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Nevsky Memorial "Zhuravli" (“Cranes”) is dedicated to residents of Leningrad under blockade and fallen heroes of the Great Patriotic War. The author of the project is Leonid Mogelevsky, the Honored Artist of Russia. The memorial is located on the Dalnevostochny Avenue of St. Petersburg.
On the site of the memorial construction there was previously the Nevsky Cemetery. During the years of the blockade, about 50,000 deceased Leningrad civilians, as well as the defenders of the city, were buried here in mass graves.
"It seems to me at times
That the soldiers did not come from bloody fields,
Have once gone not into our land,
But turned into white cranes..."
As if echoing the words of the song, this penetrating memorial represents pain and sadness for those who died during the war.
The main part of the composition is a 27-meter wall of light dolomite, where bronze sculpture figures of flying cranes are fixed. On the wall there is an inscription calling now living people to be worthy of the sacred memory of heroes who protected life.
The inscription in bronze letters on stele with cranes calls
MEMORY OF FALLEN HEROES, DEFENDERS OF LIFE, IS SACRED,
BE WORTHY OF ITS BRIGHT FEATS OF ITS LIFE.
The other part of the ensemble is a bronze sculpture of a sitting girl with a wreath on her knees. Her figure looks if frozen in a mournful bow, she is looking towards the obelisk this is another element of the memorial.
The Obelisk was a granite column topped with an urn installed shortly after the end of the war, in 1949. Behind there is another stela, on which the words of the poet-frontline Mikhail Dudin are knocked out: "Stronger steel and stone was your resilience, heroes, glory of courage your proud stores Leningrad." Under the column there is a memorial plaque on one side of the pedestal, the inscription on which tells about who is buried here.
The project was confirmed of in 1977, works were carried out by the method of folk construction in the late 1970s. The memorial was opened in 1980. The architects that took part in the work on the creation of the memorial complex are:
David Goldgor - head of one of Lenproject 's workshops
Henri Alanne - the ex-chief architect of Leningrad
Nevsky military cemetery is now an object of cultural heritage.
