bloody battles on the western dvina claimed about 200,000 lives of our soviet soldiers.was created in just 2 weeks. in kurgan rests the soil from the hero's brez fortress, from mass graves from the battlefields. the great patriotic war left many tragic memories in polotsk and as much history of heroism and courage. and now this memory and pride is eternalized by the hands of sculptors and architects. the monument was erected in honor of twenty-three soldiers-liberators of polotsk. you can immediately see that the figures seem to be directed upward, as if they are in motion, and you can’t tell that they are made of metal. this impulse of soviet soldiers, frozen in metal, played out a tribute to the memory of a desperate battle. july 3, 1944. during the liberation of polotsk, a small group of soldiers broke through to the bridge over the western dvina and held it, preventing it from being destroyed until army approach. the germans tried to deal with them 14 times, but met desperate resistance. of the twenty-three soldiers , only one came out of the last battle alive, but t