other museums across Russia and the former republics. Here is one of Mrs. Mendeleyeva's completed works:

Portrait of “The Guardsman”

This is the story of a real Russian hero, Vasily Petrovich Maslennikov, Guardian Senior Lieutenant-technician with his portrait titled "The Guardsman" by artist Aida.



Vasily Petrovich Maslennikov was born at Shemelenky, a small Russian village on 24 December 1922. He graduated from the Vyscoco village school №1 in the Ramenskoye region southeast of Moscow. After graduation he studied from 1939 to 1941 at the Army Tank Technical school in Leningrad (Saint Petersburg).

When the German Nazis invaded Russia, Vasily served in the Soviet Red Army during the Great Patriotic War from 1941 to 1945. Vasily proved himself to be a talented and determined officer and was given command of a strategic reconnaissance operation.

Vasily’s unit covertly slipped behind enemy lines and on the nights of 24 and 25 January 1945, took the Germans by surprise by commandeering three armored personnel carriers and three tanks to drive a wedge between the German forces along the Varta River in Poland.

This reconnaissance detachment headed by Maslennikov broke into the German army's defenses while forcing the enemy from a strategically important bridge on the Varta River. His unit battled the German forces guarding the bridge, took control of the structure and then cleared it of mines. Maslennikov’s company held the bridge for over fifteen hours while under continual attack from both directions until help arrived from the first Ukrainian Army.

Breaking the German defenses saved the two Polish cities Kshevchuv and Velyun from planned destruction and opened a route to Berlin for the Soviet Red Army. As a sign of gratitude Senior Lieutenant Maslennikov was honored with the title of Honorary Citizen of Velyun.

Throughout the rest of the war, Senior Lieutenant Maslennikov was an officer of the reconnaissance group of the 3rd Guard Tank division of the First Ukrainian front. On the way to Reichskanzlei he was severely wounded during a fierce tank battle in Berlin. His recovery was called a miracle. Maslennikov was only 23 when he returned home from the war, decorated with numerous medals, Soviet orders and a trophy accordion.

Despite all the honors inside he wondered how he would live. “Medals are not potatoes; you cannot eat them nor put them to bed.” He questioned how an amputee, a soldier with only one leg could find a job and lead a useful life.

Vasily recalled that Varvara (Saint Barbara) came to him and whispered gently “It’s me who needs you. I have been waiting for you during the entire war, this accursed war”. Then she cried…

Vasily began to play his accordion again and soon thereafter was enlisted to process aircraft test results for flights at the Flight Research Institute, home to the MAKS International Air Space shows. For forty-seven years, Vasily has processed practically all the test results from this flight facility.



A pleased artist announced that the painting was ready for framing.

Today Vasily Petrovich Maslennikov is in his 90s, sustained by the protection of the Mother of God. His beautiful and clean hands folded on his knees. His memory holds scenes of terrible tank attacks, of fallen soldiers in battles for the Motherland and his friends.

He will never forget the bridge over Poland’s Varta river, the cities saved by the Red Army, his medals of honour, the encounter with the holy Saint Varvara and flying aircraft all seem to fill the air behind his shoulders.



Each Victory Day, 9 May, Maslennikov wears his medals.

He posed for the artist with calm, his hair a sunset golden haze. His head is slightly titled back as the question is asked, would you do it all again? The answer was already in his eyes -- yes!