Description of the attraction
In the central part of the city of Murmansk, on the opposite side of the local history museum, there is a very original monument that has a difficult fate. The memorial sign was erected in honor of the twin cities of the city of Murmansk.
One of the characteristic signs of the 60-80s of the 20th century was the movement for the establishment of friendly ties between cities of different countries. During this period of time, the World Federation of Twin Cities was active. In the Soviet Union at that time, there was a rapid development of interaction between the cities of the USSR and small cities of other countries. At the same time, twinning was meant as mutual assistance and mutual support. It is clear that in this case, partnership relations have always taken place, but nevertheless they were very vague, although the semblance of international cooperation has always taken place. It is worth noting that twinning relations provided the opportunity to visit foreign countries in various ways, although this was not accepted. Most often, only bosses went abroad, although the delegation included engineers, doctors, workers, athletes and amateur artists.
It is for these reasons that the city of Murmansk actively sought to acquire twin cities, especially in cooperation with the Scandinavian countries. At this time, a form of state communication of residents of the northern regions of Norway, Finland, the USSR and Sweden was born, which was supported by an agreement on peace and mutual cooperation.
The first sister city for Murmansk was the Finnish city of Rovaniemi. Cooperation with him was concluded in 1962. In 1972, Murmansk had two more twin cities - the Norwegian city of Tromsø and the Swedish city of Luleå. In 1973, the Norwegian city of Vadso became a sister city. After some time, friendly ties were reached with the American city of Jacksonville, located in the state of Florida. In 1989, the Dutch city of Groningen also became a sister city. During 1993-1994, friendly relations were established between Murmansk and the Icelandic city of Akureyri and the Polish city of Szczecin.
In 1979, in Murmansk, between Lenin Avenue and Karl Marx and Volodarsky Streets, a memorial sign was unveiled in honor of the friendly relations of the twin cities. The author of the memorial monument was one of the architects of the Murmanskgrazhdanproekt institute named Degtyarev, because it was this man's project that turned out to be the best in the art competition. It took almost two years to erect the monument, while residents of the city called the monument Cheburashka. The monolith is a three-meter reinforced concrete base, which was lined with natural stone, on which a pair of so-called "wings", made of concrete and with a span of about 5 meters, were fixed. At the point of convergence of those "wings" there is a regular circle on which there is the emblem of the WFTU. It is a pair of connected rings that represent a union. The key present exactly symbolizes the city, which is portrayed in heraldic science in this way. On the white blocks, represented by the wings, certain letters were mounted, which were made of a brass alloy and which made up the names of five sister cities, which became the first for the city of Murmansk.
The memorial obelisk itself is installed on a large square flower bed, on which unpretentious flowers characteristic of this region grow in the warm season. Some part of the cozy square has plantations in the form of rowan trees and is paved with concrete slabs interspersed with fragments of cut colored stone. The adjacent green area is fenced off with a cast iron grating. In the summertime, benches are placed here, and a considerable number of people spend their holidays in this place. The monument creates the impression of a cozy place due to the fact that it is surrounded on all sides by tall trees and thus attracts the attention of all citizens.
In the fall of 2000, the monument was disfigured - several vandals tore from it 58 letters made of non-ferrous metal. Restoration work was carried out, and a new twin city was added to the monument - Minsk.
