23 Monument to soldiers-guards installed in 1989. The monument is presented in the form of a group of soldiers of the opposing enemy, and stele with names of the dead, from the top of which fly in the sky bronze cranes. The author of the monument - sculptor AI Penkov.

The monument was erected in honor of the immortal exploits 23 158 Guards Regiment 51th Guards Rifle Division. A small group of soldiers led by Lieutenant Guard A.M.Grigorevym cost of their lives is not only held in the city of Polotsk blown bridge. The Germans tried fourteen times to dislodge fighters held their positions. Heroes managed to destroy only the flamethrower squall hit.

For a long time it was assumed that all 23 fighters were killed in the battle for the bridge over the Northern Dvina, however, one of them was lucky - he was badly injured, but he was picked up and saved orderlies. It was the sergeant Mikhail Kozhevnikov. His burned jet flamethrower, but then filled up with earth, which flew into the air after being hit near the foreman enemy shell. Orderly Sergeant S.D.Alferov, risking their own lives, the wounded man dug out of the ground - he was still alive. The wounded hero managed to smuggle in a field hospital and then to a hospital in the rear. Mikhail Kozhevnikov after the second birthday of the terrible meat grinder in Polotsk has found its place in the peaceful post-war reconstruction of the country devastated. He worked in construction, in the Stavropol region as a driver at the plant.

This monument is worth seeing if you're going to Polotsk. Not only to pay tribute to those who paid with their lives for the freedom of the whole country, but also to admire the wonderfully energetic and dynamic, piercingly sad song.