How it was 05/09/1999 (1999)

Video chronicle:

Moscow, 1966.

A funeral procession is marching along the streets of the city, participating in the transfer of dust to an unknown soldier from a mass grave in the Moscow suburbs, to be reburied near the walls of the Kremlin.

The inhabitants of the city are crying, escorting the column.

Member of the program Nikolai Egorychev, a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, one of the initiators of the installation of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier near the walls of the Moscow Kremlin in the Alexander Garden.

He explains that the day of the reburial was chosen not casually - December 3, 1966 turned 25 years from the day of victory in the battle of Moscow.

The memorial complex was opened later, in 1967.

According to Yegorychev, when the sketches of the complex were shown to Leonid Brezhnev, he initially did not support the initiative of erecting the monument, but, afterwards, approving the project, opposed its installation in the Alexander Garden.

Gennady Fomin talks about the work of the architectural bureau considering various city squares, as a site for the complex's placement, about how the final decision was made about erecting the monument just by the walls of the Kremlin.

Nikolai Egorychev remembers the trick the whole team had to go to convince Leonid Brezhnev of the necessity to place the memorial complex in the Alexander Garden.

At that time, in the Alexander Garden, stood a stele, placed in connection with the 300th anniversary of the Romanovs' house.

At the behest of Lenin, the names of representatives of the royal dynasty were erased on it and instead the names of leaders of the revolutionary movement were knocked out.

Stella, in the end, pushed back autocratically, without official permission.

Nikolay Egorychev speaks about the history of the finding of the mass grave, in the construction of Zelenograd.

In addition to the Unknown Soldier, eight more soldiers were buried there.

The audience takes part in the program.

Most of them are veterans of the Great Patriotic War.

They remember not returning from battle comrades, unknown to the earth in the mass graves.

Maria Shinkareva talks about the identification of soldiers buried in mass graves.

According to her, they could contain both heroes and deserters who fled the army.

Video chronicle of 1966 (December 3):

The mass grave in Zelenograd.

Sarcophagus with the remains of an unknown soldier.

Maria Shinkareva witnessed the passage of a funeral procession through the streets of Moscow.

Veterans share their memories.

Video chronicle:

Burial of remains in the Alexander Garden near the Kremlin walls.

Marshal of the USSR Konstantin Rokossovsky together with others carries a sarcophagus.

Nikolai Egorychev explains why Marshal of the USSR Georgy Zhukov was not allowed to participate in the burial ceremony.

The eternal flame was lit only six months later, on May 8, 1967.

Nikolai Egorychev tells of the appearance of the embroidered lines in granite: "Your name is unknown, your feat is immortal."

He independently amended the proposal proposed by Sergei Mikhalkov, which, in consequence, was approved.

Interview with Sergei Mikhalkov.

Video chronicle:

May 7, 1967 in Leningrad (now St.

Petersburg) from the eternal fire on the Field of Mars was lit a torch in order to deliver it to Moscow.

The fire was transported on a specially equipped armored car.

On the way to the capital, the procession stopped in the settlements near the monuments erected in honor of those killed in the Second World War.

Entry to Moscow.

Hero of the Soviet Union Alexei Meresyev carries a torch.

Nikolai Egorychev, personally taking part in the opening ceremony of the memorial, talks about the incident that occurred with Leonid Brezhnev when he lit the Eternal Flame.

Video chronicle:

Leonid Brezhnev takes the torch from Alexei Meresyev, opens a memorial complex lighting the Eternal Flame.

Veterans share their memories.

Interview with Sergei Mikhalkov.

The author of the memorial lines, imprinted in the monolith, wishes that the events that became the cause, never again happened in the history of our people.

Video chronicle:

People lay flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier near the walls of the Moscow Kremlin in the Alexander Garden.