The photograph shows the broad honor avenue of the Soviet War Memorial in Treptower Park: two massive, triangular pylons bearing the Soviet hammer-and-sickle symbol flank the stone central axis leading toward the main sculpture. Kneeling soldier figures and an upright warrior are visible in the background; a few civilian visitors walk along the avenue. Dedicated in 1949, the memorial is one of the largest Soviet commemorative monuments outside the USSR and commemorates the approximately 80,000 Soviet soldiers who fell in the Battle of Berlin. In divided Berlin in 1955, the monument, situated in the Soviet-administered sector, was a central symbol of Soviet presence and claims to power in the frontline city of the Cold War.