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In the heart of Treptower Park lies the Soviet Union's memorial to its fallen heroes of war. Situated on the site of the workers strike of 1919 led by the revolutionaries Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxembourg, the monument is more of an arena of remembrance than one specific statue. The first part of the memorial is a granite statue of Mother Russia grieving for her lost children. A vast concourse slopes up to a viewing platform which is flanked by two huge triangles of red granite, reportedly taken from Hitler's New Chancellory, each accompanied by statues of kneeling soldiers. From this point, the memorial opens out across a sunken plaza, where 5000 Soviets corpses from the Battle of Berlin are buried, flanked by 16 sarcophagi representing the then 16 Soviets states, each inscribed with quotes from Stalin. On high, overlooking the plaza, is a 13m high statue of a Russian holding a child while his sword rests on a broken swastika. Inside the base of the statue is a small memorial crypt with mosaic walls depicting a scene of workers, peasants and Asian minorities. This is highly thought-provoking landscape gardening on a big scale and all without a single piece of religious symbolism.
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