Monument
to the 7th Bauman Division of the People’s Militia
The 7th Division of the People’s Militia of the Bauman district was formed in early July 1941. In October they took part in a battle on the outskirts of Vyazma, where most of the fighters died. The monument was built in honor of 13,000 Baumans who died in the Great Patriotic War. The three-meter-high copper sculpture depicts a woman with a photograph of a died soldier in her hands and a little girl standing to her right. The woman’s face is turned towards the Epiphany Cathedral. The monument was created at the people’s expense on the initiative of the Council of Veterans and the Council of Deputies of the Basmanny Municipal District. Zurab Tsereteli put a deep meaning into the sculpture. The figure of a woman represents the Motherland. She looks in the direction of the school where the division was formed, and where this woman last saw her husband. In the hands of a woman holding his portrait, as is customary in the procession in honor of the Immortal Regiment. The girl standing next to her is a symbol of the future, the continuation of life. She looks in the direction of the Epiphany Cathedral in Yelokhov. There is a slight smile on her face as she sees a peaceful future. The bronze sculpture with a height of about 3 meters was installed on a granite pedestal, on which a thank-you plaque was fixed: “To the Bauman People’s Militia of 1941 from grateful Muscovites.” It is known that the 7th Bauman Division of the People’s Militia was formed at School No. 353 (40, Bauman Street). Ivan Vasilyevich Zaikin, a teacher of Frunze Academy, was appointed as the commander of the division. 12,000 people joined the militia. Separate units were formed from students of Bauman Moscow State Technical University and the Moscow Institute of Chemical Engineering. In October 1941, the division took its first battle near the village of Bogoroditsky in the vicinity of Vyazma captured by the Germans. They managed to pull back the enemy’s shock forces, shackling the actions of 28 fascist divisions. Being surrounded, about half of the militia of the 7th Bauman Division died. Later, the remnants of the regiments were able to move away from Vyazma and joined the 19th Army. Most of the division’s fighters died in the battles near Yukhnov, as well as near the village of Otnosovo in the Smolensk region.
Address: Moscow, Staraya Basmannaya str., 35
