Monument to the Heroes of the Soviet Army

The Monument to the Heroes of the Soviet Army, erected on Schwarzenbergplatz in Vienna, honors Soviet troops who perished during the liberation of Austria from Nazism.It first opened its doors on August 19, 1945.Major General of the Red Army Dmitry Trofimovich Shepilov initiated and organized the monument’s placement.The monument’s creators are the sculptor, a student of the V. Surikov Art Institute, junior lieutenant M. A. Intezaryan, commander of the Red Army’s rifle and machine-gun platoon, and architect, Major S. G. Yakovlev (as noted on the memorial plaque in front of the monument).Sheinfeld, a major engineer, oversaw the monument’s construction.

In February 1945, the forces of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian fronts received orders from the Supreme High Command Headquarters to plan an attack on Vienna, both for military-strategic reasons and to utilize as a post-war negotiating chip with the allies.The Vienna offensive operation began on March 16, 1945, and the city was seized on April 14, 1945, following fierce street combat.

In honour of the 17,000 Soviet troops who perished in the struggle for Vienna during World War II, the monument to Soviet soldiers who died during the liberation of Austria from Nazism in Vienna was erected.

The memorial has a 12-meter pedestal with a statue of a Red Army soldier wearing a golden helmet and bearing the letters PPSh-41 on his breast.The Red Army man carries the state flag of the USSR in his right hand, the shaft and tip of which are gold, and the voluminous state insignia of the USSR in his left hand, which is also gold.The memorial’s architectural design is finished by a semicircular colonnade that partially surrounds the pedestal with a statue of a Red Army soldier.