Grisha Posted September 4, 2002 Share Posted September 4, 2002 When I was in Russia in June, while driving down a street in Moscow my Russian friends commented on a series of old, yet nice, buildings in a lively commercial part of the city. They pointed out that these building were built soon after the war, and that their foundations were from the rubble of some huge statue built in Germany of Hitler during the war, or before it - I can't really say. The story goes that when this huge monument to Hitler was demolished, Party members were adamant about using the rubble to contruct a huge monument of Stalin - in Berlin of all places. Stalin, however, rejected this idea on the grounds that the Germans already had enough indicators of Soviet victory - namely, Soviet occupation. Instead, he ordered that the rock be used as the foundations for a number of building in the city of Moscow. I can tell you that the Hitler monument must've been huge, because there were a lot of buildings, maybe 5-7 of them, wide multi-story urban buildings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParaBellum Posted September 4, 2002 Share Posted September 4, 2002 Never heard of a huge Hitler monument in Germany before. Sounds like an urban legend to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grisha Posted September 4, 2002 Author Share Posted September 4, 2002 I'll have to ask my friends again about it. I doubt it was urban legend. More that I didn't get my facts straight. It could've been some huge square for all I know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grisha Posted September 4, 2002 Author Share Posted September 4, 2002 Okay, I just did a very inane thing: deleted a post I thought was a double, but was in fact not <sigh>. Once more from the top, and with feeling this time ... Apparently, I did get my facts wrong. The Germans had prepared a large quantity of granite blocks for the construction of a monument to Hitler in Moscow sometime after Barbarossa. These blocks of granite were even sent into Russia in anticipation of Moscow's fall. When this was no longer a possibility, the Germans then left the shipment of granite in Russia. After the war, the Soviets made use of them as foundations for urban buildings on Ulitza Gorkogo (now, Tverskaya Street). The story of the Party members, and Stalin's rejection still stand though. [ September 04, 2002, 03:58 AM: Message edited by: Grisha ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sergei Posted September 4, 2002 Share Posted September 4, 2002 Originally posted by Grisha: These blocks of granite were even sent into Russia in anticipation of Moscow's fall. When this was no longer a possibility, the Germans then left the shipment of granite in Russia.So THAT'S why German troops didn't get their winter clothes in time: all train capacity was allocated to delivering the granite! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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