Monument to Panikha in Volgograd - perpetuated feat of the defender of the Motherland

The main monumental building in Volgograd is the memorial complex on Mamayev Hill, dedicated to the heroes who fell in the Battle of Stalingrad. But in the city there are many other equally important places directly connected with the feat of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War. One of these can be called a monument to Panikha, perpetuating the glory of a simple soldier who gave his life for the freedom of the Motherland.

Flame heroism

Battles in the fields of the Battle of Stalingrad lasted for 200 days. Each episode of this bloody event was permeated with the suffering, pain and desperate courage of people who stood in the way of a cruel enemy, whose name is fascism. In October 1942, a detachment of Soviet soldiers defended the approaches to the plant "Red October". The column of enemy tanks moved to the position of one of the trenches.

Mikhail Panikaha rushed to the head car with two Molotov cocktails. The bullet broke through the glass of the vessel with a combustible liquid, a soldier's clothes flared. The hero, as if feeling no pain, ran very close to the tank, broke the second bottle about his engine compartment. The enemy machine was stopped, a flaming flame carried away the life of the soldier - deputy commander of the 1st company of the 883 rifle regiment Mikhail Averyanovich Panikha.

Eternal Memory of Honor and Valor

The selfless action of the soldier did not go unnoticed. The description of this episode is given in his book "From Stalingrad to Berlin" by Marshal VI Chuikov. The soldier was posthumously presented to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and on the site of the feat in 1975, on the eve of the Victory Day celebration, a monument was erected to Panikha Michael, a native of the Dnipropetrovsk region, who gave his life in defending the city on the Volga. The monument was created by the sculptor RP Kharitonov, the design of the composition was designed by the architect Yu. I. Belousov. The exact place on the map, where the Panikha monument is located - Volgograd, address: Metallurgov Ave. and ul. Taraschantsev (Krasnooktyabrsky district).

Specifications and description of sculpture

A figure with forward palms frozen in a desperate roll man, ready at any time to repel an enemy attack, not to miss the enemy on their land. So in general terms is a monument to Paniche. The height of the statue made of wrought copper is 6.3 meters. The sculpture is mounted on a rectangular reinforced concrete pedestal with sides 8 x 13 meters.

Restoration and maintenance of the monument

Sadly it sounds, but the monument to Panikha, since the 90's, was almost ownerless. No one allocated funds for the maintenance of the memorial. Natural disasters partially destroyed the base of the monument, the copper sculpture was covered with a touch of dirt, in places it was oxidized.

Only in 2012, the Council of Veterans took care of the monument with the support of the administration of the Krasnoarmeysky district. On charitable donations, collected by activists, in the same year the monument was restored. During the restoration work, the pedestal was strengthened and repaired, the copper figure was cleaned and covered with a special protective compound.

In addition, the district authorities allocated funds for the improvement of the territory near the memorial. Footpaths were paved with sidewalk tiles, set benches and lighting lights, planted a decorative lawn and shrub plants.

The governor of the region visited an updated monument to Panikha during the inspection trip around the city's districts. Volgograd, like the rest of Russia, has been preparing for the football mundial of 2018 in the last few years. In this regard, the authorities of cities where the games of the Championship will be held, took care of putting the streets and squares in order. But I want to believe that the cultural heritage of the past will not remain without attention at all times, not for the sake of ticks in the reports, but as a tribute to the heroism of the heroes, one of which is rightly considered Michael Panikaha.