Saratov Embankment Wall Painting – Part 4.

In 2019 Saratov new waterfront area saw new graffiti...

 

Alexey Maresyev was a Soviet fighter ace during World War II who was awarded the Golden Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union. He was born in the town of Kamyshin of Saratov Province in Russia. On April 5, 1942 during an air battle with the Germans his aircraft was shot down. Badly injured, Alexey crept through forests and swamps to the Soviet-controlled territory for solid 18 days! Doctors saved his life but both of his legs had to be amputated below the knee.

Overcoming the pain and suffering, Alexey managed to recover and master the control of his prosthetic devices, so in just 15 months he voluntarily got back to the frontline flying and continued to successfully fight for his motherland shooting down German airplanes. Alexey Maresyev went through the war and lived to the 21st century, his life and feat of arms served as a basis for the novel by Boris Polevoy "The Story of a Real Man".

Graffiti made by Dmitry Zhumaev (Saratov, Russia).

 

In 2020, on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945, Saratov artist Dmitry Zhumaev painted three graffiti on the old embankment, in three niches under the observation deck at the end of Oktyabrskaya Street, and one on the new embankment. The graffiti are dedicated to the contribution of Saratov aircraft builders, male pilots, and female pilots to the cause of the common Victory.

 

A workshop of Saratov Aircraft Factory during the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945.

 

 

U-2 or Po-2 warplanes in the peaceful sky.

 

 

Saratov female pilots discussing a combat mission.

 

The phrase "But the saved world does remember" on these three graffiti is a quote from the famous Russian post-war song "Muscovites" (written by Eugene Vinokurov, composed by Andrey Eshpay, initially performed by Mark Bernes) :

In the fields behind sleepy Vistula River
There lie in the wet earth
Serezhka from Malaya Bronnaya Street
And Vitka from Mohovaya Street.

And somewhere in the crowded world
Many years in a row
Alone in an empty apartment
Their mothers do not sleep.

And the bright light of their lamps
Glows over Moscow
In the window at Malaya Bronnaya Street
And the one at Mohovaya Street.

The fallen friends will never rise.
And movies go on in their community - without them,
And gals, their girlfriends,
Are all married long ago.

In the fields behind sleepy Vistula River
There lie in the wet earth
Serezhka from Malaya Bronnaya Street
And Vitka from Mohovaya Street.

But the saved world, the world eternal,
The living world does remember
Serezhka from Malaya Bronnaya Street
And Vitka from Mohovaya Street.

 

 

Nikolai Skomorokhov was a Soviet fighter ace during World War II who was twice awarded the Golden Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union. He was born in the village of Lapot of Saratov Province in Russia (now the village of Belogorskoe of Saratov Region).

During the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945 Nikolai Skomorokhov made 605 combat missions, conducted more than 130 air battles, personally shot down 46 fascist planes and 8 planes in a group (the 7th result in the list of Soviet fighter aces), and also destroyed 3 enemy bombers on the ground. Nikolai Skomorokhov was never injured, and his plane never burned or was shot down. The Germans warned their pilots about the presence of Skomorokhov fighter plane in the sky as a serious danger.

 

 

Аnother graffiti on military aviation was painted in 2023:

 

The Tupolev Tu-160 is an intercontinental supersonic strategic bomber and missile carrier with a variable-sweep wing developed at the Tupolev Experimental Design Bureau in the 1970s. It is the largest and most powerful supersonic aircraft and aircraft with a variable-sweep wing in the history of military aviation, the heaviest combat aircraft in the world having the largest maximum take-off weight among bombers, as well as the fastest bomber currently in service. The Tu-160 is nicknamed the "White Swan". Some Tu-160 bombers are stationed in Saratov Region, Russia.

This graffiti is placed to the right of the graffiti dedicated to Aleksey Maresyev and Nikolai Skomorokhov, symbolizing the continuity of generations, where a soldier of the Russian army says to soldiers of the Soviet army, looking at them: the torch of service to the Motherland taken over! Such combination of the three works also reminds us of the final scene of the extraordinarily popular Soviet film "Officers" of 1971, where Ivan Trofimov, a major of the airborne troops of the USSR, took over the torch of service to the Motherland from his parents who died in battles with the Nazi invaders during the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945.

 

 

In 2024, graffiti about Russian-Chinese friendship was posted on the old embankment. Its length is about 100 metres (328 feet), so only the central part is shown below:

 

"Volga and Yangtze are great rivers of friendship" is a motto of the 9th Russian-Chinese Youth Forum which was held in Saratov, Russia from August 23 to 27, 2024.

 

 

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