Eternal memory

The activists of the Council of War and Labor Veterans, with the support of the leadership of Mosmetrostroy, restored the memorial to the metro builders who erected defensive structures on the approaches to Moscow in 1941.

The restored memorial sign was unveiled on Borodino Field on the Day of Remembrance and Sorrow, June 22. The event was attended by leaders and veterans of Mosmetrostroy, representatives of the administration of the Mozhaisk urban district, employees and guests of the Borodino Museum, and students of the Malo-Vyazemsk secondary school.

The honorary right to open the memorial was given to the General Director of Mosmetrostroy Sergei Zhukov and the director of the Borodino Field Museum-Reserve Igor Korneev.

– Borodino Field is a historical place in Russia and Mosmetrostroy. In July-August 1941, here at the 6-kilometer line of the Mozhaisk defense line, under constant bombing and shelling, metro builders erected reinforced concrete pillboxes, said Sergei Zhukov.

He thanked the veteran metro workers and museum staff for their important work in preserving historical memory, and also presented the director of the Borodino Museum with a letter of gratitude.

The contribution of metro builders to the common Victory is invaluable. One and a half thousand people, mostly women, equipped pillboxes and command posts, laid trenches and anti-tank ditches, and prepared artillery positions.

The work was supervised by Tatyana Fedorova, the first metro builder, deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, and later deputy head of Mosmetrostroy, Hero of Socialist Labor. According to her recollections, about 20 Metrostroy workers died under the bombing. In memory of the Moscow metro workers who participated in the construction of the facilities, in 1971, on the initiative and under the leadership of the head of Mosmetrostroy, Hero of Socialist Labor Vasily Polezhaev and Tatyana Fedorova, a memorial monument was erected on Borodino Field.

Subsequently, the 32nd Guards Siberian Rifle Division under the command of Colonel Hero of Russia Viktor Polosukhin stood to the death on the Mozhaisk defense line. The division held the defense from October 12 to October 18, 1942, not allowing tank armies to reach Moscow.

As a sign of general grief for the dead, the meeting participants laid wreaths and flowers at the Mass Grave of Soviet soldiers of the 32nd Guards Siberian Rifle Division under the command of Viktor Polosukhin and at the memorial sign to Moscow metro builders.