In September 1968, almost all of Kremenchug gathered on the banks of the Dnieper to solemnly celebrate the 25th anniversary of the liberation of the city from the Nazi invaders. A military parade and a demonstration of workers took place, an earthen mound was poured on Pushkin Street (Former City), on the top of which a granite slab was installed with the inscription:
“A memorial complex” Hill of Battle Glory “to the soldiers of the Soviet Army who died in the battles for Kremenchug during the Great Patriotic War will be built here.”
The grandchildren and children of those who, in the terrible years of the war, defended the freedom and independence of the Fatherland, the Komsomol members and the youth of the city held campaigns to the places of military glory of the Soviet people, brought the sacred land from the capital of the USSR – Moscow, the hero cities of Kiev, Leningrad, Volgograd, Sevastopol, Odessa , fortress-hero of Brest. The earth casings were installed on the Hill of Glory.
For the construction of the memorial complex, fundraising was carried out among the residents of the city – there were personal donations, deductions from subbotniks and Sundays, contributions from enterprises and public organizations. Then, for many years, work on the project of the monument went on and, finally, in 1983, the construction of the 1st stage of the complex began. As a result, the hill was almost leveled, the work was stopped, the fate of the funds raised is unknown, and the monument has not yet been erected. And the lines involuntarily come to mind:
“Brothers, you are reaping our fruits,
We are destined to spoil in the earth,
Why have you been erecting a monument to us for so long,
Or forgotten for a long time ?! “
The Kremenchug bazaar is humming and buzzing at the foot of the non-existing memorial – now there is a central clothing market and nothing reminds of the war. But these quarters were completely burned down. And everything that now exists between Lenin Street (now Sobornaya) and the Dnieper embankment appeared in the post-war years.
Author: A.N. Lushakova
The book “The streets of old Kremenchug”