The Grieving Mother (Memory space)

The center of Tashkent, always busy intersections on the left side of the Ankhor River, where Independence Square is located. Passing through the square, you can always meet a large number of citizens and guests of the capital who went out to the fountains for festivities, you can hear the laughter of children, conversations, and music. However, if you go to the northern part of the square, walk a little deeper along the sidewalks surrounded by junipers and fir trees, then you can come to the quietest part of the park, where, as if hiding from everyone, the monument of the Grieving Mother is quietly grieving about her loss. 

The history of the construction of the sculpture of the Grieving Mother dates back long before the foundation of Independent Uzbekistan.

On the location of nowadays Independence Square there was located Lenin’s Square, where the Monument to the Unknown Soldier was unveiled on May 7, 1975. The date was timed to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany. The monument symbolized all the soldiers who did not return from the front, the dead or missing. 

In 1999, at the initiative of the President, Islam Karimov, a monument to the Waiting Mother was opened on the site of the Monument to the Unknown Soldier. The sculptor of the work was Ilkhom Jabborov. He managed to convey very subtly the feelings of mother, who sadly bowed her head, and despite the depressing news from the front, still continues to wait for her son. The hope of mothers never goes out. The sculptor himself admitted in an interview that he considered mother's emotions and feelings from his mother, who had been mourning and waiting for his dead older brother from the front all her life.

 However, the name of the sculpture “Waiting Mother” has not been fixed among the people, and to this day, the monument is called the monument of the “Grieving Mother". In front of the sculpture there is an eternal flame, the flame of which does not fade all year round. Around, the inscription – “You are forever in our hearts, dear”, which reminds of the terrible past of the war and warns to learn a lesson from history. 

Further, the Alley of Glory stretches from the monument, surrounded by junipers, which symbolize Uzbekistan and fir trees, symbolizing Russia. After walking along the alley, you can go to the marble pavilion and the Book of Memory, the pages of which are located in special Arabic niches, on 14 steles as a sign of the 14 regions of the Republic that sent their sons to war.  The names and surnames of our compatriots who died and went missing at the front are forever inscribed in golden letters in the pages of the Book of Memory.

There is no future without history, and the Memory Square located in the center of Tashkent always reminds its visitors that the greatest value on earth is a peaceful sky.