Leonti Gurtiev was general-major of the Red Army and a hero of the Soviet Union who died in battle in 1943 during the liberation of Oryol. This statue of him was originally unveiled in 1954 at the location where he was buried outside the city's Ivan Bunin Public Library, but it was moved to this small park which now bears his name in 1976 after his remains were transferred to the city's Troitskoe Cemetery.