The memo­r­i­al com­plex was erect­ed on the bank of the Volkhov on Eka­terinin­skaya Hill, locat­ed in the south­ern part of the Krem­lin Park. It was opened on Jan­u­ary 20, 1974, on the occa­sion of the 30th anniver­sary of the lib­er­a­tion of Nov­gorod from the fas­cists. The authors of the project were sculp­tors G.V. Nero­da, A. Fil­ip­po­va and archi­tects A. Dushkin, A. Saykovsky. The mon­u­ment, nick­named the Horse by the caus­tic towns­peo­ple, is very sim­ply designed and con­sists of an eight-meter eques­tri­an stat­ue, behind which ris­es a thir­­ty-meter brick tow­er with a bal­cony crowned with a boat. An inter­nal spi­ral stair­case leads to the bal­cony; it is unknown whether mere mor­tals can climb it.