Revolution Fighters Square

The space at the intersection of Svetlanskaya Street and Okeansky Avenue was conceived as a place where Vladivostok gathers for celebrations, concerts, and fairs. To bring it level with the street, the ground was raised, deep piles and slabs were installed inside, and the monument’s base on the city side was turned into a grandstand. A figure with a flag rises above the open space; at its foot, two groups of people can be seen gathered around it.

The monument appeared here before the square did. On April twenty-ninth, nineteen sixty-one, the nine-meter flag-bearer was erected above a site where Svetlanskaya Street still sloped steeply down toward Golden Horn Bay. The former city garden remained nearby, and there was not yet any level space for celebrations, concerts, and fairs.

Veterans of the Revolution and the Civil War proposed putting up the monument. They pressed for a shared memorial to all those who had fought for Soviet rule in the Far East. Several sites were considered for it. When the intersection of Svetlanskaya Street and Okeansky Avenue was chosen, a dispute arose: should the flag-bearer face the city, where processions took place, or the bay?

The decision was made by Vladimir Chernyshev, the first secretary of the regional party committee—the leader of Primorye in those years. He wanted the figure’s position itself to show how the events of nineteen twenty-two ended. Chernyshev ordered the fighter turned to face the sea, following the ships on which Japanese units and the Bolsheviks’ opponents were leaving Vladivostok. For that reason, the flag-bearer ended up with his back to the main street.

The man at the top depicts a fighter of the People's Revolutionary Army of the Far Eastern Republic. The republic was a separate pro-Soviet state, created as a buffer between Soviet Russia and Japanese troops: a direct clash could have prolonged the war. Its army included many former Red partisans. In the autumn of nineteen twenty-two, they defeated the Zemskaya Rat—the last major White forces in Primorye. After the evacuation of Japanese troops, the People's Revolutionary Army occupied Vladivostok. A few weeks later, the Far Eastern Republic ceased to exist and became part of Soviet Russia.

Two groups at the foot of the monument broaden the meaning of the inscription. A sailor, a soldier, and a worker with a fallen double-headed eagle depict the Revolution of nineteen seventeen. A soldier, a machine gunner, and a partisan leader recall the fighting in Primorye, which continued for another five years. These are the people whom the square’s official name calls revolution fighters.

The central flag-bearer has no name of his own. But Aleksei Teneta modeled one of the female figures on Tamara Golovnina, a Vladivostok underground activist and organizer of a partisan detachment. Her regular work was newspaper proofreading; in the underground, she passed along assignments and information. During a trip to Vladivostok on instructions from the partisan headquarters, Golovnina was arrested and sentenced to death. On the way back from court to prison, she escaped and rejoined the partisans. Golovnina survived the war, became an agronomist, and decades later the sculptor left her face among the bronze participants in these events.

In nineteen sixty-four, the city executive committee gave the emerging space the name Revolution Fighters Square. Builders then raised the ground to the level of Svetlanskaya Street, drove deep piles, laid slabs, and covered them with asphalt. The monument’s base on the city side was made into a grandstand. That is why city celebrations, concerts, and fairs take place in front of the monument: the open square was created around it as a place for everyone to gather.

Golden Horn Bay remains before the flag-bearer’s eyes, the square arose behind his back, and among the figures at his feet stands a woman who heard her own death sentence and managed to escape it.