Khimki War Memorial

The original "demolition" of the war memorial on April 18 created a controversy in Russia.[3] Several sources reported that the remains of the war heroes were lost.[4] According to an early report, officials used bulldozers to demolish the memorial, leaving some of the remains on site.[5] Several sources reported that the remains of the war heroes were lost.[4][6][7] This was later proved to be not true.

Among the reasons for the relocation the officials of Khimki cited the complaints about prostitutes hanging around at night.[5] Another incentive for the removal of the graves was the need to widen the highway.[8]

The communist columnist, Anatoly Baranov, argued that it was the prostitutes who were to be lifted, not the veterans.[9] On Sunday, April 22, a group of members of the Union of Communist Youth staged a protest at the site. The militsiya dispersed the meeting with force, as it was not sanctioned by the authorities. Several of those taking part were arrested; they later claimed to have been beaten and declared a hunger strike.[10][11]

The Khimki war memorial relocation incident was widely and not always appropriately[12][13] used in relation to the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn controversy at the time.[11][14]

The reburial of war heroes on May 6, 2007.[2]

On 6 May 2007, the major TV channels of Russia showed the footage of the reburial of the exhumed remains at the Novoluzhinskoe cemetery, located in the centre of the city.[15] The solemn ceremony was attended by about 1,000 people, including many veterans. An armoured carrier led the funerary procession. "The fallen heroes were remembered with a triple gun salvo from a Moscow Military District regiment."[2][16]

• Khimki
• Bronze Soldier of Tallinn