Mamayev Kurgan, Volgograd

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Mamaev kurgan is the highest point of the city and very fierce fights happened for this hill during the Battle of Stalingrad. It is actually a Tatar burial site. Kurgan (todays Turkish: Korugan) means; a sheltered place. For its strategic importance dozens of times the hill changed hands. The hill is now an open air museum, and my guide told me 35 thousand Russian soldiers are burried under this relatively small land. Maybe it is place where highest number of people died for. Also the graves of some famous figures of this war are located in this hill. Like famous Russian sniper Zaitsev (He was portrayed in the movie “Enemy at the Gates”) and the commander of the Russian army marchal Chuikov. Chuikov is the only Russian marchal who is not burried at the walls of Kremlin. By his will, he was burried to the hill next to the men he commanded.

Many things in Mamaev Kurgan are symbolic. There are 200 stairs which go to the statue, each representing a day in the battle. And the alley of poplars is also 200 m’s long, again every meter represents a day in the battle. After the poplars alley, we ran into a statue having a granade and an automatic rifle in his hand. The upper body of the statue is naked which means it is for every Soviet soldier regardles of rank and the facial features are made like Marchal Chuikovs. Besides this statue you may see “Motherland is calling” statue. (In russian 'Rodina Mat' zovyot' ) So it is meant the soldier is protecting his country.

Then we reached to ruined walls where oaths, phrases from the soldiers who fought during the war were written over the walls. The most famous one is probably “Kajdiy dom -eto krepost” (Every building is a fortress). Also you hear recordings of gun fires, war songs of the time as you pass along these walls.

Next we came to the square of heroes, actually 6 sculptures erected for nurses, sailors and soldiers who took action in the war. One of the sculptures was about General Glazkov who did not want to leave the front even he was shot. After he died, someting about 160 bullets were taken out of his body.

Our next stop was the hall of the warrior glory. It is actually a conical building where an eternal fire lits and in the walls you see the name of the soldiers who perished in the war.

And after getting out of the hall finally you reach to Mother Russia and Sorrowfull Mother sculptures. At this point Volgograd can be seen more clearly.

the battle of (than) stalingrad, was maybe one of the most fierce ones in the whole war (though every single has its own tragic).
the momument can be seen from all over volgograd and is nothing but impressive. i was there and a beautiful sunny day, but had a hard time thinking of tenthousands dying there in some distant winters in the 1940's.
go there in the memory of all the dead.

the Memorial on Mamayev Hill. That is the main sightseen in Volgograd. On this picture is the general view on the Memorial. It was built in 1970. I mean it was finished in 1970, on 25-th aniversary of finishing the World War II. It is one of the largest memorials in the World, dedicated to the WW II. It is still visited by many tourists from Russia. The first sculpture you see is called 'Fight to the Last'. It is seen as a soldier standing with the last granade ready to face death. He's like a rock -- that's why the bottom part of the sculpture is just the rock. Around this sculpture there's a fountain, where people drop their donations to the memorial.

This is one more general view of the complex. On the right-hand side there are 6 fragments, representing courage of the Russian fighters in that battle. On the left-hand side there is a large fountain, where water is always still and clear. On the back there's a main sculpture of the complex -- Mother Russia. Actually, Mamayev Hill is a very old hill. I don't think anbody knows exactly why it was called so, but it is very old name. During the Stalingrad battle Mamayev Hill was the major aim, because it is the highest point in the city. But to biuld the memorial builders had to increase the height of the hill. Now it is about twice as high as it used to be before.

Inthis hall you can find the full list of those poeple who died during the bittle in Stalingrad.

Mamaev Kurgan has an indoor section also, where an eternal flame is guarded by a soldier.

It's the main monument in the complex Mamayev Kurgan

just another view