The maintenance of the so-called Eternal Flame at memorials, monuments, graves and other sacred symbols came from antiquity, when the priests of various cults symbolically lit the sacred flame. This tradition was adopted by contemporaries who honored with its help the memory of unknown soldiers and heroes who died in the Great Patriotic War.
History
For the first time in the new history of the world, the eternal flame was lit at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Paris, near the Arc de Triomphe. The fire appeared in the memorial two years after its inauguration, after which the French sculptor Gregoire Calvet suggested placing it in a special gas burner. With the help of this device, the flame really became Eternal - now it illuminated the tomb not only during the day, but also at night.
Since 1923, the eternal flame at the French memorial has been lit daily and with the participation of World War II veterans.
The tradition of lighting the Eternal Flame was adopted by many states that created city and national monuments in memory of the soldiers who died in the First World War. So, in the 1930-1940s, the Eternal Flame caught fire in the Czech Republic, Romania, Portugal, Canada, USA and Belgium. Then Poland lit it, thus perpetuating the memory of the fallen heroes of World War II, and in Berlin they went even further and installed a glass prism with a fire burning inside over the remains of an unknown German soldier and an unknown victim of concentration camps.
The eternal flame in Russia
In Russia, the Eternal Flame first lit up in Leningrad in 1957 - it was lit at the monument to the Fighters of the Revolution, which is located on the Field of Mars. It was this flame that became the source from which they began to light military memorials throughout Russia, in all Soviet hero cities and cities of military glory. Then the grand opening of the Eternal Flame took place on May 8, 1967 - it was lit at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier near the Kremlin wall
Today, many Russian cities light the Eternal Flame only on memorable days and on military holidays.
At present, the ignition of the Eternal Flame in Russia is gradually fading away, since in the conditions of the urgent need for financing many industries, paying for its maintenance seems to be burning money. In addition, the Eternal Flame is a complex engineering structure that requires constant gas supply and security, and also depends on temperature differences. An additional nail in the situation is hammered by the lack of a legislative framework to consolidate the status of the Eternal Flame and technical regulations for its maintenance. All these factors allow Russian gas companies to charge big money from city authorities for gas supply and maintenance of the gas burner itself.
