Anyone who has ever driven along one of the roads in the Volosovsky district of the Leningrad region could observe an unusual picture. A wild field immersed in verdure, lonely trees and abandoned bushes, and whitewashed Russian stoves rise between them. There are no people, no settlements, nothing in the whole district. And these objects, which have been a symbol of Russia since ancient times, appeared back in the 70s of the last century. And they were erected by masters of their craft in this field for a reason.
Driving along one of the roads of the Kalitinsky rural settlement, in the Volosovsky district of the Leningrad region, you can see an unusual picture. In the middle of the field there are whitewashed Russian stoves, while there are no other buildings and settlements in the entire district. Despite the fact that it looks strange and even creepy, but if you know at least a little about the history of your native country, you can understand that some very significant events are connected with this place.
History reference: October 29, 1943 for 66 residents of the village of Bolshoye Zarechye became fatal. It was on this day that their settlement suffered the same fate as Khatyn. For complicity with the partisans and the mass refusal to be sent to work in Germany, German punishers surrounded the village and burned all the farmsteads. Few managed to escape. Most of the inhabitants, among whom were only old people, women and 19 children, were driven to the neighboring village of Glumitsy. There they were locked in a barn and burned. Since then, life has not revived in the Great District. Immediately after the war, an obelisk was erected among the scorched field with the inscription: "The villagers were burned here".
And in 1971, a monument was erected on the site of the ashes - this bronze soldier, returning home, bowed his head over the ruins that remained from his native village. To this day, on the pedestal you can read the words: “There was life here. Here stood the village of Bolshoy Zarechye. In October 1943, fascist punishers completely destroyed it...”. The architect Philip Gepner and sculptor Maria Litovchenko worked on the creation of the monument.
Although only a monument was not enough. Caring people, including well-known craftsmen in the area, decided to create an art installation called “Russian Khatyn” in those areas where the huts used to be. Russian stoves were placed on the surviving foundations, because they were the only ones that survived the fire.
For more than a decade, local residents, volunteers and caring people have periodically organized subbotniks. Every year they paint stoves white, restore what has collapsed, do not allow shrubs and grass to grow much, so that the makeshift memorial complex can be clearly seen from the road. Everyone who travels to these parts and plans to visit a place of memory will certainly take flowers with them.
Notable: In 2010, in Glumitsy, at the place where almost all the inhabitants of the Big District died (until that time it was empty), a solemn event was held initiated by the foundation "Defenders of the Nevsky bridgehead" with the support of the administration of the Volosovsky district and the Kalitinsky rural settlement, dedicated to laying the first stone of the future chapel "On blood." And in the village itself, a pole with an alarm bell was installed, on the top of which a stork built a nest in the very first summer, which could not but please everyone who supports the memory of the tragedy ..
In the same year, the Defenders of the Nevsky Bridgehead Foundation came up with a proposal to create a memorial complex of all-Russian significance in the Bolshoy Zarechye.
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With the support of local authorities, a project was developed in which well-known masters took part: architect Oleg Romanov and sculptor Viktor Aristov (designed Memorial Nevsky Piglet), artist Viktor Fetisov (Mamaev Kurgan, Volgograd was created according to his sketches), architect and sculptor Leonid Levin (Memorial complex Khatyn). According to their idea, in the Great District they should erect: a bell of Memory, the composition "Fire", a monument on a mass grave alive burnt residents, symbolic burnt gates with a lock, a well and other details that are inherent in the organization of the village in that period.
Unfortunately, this project remains only on paper and in the minds of the authors, because the creation of such a large-scale complex requires a lot of money, which to this day no one has allocated. There were attempts by patrons to contribute to the memory of the people, but it did not work out (either the estimate frightened them, or the bureaucratic red tape became an obstacle). The only thing that the local authorities and enthusiasts have managed to do so far is to open it in the village of Kalitino (in the House culture) local history museum, which has an exposition dedicated to the terrible tragedy that occurred in the Bolshoi District.
During the Second World War, not only Soviet cities and villages suffered. The Polish people also remember the bitterness of the loss of the civilian population, while trying with all their might to convey this to future generations. In Mikhnev, for example, the "Mausoleum of Martyrdom of Polish Villages" was opened, the forms and exposition of which will help to realize the full horror of the tragic consequences of hostilities.
A source: https://novate.ru/blogs/041221/61452/