Tashkent. August 2021. Memory of the Great Patriotic War
I sit and think, what should I devote this article to?
Maybe the Battle of Smolensk in August 1941, when two armies under the command of Rokossovsky (16th and 20th) broke through the encirclement front in the hardest battles?
Or remember the Kiev defensive operation?
Or the battles on the outskirts of Stalingrad, in the North Caucasus in August 1942? August 1943, the liberation of Kharkov, the battles on the Mius Front, the Kursk offensive operation? August 44th, August 45th - access to the state border of the USSR, offensive operations in Manchuria?
It's all ours story... The very mistress of the past, of our memory, pride in our ancestors.
Perhaps all these historical events have already been described by much more professional comrades than me. And the landing on Musta-Tunturi, and the Yasso-Kishinev operation, and many, many other episodes of that, the most terrible war in the history of our peoples.
And I will just try to show you how the memory of those times is kept here, in Tashkent.
Just like a theater begins with a coat rack, a museum begins with an entrance.
The entrance, of course, is the side one - not the main one, but for me it is quite nice. Once the district administration was located on the territory of the museum, and there was a lone monument to Major General Sabir Rakhimov. Now the monument was turned into the Mound of Glory, and a bronze sculptural composition - "Warriors-winners" was installed next to the military general.
The Red Army and the commanders of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army deservedly took their place next to the commander. Directly under the mound, on which the bronze warriors were housed, the main exposition of the museum is located - but we will come there a little later. In the meantime, the bas-reliefs.
And this is the main alley of the museum, it starts from the fountain made in the form of the Order of Victory (alas, it was shot during the day, and therefore the fountain is unattractive. But at night, with lighting and the play of jets of water, it is magnificent).
Historians argue and argue - who started that war?
They are trying to reconsider some events - to justify certain countries in some way, or, on the contrary, to accuse them of “all grave”. But it was not these very "unfortunate historians" who survived it - but many millions of people who lived in the USSR. For example, here is this woman - Zulfiya Zakirova, "Zulfiya-aya" (Mother Zulfiya):
All five of her sons perished in the fire of the war - they did not return home, did not hug their mother. Moreover, her last son went to the front right from school, without even having time to start a family. The sculptural composition is called "Ode to Resilience".
Or these hundreds of thousands of Uzbeks who did not return from the battlefields.
We remember them all. And, thanks to thousands of caring people throughout the former USSR, this list is still being supplemented.
In addition, during the war, Uzbekistan received, fed and warmed hundreds of thousands of children who lost their homes and parents. They were able to find new families here, to fully receive all the warmth of their hearts, a new "small homeland".
The panel on the right shows the moment when residents of Uzbekistan take their children to their families right from the station.
Actually, let's move on to museum installations. And let's start with street expositions.
Here is a small defensive line.
Naturally, children dart about in the trenches - they are interested in all this.
Street exposition - armored vehicles and artillery.
Inscriptions on the armor: T-70 "For the Motherland!", T-34-85 "From the Workers of Uzbekistan". For a note on the Latin alphabet, see below.
The inscriptions on the armor: SU-100 "Victory will be ours!", IS-2 "Revenge for the fallen comrades!"
The PT-76 also leaned against the side, but I did not take it into the frame - even though I have very, very "tender feelings" for it. This is the first tank, for the levers of which I sat as a child in the Far East.
In fact, the museum is on the balance sheet of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Uzbekistan - and therefore, probably, samples of post-war equipment were added to the exposition (for example, there are also T and MT-12 Rapier guns, the S-60 anti-aircraft gun), on which I also did not begin to focus attention.
I hope you don’t need to sign these photos. You can easily find out yourself Tanks, ACS and weapons of Victory - T-70, and IS-2, IS-3, SU-100 and T-34, ISU-152 and BS-3. D-1 and M-30, BM 13, ZiS-3 and ZiS-2. 45 mm guns and 82 mm mortars.
Aviation part of the exposition is still rather poor. The main thing here, of course, is Li-2, the same hard worker "Douglas", which received the Soviet name by the name of the aircraft designer from the aviation enterprise evacuated to Tashkent, and thanks to this man a microdistrict - Lisunovo appeared in Tashkent.
This is the original flying plane, not a mock-up. But the Il-2, La-7 and Yak are mock-ups.
The next item on the exposition is the Tashkent railway station.
Meticulously recreated exterior and interiors.
By the way, about the authenticity of the inscriptions in the Latin alphabet: in 1939 and 1940, the Latin script was introduced in Uzbekistan (for example, the metrics of my mother and father were made in the Latin alphabet). So in those days there was also confusion with the Latin and Cyrillic alphabet.
So, the interiors.
Perhaps it's time to move on to the main exhibition.
As I noted above, it is located directly under the "Mound of Glory" with sculptures of victorious warriors.
This is the beginning of the exposition. Then there are installations, documents, exhibits dedicated to the war days.
Kind of like a mountain 76,2 mm gun, model 1938, if I'm not mistaken.
And this is most likely 1944, judging by the T-34-85.
Actually, the Order of Victory and all three degrees of the Order of Glory.
The banner group - copies of the battle banners of dozens of units and formations formed and sent to the front from Uzbekistan.
During the war years, Uzbekistan turned into a health resort. Thousands and thousands of soldiers and commanders of the Red Army restored their health here and returned to the front to smash the enemy.
In addition, workers in the rear - defense plants evacuated to Uzbekistan, as well as collective farmers, livestock breeders and cultural workers - were doing their best to bring the Victory closer.
Many thousands of Uzbeks also fought behind the front line - they took part in the partisan movement.
That, in fact, is all that I wanted to tell today about the Victory Museum in Tashkent.
I deliberately did not exhibit the second floor of the exposition here - come to visit, inspect it yourself.
Filming at the museum was made on July 31st. That same evening I went out for a walk in the fresh air near the house and was moved by this picture:
We have 5 days of entrance exams to universities in Uzbekistan since August 12th. Applicants sit at night at the mahalla committee (mahalla is the smallest municipal self-government in Uzbekistan, like “communes”) and get ready. I saw these boys and girls and could not resist - asked to click them for a story. And they both "clung" to me - "And you, in fact, who?" I gave it away without thinking that I had a mechanics and mathematics behind me. And that's all - until the morning they did not lag behind me, sat and prepared together. I even had to squeakily recall the Uzbek mathematical terminology.
Here they are, the real heirs of our great ancestors who won that terrible war. They remember everything. And they will remember. And the future of Uzbekistan is in their hands. In the hands of smart, motivated young men and women. They are - real Uzbekistan.
- Isamatov Sherzod
- photo - copyright
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