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| Peace Monuments in Russia |
Peace Monuments in Russia
& Other Countries of Eastern Europe
(including Albania, Armenia, Bosnia
& Herzegovina, Czech Republic,
Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan,
Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Serbia,
Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine
& Uzbekistan)
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| 1999 - Bell of Peace, International Centre of Culture (The Pyramid), Boulevard Deshmoret e Kombit, Tirana (Albania). "Made as a memorial to peace by the children of Shkodra. Its metal comes from thousands of bullet cartridges, fired off during the lawless 1990's." "Originally the mausoleum for Stalinist dictator Enver Hoxha [1908-1985], the Pyramid has seen the eviction of Hoxha's corporeal remains and the burgeoning of Albania's interest in the culture and arts."
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|   Future - Balkans Peace Park Project (BPPP), three nation area (Albania, Kosovo/a & Montenegro). Includes Shala Valley. Chair of the project is Antonia Young, University of Bradford, Bradford (England). Support is provided by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Austrian Development Corporation
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| Date? - Peace Monument, Haghtanak Park (Victory Park), top of Cascade, Yerevan (Armenia). "The park is named Victory Park in commemoration of Soviet Armenia's participation in the second World War. The park is a large forested area with an artificial lake, an amusement park, cafes, the Mayr Hayastan statue and museum, and sweeping views of central Yerevan ."
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| 1968 - Tsitsernakapert Erevan / Tsitsernakaberd Armenian Genocide Memorial, Yerevan (Armenia). "44 meter stele symbolizing the national rebirth of Armenians. 12 slabs are positioned in a circle, representing the 12 lost provinces in present day Turkey. In the center of the circle, at a depth of 1.5 meters, there is an eternal flame." "Sits on the site of a Iron Age fortress, all above-ground trace of which seems to have disappeared." Ceremony marking 95th anniversry of the genocide took place here on April 23, 2010 (right image)."
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| U S E U M | 1995 -
Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute (AGMI), Tsitsernakaberd ("Swallow Castle"), Yerevan, Central Armenia (Armenia). Adjacent to the Genocide Memorial. "Testimony to the 1915 destruction."
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| U S E U M |   "Before 2011" - Armenian Genocide Museum of America (AGMA), 615-14th Street, NW, Washington, DC (USA). "Will be the premier institution in the USA dedicated to educating American and international audiences about the Armenian Genocide and its continuing consequences. Visitors will come to understand the Armenian Genocide as the prototype for modern crimes against humanity, including the Holocaust, Cambodia, Rwanda, and Darfur."
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| E L L |  Fall 2000 - Nagasaki Peace Bell, Red Church, Nezalezhnastsi/Independence Square, Minsk (Belarus). Western style bell as at Urakami Cathedral. Named "Angel." Gift to the Red Church & Belarussian people by diocese of the Roman Catholic Church of Nagasaki
(Japan). 
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| A R K E R | November 30, 2002 - Peace Marker Bosnia-Herzegovin (Point of Peace #2), Zenica Museum of Art, Zenica, (Bosnia & Herzegovina). One of eight Worldwide Peace Markers.
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| Date? - Peace Monument, Sarajevo (Bosnia & Herzegovina). "A strange monument dedicated to the struggle for peace after the [1992-1996] war in Bosnia." Two different monuments?
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Peace Monument, Serbian Orthodox Cathedral, Sarajevo (Bosnia & Herzegovina). Constructed recently.
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|  1954 - Horsewoman (Monument of Peace), United Nations, New York, NY (USA). "One of the symbols of the United Nations that everybody knows is... a sculpture created by Antun Augustincic [1900-1979]. It was given as a gift to the UN and it is situated in front of the main building in New York. The basement of the monument is made of the marble from the Croatian island of Brac. The equestrian statue was cast in the city of Zagreb, capital of Croatia."  
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| A I R N | U S E U M | 1912 - Pamatnik Mohyla Míru / Cairn of Peace & Muzeum Brnenska / Brno Regional Museum, Prace, Moravia (Czech Republic). "85-foot monument commemorates Battle of Austerlitz (aka Battle of the Three Emperors), December 2, 1805, when Napoleon defeated the Austrian & Russian coalition, leading to the Peace of Pressburg (Bratislava). Within the memorial there is a chapel and small museum (moderized in 2005), while on the outside, four female statues symbolize France, Austria, Russia and Moravia." Member of International Network of Museums for Peace (INMP).
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| A L L | November? 1980 - John Lennon Peace Wall, Diplomatic Quarter, Prague (Czech Republic). "Though Lennon never visited the Bohemian capitol, he was a pacifist hero for the Czech subculture during the totalitarian era. In the decade following the collapse of Communism, the Lennon Wall came to represent not only a memorial to Lennon and his ideas, but also a monument to free speech and the non-violent rebellion of Czech youth against the repressions of neo-Stalinism. Under the ever watchful eyes of the Communist secret police, an anonymous group of Prague youth set up a mock grave for the ex-Beatle."
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1990's - Memorial to the Child Victims of the War (Lidice Memorial), Lidice, (Czech Republic). 82 bronze statues of children (42 girls and 40 boys) aged 1 to 16 honoring the children who the Nazis murdered at the Chelmno extrermination camp in the summer of 1942. By "academic sculptor" Marie Uchytilová.
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|  April 1988 - - The Peace Tree, Garden for Peace #1, Swan Woods Trail, Atlanta History Center, 130 West Paces Ferry Road, Atlanta, Georgia (USA). 14-foot life-size bronze statue created by Gia (Georgi?) Japaridze, an artist from sister city Tbilisi (Republic of Georgia).
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| May 24, 1989 - Garden for Peace #2, Tibilisi (Georgia). Created by sister city Atlanta, Georgia (USA). Image shows Atlanta mayor Andrew Young.
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 | May 28, 1933 - Hungary Mourns Her Lost Children," Debrecen (Hungary). "In an act of reconciliation, the statue was carved by Frenchman Emile Guillaume and offered to Debrecen by British Viscount Lord Rothermere." Guillaume also sculpted La Délivrance (qv). 
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| 1947 - Peace Statue, Castle Hill, Budapest (Hungary). Overlooks the city. 14 meter tall bronze statue atop a 26 meter pedestal. Female figure holds a palm branch overhead. Designed by Zsigmond Kisfaludi to commemorate the liberation of Hungary during WW-II by the Soviets and originally called Szabadság-szobor / Liberty Statue. Today a symbol of peace. 
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| April 15, 2008 - Gong Perdamaian Dunia / World Peace Gong (WPG), Godollo, Magyarország (Hungary). One of several WPG's placed in different countries by an organization in Indonesia. 
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| June 2006 - Palace of Peace & Reconciliation, Astana (Kazakhstan). Also known as Palace of Peace & Accord. First used for Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions. Click here for info about a nearby statue of President Nursultan Nazarbayev dedicated on October 20, 2009.
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| 1992 - Chiune Sugihara Memorial, Vilnius (Lithuania). By Vladas Vildžiunas and Goichi Kutogawa. Shiune Sugihara [1900-1986] was a Japanese diplomat who helped thousands of Jews leave the Soviet Union while serving as consul of the Empire of Japan in Lithuania. Vilnius is called "The Jerusalem of Lithuania."
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| U S E U M | December 1999? - Sugihara House-Museum, 30 Vaizganto Street, Kaunas/Kovnos (Lithuania). Two-story residence at which Jewish refugees once lined up in their hundreds to receive visas form Shiune Sugihara [1900-1986], consul of the Empire of Japan in Lithuania. Kaunas is Lithuania's second largest city.
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| 1655 & 1657 - Churches of Peace, Jawor and Swidnica (Poland). "The largest timber-framed religious buildings in Europe and a symbol of religious tolerance from the 17th century. After the Peace of Westphalia (1648), the Protestants in Silesia were allowed by the Habsburg Roman Catholic emperor to build three churches. Restrictions were that they had to be constructed outside the city walls, made of wood or clay and built in less than a year. The architect responsible for all three was Albrecht von Sabisch [1610-1688]. The churches had to be big enough to be a true place of refuge for the Protestant population. He designed wooden buildings that had never been seen before in complexity and size. The church in Glogów burned in 1758 The other two in Jawor and Swidnica were restored by Polish-German cooperation."
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About 1950 - Massacre Memorial, Jedwabne (Poland). Left image shows "a group of rabbis plac[ing] stones on top of the memorial monument in Jedwabne.
Gross's 2001 book on the subject opened up the debate on Polish anti-Semitism." The Jedwabne pogrom (or massacre) was a massacre of at least 300 Polish Jews at Jedwabne in German occupied Poland in July 1941. "Polish-American historian Jan T. Gross concluded that Germans were not present at the time of the crime and that the only perpetrators were Polish Gentiles."
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July 1969 - Mainanek Memorial, Lublin (Poland). Least changed of the Nazi extermination camps.
"On the 25th anniversary of its liberation [by the Russian army], a large monument designed by Victor Tolkin was constructed at the site. It consists of two parts: a large gate monument at the camp's entrance (left image) & a large mausoleum (right image) holding ashes of the victims at its opposite end."
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| May 9, 1971 -
Pomnik Martyrologii Dzieci / Monument of Children's Martyrdom, Park Szarych Szeregow / Gray Ranks, Marysinska, Lodz (Poland). Also called Broken Heart Monument. Dedicated on the 26th anniversary of Poland's victory over Germany. Commemorates the martyrdom of thousands of child prisoners who died here in a German concentration camp (Ghetto Litzmannstadt) during WW-II. Designed by Jadwiga Janus. Inscriptions: "Your life was taken, today we give You only memory" and "May it pass on to future generations our common cry: no more war, no more camps."
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 | U S E U M | Date? - Maria Sklodowska-Curie Museum, Freta Street 16, "Old Town," Warsaw (Poland). Replica of birthplace & former home of Marie Sklodowska [1867-1934]. (Original house destroyed by Germans after the Warsaw Uprising in 1944.) Marie lived in Poland until age 24, then moved to Paris, married Pierre Curie [1859-1906], and received two Nobel prizes -- for chemistry in 1903 and for physics in 1911.
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| Date? - "Nigdy Wiecej Wojny / Never Again War," Westerplatte Peninsula, Gdansk (Poland). Where the German war against Poland began on September 1, 1939. Seventieth anniversary ceremony here notably lacked high-level US representation.
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| September 1989 - World Peace Bell #4, Warsaw Municipal Park, Warsaw (Poland). One of 20 WPB's placed in 16 different countries by the World Peace Bell Association of Tokyo, Japan.
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 | 1980 -
Monument, Gdansk (Poland). "Honors shipyard workers killed in Gdansk, the Baltic sea port, by government troops during unrest in 1970 which was triggered by food prices. The only monument built by a Communist government to victims of its own repression. Note that it consists of three tall crosses on which anchors are crucified."
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| U S E U M | 2000 - Solidarity Museum, Gdansk (Poland). Opened on the 20th anniversary of the 1980 shipyard strikes, traces the history of the Solidarity movement and Poland's struggle to wriggle out of the grip of communism. The 'Roads to Freedom' multimedia exhibit consists of two parts; in the outdoor portion you'll see a section of the Berlin Wall beside the wall Lech Walesa climbed to lead the shipyard workers, an armoured tank used to put down demonstrations and more. Inside, elaborate dioramas and props recreate the bare cupboards and empty shop shelves with only lard and vinegar of Poland in the 80s."
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| Spring 2004 - Statue of Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Polish Embassy, Washington, DC (USA).
Life-sized, weighs approximately 400 pounds. Created by renowned sculptor Jessie Corsaut at the Monterey Sculpture Center in California. Donated by Harry E. Blythe III, a well known philanthropist, who owns the San Ignacio Estate in Paso Robles, California (formerly owned by Paderewski). Temporarily installed in the embassy garden until it can be relocated to a permanent public setting in the city. Ignacy Jan Paderewski [1860-1941] was a legendary Polish pianist, composer and statesman. At the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, which formally concluded WW-I, Paderewski and US President Woodrow Wilson reestablished the borders of Poland with the signing and ratification of the Treaty of Versailles. Shortly thereafter, Paderewski became Poland's Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs.
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 | October 8, 2009 - Holocaust Memorial, Bucharest (Romania). "In memory of some 300,000 Jews and Gypsies killed during the Holocaust in the country... Romanian authorities set up the Elie Wiesel International Commission on the Holocaust in 2003 after one ministry in the Social Democratic government denied there had been a Holocaust in Romania during World War II."
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 | A I N T I N G | Circa 1602 - ''Allegorie des Friedens und des Uberflusses / Allegory of Peace, Art and Abundance" by Hans von Aachen [1552-1615], Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg (Russia).
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| Circa 1618 - ''The Union of Earth & Water (Antwerp and the Scheldt)" by Peter Paul Rubens [1577-1640], Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg (Russia). "The alliance of Cybele, Goddess of Earth, and Neptune, God of Victory, as the important alliance of Flanders and the sea, the River Scheldt and the city of Antwerp." 
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| 1662 - Il Figlio Prodigo / The Prodigal Son, Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg (Russia). By Harmenszoon van Rijn Rembrandt. Image is a detail of the original painting. |
| Circa 1735 - Allegory of Peace, Park of Bolshoy Catherine Palace, Tsarsoe Selo / Royal Village, 25 km south of St. Petersburg (Russia). By unknown Italian sculptor.
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| Circa 1735 - Statue of Pax, Garden of Pavlovsk Palace, St. Petersburg (Russia). By P. Baratta, "a master of the Venetian school." The palace contains "the Hall of Peace, decorated by Brenna, [which] repeats the layout and general architectural forms of the Hall of War, but is the latter's exact opposite in the motifs of its decor. It is ornamented with emblems of the arts, farming implements, sheaves of grain, basketfuls of flowers or fruit, musical instruments, clusters of grapes, cornucopias, etc.; in other words, attributes typical of the eighteenth-century cult of nature and idealization of rural life, and associated with the idea of peace."
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 | 1871 - "Apotheosis of War," Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow (Russia). Oil on canvas by Russian artist Vasily Vasilyevich Vereshchagin [1842–1904]. Dedicated by the artist "to all conquerors, past, present and to come" -- or ""to all conquerors, who were, who are, and who will be." Either way, an unambiguous condemnation of war.
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| Date? - "Blown up Tree," Saint Petersburg (Russia). Nobel monument on the bank of the River Neva. "Born in Stockholm, Alfred Nobel [1833-1896] went with his family in 1842 to Saint Petersburg, where his father (who had invented modern plywood) started a 'torpedo' works. When Alfred was 18, he went to the United States to study chemistry for four years."
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| 1954 - "Friendship of Nations" Fountain, All-Russian Exhibition Center (VVTs), Moscow (Russia). "The VVTs was foundated at 1939 as agricaltural exhibition of Soviet Union. The Fountain has gilded statues of maidens in the national costumes of the sixteen Soviet republics demurely encircle a golden wheat sheaf."
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 | 1957 - Friendship Monument, Ufa, Republic of Bashkortostan (Russia). Celebrtes the friendship alliance established some 450 years ago between the Bashkirs and the Russians.
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| 1959 - "Let Us Beat Swords into Plowshares", United Nations, New York City, New York (USA). Bronze statue sculpted by Evgeniy Vuchetich to represent the human wish to end all wars by converting the weapons of death and destruction into peaceful and productive tools that are more beneficial to mankind. Donated to the UN by the Soviet Union.
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| 1959 - Bust of Lenin, Pole of Inaccessibility, Antarctica. "You will probably never find a more perfect embodiment of Shelley's 'Ozymandias' than this story of a surprising discovery by a joint Norwegian-U.S. antarctic expedition. The team traveled to 'Inaccessibility Pole,' which lays about 550 miles from the South Pole, at the furthest point from the ocean.
Scientists trekking across a little visited part of Antarctica have discovered a bizarre relic of the Soviet Union is dominating the South Pole of Inaccessibility.
In the middle of nowhere – literally the point on Antarctica furthest from the sea – an imposing bust of revolutionary Bolshevik Vladimir Lenin [1870-1924] peers out onto the polar emptiness...
The group's website says Soviet scientists first visited the Pole in December 1958 and built a small cabin there.
After several weeks they left, putting the bust of Lenin on top of the chimney facing Moscow.
"Today the bust is clearly visible from many kilometres away, and remains as they left it on the chimney, although the cabin itself is buried under the snow," the explorers say...
They all speculated on what the bust might have been made out of; marble or concrete.
“You wouldn’t believe it. He’s plastic,” he said.
The accompanying photo is from the team's website.
As the chief architect of one of history's most genocidal regimes, a man responsible for the death of millions, it's fitting that his statue is made of plastic. And just like Shelley's Ozymandias, his memorial sits amidst a desolate wasteland."
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|  1971 - Egyptian-Russian Friendship Monument, Aswan High Dam, Nile River, Egypt. 71-meter tower designed by Soviet sculptor Ernst Neizvestny. Commemorates Soviet help in the construction of the Aswan High Dam. Also known as the Lotus Flower Tower.
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| 1986-1991 - Arctic Arc, Cape Dezhnev, Naukan (Russia) & Cape Prince of Wales, Wales, Alaska (USA). A joint project by Michigan sculptor David Barr and Alaskan artist Joe Senungetuk. Two "sculpture installations" evoking a bird, a boat, and a hand extended in friendship. About 60 miles (97 km) apart on each side of the Bering Sea at sites of the first human migrations into North America. According to Barr, "the two sculptures are a peaceful symbol for a border of international tension." |
 | June 1, 1988 - Nagasaki Peace Bell, Piskarevsky Memorial Cemetery, St. Petersburg (Russia). Western style bell. "Gift from the Nagasaki people to Leningrad." In 1985, the USSR erected a "Statue of Peace" in Nagasaki's Peace Symbols Zone (qv).
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|  January 14, 1990 - "World Peace" statue, Helsinki (Finland). "A reminder of cold war in Helsinki. It was 'given' by the city of Moscow just before the collapse of Soviet Union. If Helsinki would have refused the 'gift,' relations with the big neighbour would have suffered." "The artist's name is Oleg Kirjuhin. The statue is actually a copy. Similar copies have been placed in cities around the former Soviet Union. Helsinki might be the only city outside the former Soviet Union that has it's own."
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| 1990 - Peacemakers Monument, Federation of Peace and Conciliation, 36 Prospect Mira, Moscow (Russia). Commemorating the handshake between President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev on December 7, 1987. Identical monument at Shenandoah University, Winchester,Virginia (USA).
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| A N D S |  October 22, 1992 - Peacemakers Monument, Shenandoah University, Winchester,Virginia (USA). Commemorating the handshake between President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev on December 7, 1987.
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| November 1990 - World Wall for Peace (WWFP), Arbat ("12th century mall near the Kremlin"), Moscow (Russia). Over one city block long. See YouTube. There are many other World Walls for Peace in the USA and other countries.
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| May 1994 - Friendship Gate, Vladivostok (Russia). Other Pacific Rim Parks are in San Diego (USA), Tijuana (Mexico) & Yantai (China).  
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| May 28, 2003 - Tower of Peace, Sennaya Ploschad, St. Petersburg (Russia). Designed by French sculptor Clara Halter for St. Petersburg's 300th anniversary. Other peace monuments by Clara Halter are in Paris (France), Hiroshima (Japan) & Jerusalem (Israel). 
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|  September 11, 2006 - Grief Tear Memorial, Bayonne, New Jersey (USA). "...opened to the anthems of Russia and the USA. On the bank of the Hudson River, is a split 30-meter bronze plate with a giant tear made of titanium. The names of almost 3 thousand people killed on September, 11, 2001, are engraved on the monument. ...gift of Russian people, so sculptor Zurab Tsereteli who also and his colleagues took all the expenses on its erection up [sic]." Tsereteli also sculpted the statue of "Good Defeats Evil" (qv) at UN headquarters in 1990.
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October 14, 2009 - Walt Whitman Monument, Moscow State University, Moscow (Russia). Dedicated by US Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton (right image). "Reciprocal for the statue of Alexander Pushkin (left image) that was placed on the campus of The George Washington University in Washington, DC," in June 1999.
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| Future - Intercontinental Peace Bridge, Bering Strait between Cape Dezhnev, Chukotka (Russia) & Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska (USA). Also known as the Eurasia-America Transport Link. Proposal supported by the Schiller Institute, Sun Myung Moon & others.
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| U S E U M |
1953 - October 21 Memorial Park, Desankin venac, Kragujevac
(Serbia). At the site of the Kragujevac Massacre where 2,796 men, women and children were killed on October 21, 1941, by German occupation forces. Includes "Broken Wing" Monument (left image) & Genocide Museum (right image) which opened in 1976, Stanisa Brkic, curator. Click here for Wikipedia article. Info courtesy of Gerard Lössbroek.
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 | Date? - Peace Fountain, Grassalkovich Palace, Hodzovo Square, Bratislava (Slovakia). The square is locally called Mierove Namestie / Peace Square.
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| June 24, 2008 - Peace Marker Republic of Slovenia, Point of Peace #8, Tiité?, Litija Mayor (Slovenia). One of eight Worldwide Peace Markers. Image shows Litija Mayor Rokavec accepting the Peace Marker.
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| Date? - Peace Monument?, Kiev (Ukraine). "Looks like a peace monument and probably is."
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| 1984 - Friendship Arch, Kiev (Ukraine). Locally called "The Yoke," the arch is 50 meters across and leads to a view of the Dnieper River. Bronz and granite statues under the arch. Erected on the 325th anniversary of the Treaty of Pereiaslav, which tied the Ukraine to Russia.
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| U S E U M | 1986 - Istoriceskij Muzej Samarkanda / International Museum of Peace and Solidarity, Samarkand (Uzbekistan). "Museum runs a wide range of educational activities and international projects, as well as housing about 20,000 exhibit pieces from over 100 countries. It's probably the only place in the world where visitors can see a piece of the Berlin Wall, fragments of Soviet and US nuclear missiles, a part of an A-bombed roof tile from Nagasaki, soil from Auschwitz, in one place." Member of International Network of Museums for Peace (INMP).
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| A R K | September 12, 1988 - Seattle Peace Park, Tashkent (Uzbekistan). "Covers a territory of 1.5 acres. The Seattle-Tashkent Sister City Association along with Peace Corps Volunteers created the park, decorating it with a fountain, a mosaic map of the world [in image], a striking sculpture by a Seattle-based artist, many decorative and unique tiles designed by Seattle citizens, and planting the trees that have grown over the years and now shade half of the park." Photo courtesy of Anatoly Ionesov 11/08.
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| April 21, 2003 - World Peace Bell, Babur Culture and Recreation Park, Tashkent (Uzbekistan). Photo courtesy of Anatoly Ionesov 11/08. One of 20 WPB's placed in 16 different countries by the World Peace Bell Association of Tokyo, Japan.
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