The Village Sights

Like in many other villages, there is a common grave of the fallen soldiers who perished for the liberation of the village from the Nazi invaders in 1943. The war memorial is located next to the village club, on your way from the cathedral to the village council in the main street.

The memorial commemorates the 286 villagers who fought at the fronts of the Second World War, among them 166 persons fell in battles and 258 were awarded with medals and orders.
There are four memorial plaque at the foot of the obelisk.

Eternal glory to the fallen heroes

The inscription reads, "Eternal Glory to heroes who fell in the struggle for freedom and independence of our Motherland!"

Your feat is immortal

The inscription reads, "May the grateful people eternally dip the battle standards before your feat of arms".

Memorial plaque the war memorial

The memorial plaque reads, “Here on February 23, 1943 the guardsmen of the 14th Cavalry Division of the 7th Cavalry Corps fought a furious battle against the Nazi invaders and won”.

Erected in 1968

The monument was erected on February 23, 1968 by the workers of Lutugino County in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Armed Forces of the USSR.

The memorial consists of an obelisk with the star of the Order of the Patriotic War on top.

To the left of the obelisk you can the 166 names of the villagers from Illyria who did not come back from the war.

There are plaques with names of the soldiers who fell in the battles of the last war.

Unlike many other war memorials, where only soldiers and officers were buried, this one has also a grave of the fallen partisans who fought in the battles.
The obelisk stands above the common grave of 150 soldiers of the Red Army and partisans, who fell in the battles for liberation of Illyria from Nazi invaders in February 1943.

The memorial to the victims of the Famine of 1932-1933 is located next to the war memorial.

Take a stroll along the Village Promenade. It was paved 15 years ago thanks to the efforts of the village mayor Nickolay, who is my friend. The Promenade looks very special and even unique.

Not every village has something like that. It starts from the store in Sovietskaya Street and leads you to the village park, the war memorial and the cathedral.
The shop, where the Promenade starts, is one of the five shops in the village. You can buy lots of things here, even ice-cream, beer, food, almost anything, like in a town. Other shops are located in the main street adjoining Sovietskaya Street. To my surprise, they offer lots of goods, just as much as the shops in the neighboring town do.

Liudmilla Bar is quite a decent one, with draft beer, lots of other drinks and dishes just like in a city. You can buy food in the store next door and ask the bartender Tatiana to cook some dishes for you or merely have tea like my friend and I.

At Liudmilla Pub

We had Ukrainian varenykys at this bar and some tea with biscuits. The bar owner is an affable and talkative lady. Like in many towns and cities, teenagers and young people of Illyria tend to get together outside of the village bar and stand or sit there drinking their beer and talking. There is a table and a beer tent outside the bar to the left of the entrance. On weekends they gather at the village club and have a disco there.

Sovietskaya Street is the main street of the village. It is asphalted, but not to the end of the street. The building of the Village Council is located in Sovietskaya Street. It is one of the oldest houses in the village dating back to the second half of the 19th century. It used to belong to the landlord.

The council itself occupies the second floor of the building. You can see two flags at the entrance – the Ukrainian flag and the village flag that is blue-yellow-white. This is the only village flag I have seen in Luhansk. My friend Nick, the village mayor, made the flag proposal and it was approved by the district administration.

Nick also had one more flag pole erected. It is used for displaying the flags of people from abroad coming to Illyria. Flags of different countries have already been flown on that flagpole: the United States, Greece, Serbia. Nick the mayor would be glad to receive you, fellow travelers. Please bring your country's flag with you and let him know beforehand you are arriving.