Monumental Victory In Dushanbe

The Soviets left all sorts of monuments to the Great Patriotic War, aka, WWII, all over Central Asia. The glory of military victory is good propaganda.

Dushanbe has an understated memorial, appropriately titled, Victory Monument.

Two simple steles with nice, brutalist, socialist, blocky frieze figures around the bottoms. Down goes the Nazi flag, up with flowers of peace.

The placement of the Victory Monument turned out to be a traffic choked plaza and the Dushanbe powers decided to duplicate the monument in, well, Victory Park. Bigger! Cleaner! Room for a tank!

With May Day approaching, time for an annual spit and polish. Photos of the dead. The images are near Victory Monument, part of a grand staircase that leads up to an eternal flame and plaza for memorial reflection.

The eternal flame, fresh laid flowers and a plaque that proclaims no one is forgotten.