Eternal Flame

Eternal Flame. Alexander Garden.
Eternal memory to all the heroes.
Who was he,that unknown soldier
Honored posthumously by Great country.

Maybe he was still a young student,
Or a simple militiaman...
Maybe he was killed because he did not
Knelt when was facing the enemy man.

Maybe he utmostly went to the attack,
Taking a bullet in the extreme extent.
Or he was some unknown sailor
The one that was killed at the control wheel.

Maybe it was a pilot or a tanker;
Today this is not important a bit.
We'll never read this piece of paper,
This small triangle paper sheet.

Eternal Flame. Alexander Garden.
The monument to the thousands of lives.
Eternal Flame is the memory of the soldiers,
Who served very honestly the Motherland.

(перевод стихотворения"Вечный огонь" Юрия Шмидта)

       The tradition of maintaining the eternal flame in special burners at the monument, memorial complex, cemeteries, graves date back to the ancient cult of Vesta. Every year on the 1st of March the high priest lit the sacred fire on the main Roman Forum ,where the vestal priestesses had to support the flames burning during the year.
      In  modern times the eternal flame was lit for the first time in Paris, the Arc de Triomphe on the grave of the Unknown Soldier, in which were buried the remains of a French soldier killed in battles of World War I. The fire in the memorial came two years after its opening. In 1921, French sculptor Gregoire Calvet made a proposal: a monument to equip a special gas burner, which would allow to spotlight the tomb in the darkness. This idea  has been actively supported by the journalist Gabriel Boissy  in October ,1923. And in November, 11, 1923 at 06:00pm the French Minister of War Andr; Maginot solemnly lit  the memorial flame at the first time. From this day  the fire is lit in the memorial every day at 06.30pm; in this ceremony are involved the veterans of the World War II.
     The first country that immortalized the memory of those, who died in World War II, became Poland.  On the 8th of May in 1946 the eternal flame was lit in the square of Marshal Jozef Pilsudski in Warsaw,on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier;the tomb was restored after the Nazi occupation.
      Eternal flame in memory of those,who was killed in the Second World War was sparked in many countries in Europe, Asia as well as in Canada and the United States.
    The first eternal flame  in the Soviet Union was lit at the monument for "The fighters of the revolution" in Leningrad (now - St. Petersburg) on the Champ de Mars.The torch for the opening of the memorial was lit by  the steelworker Zhukovsky directly from the Kirov factory.
    The eternal flame at the Champ de Mars was the source for the most number of the  memorials that were opened in the hero-cities of the USSR, as well as the cities of military glory, in memory of the victims of the Great Patriotic War in 1941-1945 (WWII).
    In Moscow the first war memorial with the eternal flame in memory of the fallen soldiers of World War II was opened in the Military Memorial necropolis at Preobrazhensky Cemetery in 1956. The choice of this location was not accidental, this is  the biggest place in Moscow,where soldiers ,killed in the battle for Moscow,  were buried in mass graves, and also those who died of his wounds in Moscow hospitals.
    5 months after the opening of the memorial  the fire was lit at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the Alexander Garden in Moscow. The torch with fire was brought from Leningrad in just one day.               
    In Yerevan,Armenia,the eternal flame at the Memorial Tsitsernakaberd, lit in October 1965, represents the memory of the victims of the Armenian genocide.
    In May 1975, in Rostov-on-Don, the eternal flame was lit at the Memorial "victims of fascism", the biggest place in the modern Russia of the burial places of the victims of the Holocaust.
    On the African continent has also spread the tradition to light the eternal flame. One of the oldest and most famous monuments - "Pioneers Monument" (Voortrekker) in Pretoria was lit in 1938; it symbolizes the memory of the mass migration of African inland in the years 1835-1854, called the Great Way ("Die Groot Trek").
    August 1, 1964 the eternal flame was lit in Hiroshima, Japan, on the monument "Flame of Peace" in the Peace Memorial Park. The idea of the creators of the park was the thought that the fire will burn until the complete destruction of the nuclear weapons on the planet.
    September 14, 1984, by the torch ,lit from the flame of the memorial in Hiroshima, Pope John Paul II opened the eternal flame symbolizing the hopes for a world in the  Peace Garden in Toronto, Canada.
    July 7, 1989 the British Queen Elizabeth II lit the "flame of hope" in the area of Frederick Banting in Ontario, Canada. This eternal flame, on the one hand, is  the memory of the Canadian physiologist, first obtained  insulin; on the other hand,it symbolizes hopes for a victory against diabetes. The creators of the monument are planning to put out fire if comes the day when a cure for diabetes could  be invented .
    Let us lit the fire in memory of those who left us in peace without the World Wars  for three generations now..Let's keep the eternal flames burning in our hearts.We can not make the number of memorials less.We have what we have got. But we should not encrease that number.If everyone starts from himself taking care about the peace and harmony inside himself and then in his family at home,with relatives,with colleagues at work,in own country,between countries,on the entire Planet.. in deeds not just by words ..
    ...sitting by the fire I share my thoughts with you..are yours the same? then take the place nearby..