Soviet War Memorial ( Tiergarten ) The Soviet War Memorial ( Tiergarten ) is one of several war memorials in Berlin , capital city of Germany , erected by the Soviet Union to commemorate its war dead , particularly the 80 , 000 soldiers of the Soviet Armed Forces who died during the Battle of Berlin in April and May 1945 . The memorial is located in the Großer Tiergarten , a large public park to the west of the city centre , on the north side of the east - west Straße des 17 . Juni ( 17 June Street ) in the Tiergarten locality . Site . This memorial was erected in 1945 , within a few months of the capture of the city . Early photographs show the memorial standing in a wilderness of ruins , the Tiergarten having been destroyed by incendiary bombs and then stripped of timber for firewood during the last months of the war . Today , it is surrounded by the extensive woodlands of the reconstituted Tiergarten . Although the memorial stood in the British sector of Berlin , its construction was supported by all the Allied powers . Throughout the Cold War , Soviet honor guards from the Soviet sector ( East Berlin ) were sent to stand watch at the memorial . Design . Built in a style similar to other Soviet World War II monuments once found all over the former Eastern bloc , the memorial takes the form of a curved stoa topped by a large statue of a Soviet soldier . It is set in landscaped gardens and flanked by two Red Army ML - 20 152mm gun - howitzer artillery pieces and two T - 34 tanks . Behind the memorial is an outdoor museum showing photographs of the memorial ' s construction and giving a guide to other memorials in the Berlin area . A large Cyrillic inscription is written underneath the soldier statue , which is translated as " Eternal glory to heroes who fell in battle with the German fascist invaders for the freedom and independence of the Soviet Union " . The Soviets built the statue with the soldier ' s arm in a position to symbolize the Red Army ' s putting down of the Nazi German state . The memorial was designed by architect Mikhail Gorvits with the monument of the Soviet soldier by sculptors Vladimir Tsigal and Lev Kerbel . A legend that the memorial was built from stonework taken from the destroyed Reich Chancellery is untrue , but remains popular and persists . The memorial today . The memorial is still a site of active commemoration . On the anniversary of VE Day , ( 8 May ) , wreath - laying ceremonies are held at the memorial . It is a site of pilgrimage for war veterans from the countries of the former Soviet Union . It is also a popular tourist attraction , since it is much closer to the centre of the city than the larger Soviet war memorial at Treptower Park . The memorial is maintained by the City of Berlin . There is a sign next to the monument explaining in English , German and Russian that this is the burial site of some 2 , 000 fallen Soviet soldiers . It is located in the heart of Berlin along one of the major roads with a clear sight of the Reichstag and the Brandenburg gate , both symbols of the city . Some of the marble used to build it came from the destroyed government buildings nearby , and it is built on a place which Adolf Hitler meant to devote to Welthauptstadt Germania . Besides the main inscription , the columns state names of only some dead Heroes of the Soviet Union buried here . It has earned some unflattering nicknames from the local population with references to crimes committed by Soviet occupation troops . The monument is built in the British sector of ( western ) Berlin ; after the Berlin wall was erected in 1961 , the monument was seen as a sign of communist provocation on West Berlin soil and had to be protected from West Berliners by British soldiers . In 1970 a neo - Nazi , Ekkehard Weil , shot and severely wounded one of the Soviet honour guards at the monument . In 2010 , the monument was vandalized just before Victory in Europe Day celebrations with red graffiti that read " thieves , murderers , rapists " , sparking a protest from the Russian embassy in Berlin that accused German authorities of not taking sufficient measures to protect the monument .