Volgograd (population 1,010,000; the administrative centre of Volgograd Oblast; on the western bank of the Volga River at the point where the Volga and the Don rivers are closest (the Volga-Don Canal connecting the two rivers was built in 1952; the point where the canal meets the Volga is 50 km south of the city); the most historically significant city on the Volga) is the city of the Battle of Stalingrad — the largest, most deadly and most strategically decisive battle of the Second World War (and thus, most historians argue, the most important single battle in modern history): the 200-day battle (August 23, 1942 — February 2, 1943) between the German 6th Army (initially 300,000 soldiers, commanded by Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus) and the Soviet forces (the 62nd Army, commanded by General Vasily Chuikov) resulted in the encirclement and capture of the German 6th Army (91,000 survivors, including 24 generals and Field Marshal Paulus — the first German Field Marshal ever to be captured), the death of approximately 1.1 million Soviet soldiers and civilians and approximately 850,000 German and Axis soldiers, the destruction of virtually every building in the city, and the decisive turning point of the war (after Stalingrad the German army never again launched a major strategic offensive in the east). The Mamayev Kurgan memorial complex (the hilltop above the Volga where the most intense fighting of the Battle of Stalingrad occurred; the hill changed hands 14 times in 140 days) with the "Rodina-Mat' Zovyot!" ("The Motherland Calls!") statue (85 m from the base of the pedestal to the tip of the sword — the largest free-standing sculpture in the world from 1967 to 1989, when it was overtaken by the Buddha at Spring Temple in China) is the most important war memorial in Russia and one of the most visited tourist sites in the entire country.
Mamayev Kurgan (the "Burial Mound of Mamai" — the 102 m hilltop above the Volga River that was the most bitterly contested terrain of the Battle of Stalingrad): the history (the Mamayev Kurgan ("Mamaev Hill") is named for the Mongol commander Mamai whose forces camped here (the hill was used as a military observation post from the Mongol invasion (1237-1242) through the 18th century (the Pugachev Rebellion (1773-1775) was partly fought on the Mamayev Kurgan) to the Battle of Stalingrad); the battle on the hill (August 1942 — February 1943: the Mamayev Kurgan changed hands 14 times during the 140-day battle for the hill; the German forces (Army Group B) held the northern and western slopes while the Soviet 62nd Army (General Chuikov) held the southern and eastern slopes and the summit; the hill was so contested because it commanded the view of the entire Volga crossing (the Soviet supply lines across the Volga to the besieged city)); the snow was black from the explosion residue and the corpses; the soil of the Mamayev Kurgan contained such a density of metal shrapnel after the battle that grass would not grow on the hill for several years after the battle ended); the memorial complex (the Mamayev Kurgan war memorial (designed by sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich and architect Yakov Belopolsky; construction 1959-1967): the processional route from the central Volgograd city (the stepped ramp up the hill) through the symbolic stations (the "Ruins of the Wall", the "Heroes Square", the "Hall of Military Glory", the eternal flame) to the summit with the Rodina-Mat statue).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideRodina-Mat Zovyot ("The Motherland Calls!" — the monumental statue on the summit of Mamayev Kurgan; the centrepiece of the Stalingrad war memorial complex): the statistics (height from the base of the pedestal to the tip of the raised sword: 85 m (the pedestal is 2 m; the figure itself is 72 m; the sword is 11 m); weight: 7,900 tonnes (the figure alone: 8,000 tonnes of concrete with steel frame reinforcement); arm length: 20 m; sword: 33 m long; the Rodina-Mat was the largest free-standing sculpture in the world from its completion in 1967 until 1989 when the Spring Temple Buddha in Henan, China (153 m) was completed); the design (the sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich (1908-1974) — the most important Soviet monumental sculptor; the figure represents an allegorical woman (the personification of the Soviet Motherland, the "Rodina") in the moment of calling her sons to battle: the right arm raised with the sword, the left arm extended forward in the summons gesture; the expression: the open mouth (calling), the eyes wide open, the robes blown back by the wind of movement; the scale (the Rodina-Mat is so large that the internal structure is a hollow concrete frame: visitors can climb the internal staircase through the figure's body (the stairs wind through the arm and the torso) to a viewing platform; access through guided tours only)); the eternal flame (the eternal flame in the Hall of Military Glory below the summit — the hall contains 35 m circular mosaic panoramas depicting the defenders of Stalingrad and the revolving honour guard of Russian Army soldiers changing every minute at the eternal flame).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuidePanorama Museum of the Battle of Stalingrad (the Muzey-panorama "Stalingradskaya bitva" — the most important museum of the Second World War in Russia; located on the Volga embankment in central Volgograd (Volgograd is the post-Stalin name of Stalingrad — the city was renamed Stalingrad in 1925 (honouring Stalin's role in the 1919 defense of the city from the White Army in the Civil War) and returned to the pre-revolutionary name Volgograd in 1961 during the Khrushchev de-Stalinisation campaign)): the panoramic painting (the "Stalingrad Battle" panoramic painting (1982) — the largest panoramic painting in Russia: 16 m × 120 m (circumference) depicting the moment of the Soviet counterattack (Operation Uranus, November 19, 1942) in a 360° circular panoramic view; the panoramic painting technique (the horizontal band of painted canvas at 5-6 m height, combined with three-dimensional "foreground diorama" objects (the actual-scale destroyed vehicles, weapons, equipment, rubble and human figures) that blend seamlessly with the painted horizon — the most elaborate panoramic war painting technique in the Soviet tradition)); the exhibits (the museum exhibits covering all phases of the Stalingrad battle (the German advance across the steppe (June-August 1942), the city battle (August-November 1942), the Soviet encirclement (Operation Uranus, November 1942), the German attempt to relieve the encirclement (Operation Winter Storm, December 1942), the liquidation of the Kessel (the "cauldron" — the encircled German pocket), the capture of Field Marshal Paulus (February 2, 1943)); the artefacts (the authentic weapons, uniforms, maps and personal items from both German and Soviet participants in the battle).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuidePavlov's House and the Stalingrad battle ruins (the surviving and commemorated battle sites in central Volgograd): Pavlov's House (Dom Pavlova — the apartment building at the intersection of Sovetskaya Street and the Penzenskaya Street that became the most famous single building of the Battle of Stalingrad: the 4-story pre-war apartment building was captured and fortified by a 25-soldier Soviet garrison led by Sergeant Yakov Pavlov on September 27, 1942; the garrison held the building for 58 days (from September 27 to November 24, 1942) against continuous German attempts to retake it (the Pavlov's House garrison repelled more than 25 German assaults in 58 days with 7 soldiers killed); the building was of tactical importance because it commanded a 1 km line of sight across the open square directly to the Volga River crossing (the Soviet supply line across the Volga); the building was more defended and held longer against German attacks than the 3-month German siege of Paris in 1871; General Chuikov (the commander of the 62nd Army) wrote that more Germans died attacking Pavlov's House in 58 days than in the entire German advance to the English Channel in 1940; the current building (the apartment building was rebuilt after the war on the original foundations; a commemorative plaque wall and the "Mill" (the ruined grain mill adjacent to Pavlov's House that was deliberately left in its bombed condition as a memorial) mark the site of the most famous apartment defense in military history).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideVolga River and Volgograd embankment (the central waterfront of Volgograd on the western bank of the Volga River): the Volga (the Volga River (the "Mother Volga" — the most important river in Russian culture; 3,531 km from its source in the Valdai Hills to the Caspian Sea; the longest river in Europe; the most important river for Russian shipping, industry and culture from the medieval period to the present): the Volga at Volgograd (the river at Volgograd is 1.5-2 km wide, making the crossing from the west bank (Volgograd) to the east bank (Krasnaya Sloboda and the eastern Volgograd suburbs) one of the most dramatic river crossings in Russia; the Volga at Volgograd is at its southernmost navigable point before the Volga-Don Canal (50 km south) diverts traffic toward the Don and the Black Sea)); the Volgograd embankment (the Central Embankment (the Tsentralnaya Naberezhnaya) — the Soviet-era landscaped embankment (1950s-1960s reconstruction) with the monumental fountain (the "Friendship of Nations" fountain — the Soviet-era fountain celebrating the fraternal unity of the Soviet peoples), the river passenger port, the riverboat (rechnoy tramvay — the river tram service across the Volga to Krasnaya Sloboda and north along the river to the Mamayev Kurgan); the river boats (the historic Volga passenger boats (the hydrofoil "Raketa" class — the Soviet-era hydrofoil passenger vessel designed in the 1950s by Rostislav Alexeyev; the most iconic vessel of the Soviet Volga fleet)).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideOperation Uranus and the Soviet counterattack (the strategic turning point of the Battle of Stalingrad — the Soviet encirclement of the German 6th Army): Operation Uranus (launched November 19, 1942 — the Soviet strategic counteroffensive designed by Marshal Georgy Zhukov and Chief of General Staff Alexander Vasilevsky: the simultaneous attacks of the South-Western Front (General Nikolai Vatutin) from the north and the Stalingrad Front (General Andrei Yeremenko) from the south at the weakest points of the German salient (the Axis flanks held by the Romanian 3rd and 4th Armies — the less well-equipped and less motivated Romanian forces rather than the elite German divisions); the encirclement closed at Kalach-on-Don (60 km west of Volgograd) on November 23, 1942 when the Soviet pincers met, trapping the German 6th Army (approximately 300,000 men at encirclement) in the Kessel (the "cauldron" — the German term for an encirclement); the Kessel reduction (Operation Ring — January 10-February 2, 1943): the systematic compression of the Kessel from the outside inward; Hitler refused to allow Paulus to break out (the "fortress" order — Hitler declared Stalingrad a "fortress city" to be held at all costs); by February 1, 1943 the Kessel had been reduced to the city centre ruins; Paulus surrendered February 2, 1943 with 91,000 surviving soldiers (of the original 300,000); the military lesson (the Stalingrad encirclement was the largest encirclement in military history — the 300,000-man Kessel was larger than the entire British Expeditionary Force in France in 1940).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideVolga-Don Canal (the Volgo-Donskoy sudokhodny kanal (the Volga-Don Shipping Canal) — the 101 km artificial waterway connecting the Volga River (at Volgograd) with the Don River (at the city of Kalach-on-Don) and thus completing the inland waterway link between the Caspian Sea (connected to the Volga) and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov (connected to the Don): the history (the idea of connecting the Volga and the Don was first proposed by Ivan the Terrible (1569) and by Peter the Great (1697-1701, a failed attempt with 30,000 workers); the canal was finally built 1948-1952 under Stalin's "Great Construction Projects of Communism" programme (the five Stalinist megaprojects announced in 1950: the Volga-Don Canal, the Kuibyshev Hydroelectric Station, the Stalingrad Hydroelectric Station, the Turkmen Canal and the Siberian River Diversion); construction by GULAG forced labour (approximately 237,000 GULAG prisoners worked on the canal construction, of whom approximately 25,000 died); the 13 locks (the lock system that lifts the vessels from the Volga level (13 m above sea level) over the watershed (40 m) to the Don level (3 m) in 101 km; the most complex lock system in Russia); the Lenin monument (the 24-metre figure of Lenin at the Volga entrance to the canal (1952 — the world's tallest freestanding statue of Lenin); the canal entrance gateway (the Classical portico and the Lenin statue form the ceremonial entrance to the canal from the Volga).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideVolgograd evening (the Soviet reconstruction city): the city character (Volgograd is one of the most completely rebuilt Soviet cities in Russia — the near-total destruction of the city during the Battle of Stalingrad (95%+ of buildings destroyed by the end of the battle) made Volgograd the largest single reconstruction project in Soviet history; the city was rebuilt 1943-1960 on the Stalin-era "Soviet Baroque" urban planning model (the broad avenues, the monumental Neo-Classical buildings (the granite-faced 7-storey apartment blocks along the central Lenin Avenue), the landscaped public parks and the heroic war memorials); the current city (the Lenin Avenue (the main street of Soviet-era Volgograd — the 6-lane boulevard flanked by the colonnaded Stalinist apartment blocks, the fountains and the public gardens) is the most completely preserved Stalinist urban environment in a major Russian city; the tram (the Volgograd "MetroTram" — the underground tram (the Volgograd tram enters a tunnel under the city centre and operates as a de facto metro between the central Volgograd and the northern districts; the most unusual urban transit system in Russia: the tram-metro hybrid, opened 1984)); the riverside evening (the Volga embankment at dusk — the wide river (1.5-2 km) at the golden hour, the river traffic (the long Volga cargo barges), the sound of the river: the most atmospheric evening experience in Volgograd is the sunset over the Volga from the Central Embankment).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideHall of Military Glory (the Zal Voinskoy Slavy — the central commemorative hall of the Mamayev Kurgan memorial complex; the most emotionally powerful interior space in the entire Russian war memorial tradition): the hall (the circular hall 42 m in diameter and 13.5 m high, built below the summit level of the Mamayev Kurgan (the hall is partially underground, reached by descending the "Ruins of the Wall" staircase on the processional route from the city to the Rodina-Mat summit)); the architecture (the 35 m-tall mosaic band covering the circular wall of the hall: the 34 mosaic scarves (each 2 m × 35 m), each bearing the name of a Hero of the Soviet Union (the highest Soviet military decoration) awarded during the Battle of Stalingrad and held by a sculpted stone hand emerging from the mosaic; the 7,200 names of defenders inscribed on the mosaic panels; the artificial torch (the eternal flame at the centre of the hall floor — a hand with a flaming torch rising from the circular marble floor; the flame burns at all times, maintained by the Soviet-era and now Russian-era gas supply)): the honour guard (the Russian Army soldiers who stand guard at the eternal flame change every 30 minutes — the most formal military honour guard ceremony in Volgograd; the changing of the guard is performed with the maximum precision of movement (the goose step, the rifle presentation (the arm swing with the AK-74 rifle), the 30-metre walk to the new position).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideRossoshka Military Cemetery (the Voenny memorial Rossoshka — the bi-national military cemetery 18 km west of Volgograd): the cemetery (the Rossoshka Military Cemetery is the most unusual war memorial site in Russia: the German military cemetery (the Kriegsgräberstätte Rossoschka, maintained by the German War Graves Commission (Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge) since 1998) and the Russian military cemetery are located side by side on the same site — the German graves (approximately 50,000 German and Axis soldiers buried) separated from the Russian graves (approximately 50,000 Soviet soldiers) by a narrow path; the German section (the low black basalt cross markers flush with the grass — the standard German War Graves Commission marker design, the flat stones with the names and dates engraved; the low, restrained, unpolitical character of the German military cemetery in contrast to the heroic Socialist Realist war memorial aesthetic of the Soviet/Russian section)); the symbolism (the Rossoshka cemetery is the most visible statement of the post-Cold War German-Russian reconciliation at Stalingrad: the two formerly opposing nations maintaining adjacent cemeteries for the dead of the most catastrophic battle between their armies; the German War Graves Commission has worked since 1990 to identify, excavate and rebury the German dead of the Battle of Stalingrad who lay in mass graves across the Volgograd region; approximately 400,000 German soldiers still officially listed as "missing" from Stalingrad).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideVolga River boat tour (the riverboat excursion on the Volga at Volgograd — the most essential perspective on the city and the battle): the boat tour (the regular river excursion boats (the "raketa" — the Soviet hydrofoil class, and the standard river excursion boat) depart from the Central Volgograd River Port on the embankment; the 2-hour round-trip excursion up and down the Volga River between the city: the views of Volgograd from the water: the Central Embankment, the Mamayev Kurgan hill with the Rodina-Mat statue visible on the summit (the 85 m statue is visible from 10+ km distance and is the most distinctive skyline element of any Russian city from the river); the crossing point (the Soviet supply crossing during the Battle of Stalingrad — the most important military crossing in the war: the German Luftwaffe and artillery tried to destroy the Volga crossing throughout the 200-day battle; the Soviet ferries and barges operated 24 hours a day under continuous bombardment to supply the 62nd Army in the city; the "Road of Life" of Stalingrad (the equivalent of the Leningrad "Road of Life" across Lake Ladoga) — the Volga crossing from the east bank (Krasnaya Sloboda) to the west bank (Stalingrad city) under artillery and bombing attack); the Volga wildlife (the Volga at Volgograd supports a remarkable diversity of Caspian-basin fish species: the Volga bream (Abramis brama), the sterlet (Acipenser ruthenus — the small sturgeon species; the Caspian sturgeon population (the beluga sturgeon Huso huso (the largest freshwater fish in the world — up to 6 m, 1,500 kg in historical records) has been critically endangered by the Volga hydroelectric dams since the 1950s).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideVolgograd final afternoon (the last walk through a city that carries the most profound wartime history in Russia): the scale of the Battle of Stalingrad (the numbers that define the scale of the battle for the visitor: total casualties of all sides approximately 1.95 million (military) + 400,000+ civilians (the Soviet civilian population of Stalingrad (pre-war population 450,000) reduced to approximately 1,500 surviving civilians in the ruins by the end of the battle); the physical destruction (Stalingrad had 126,000 residential buildings before the battle; approximately 41,000 survived in any form); the significance (the Battle of Stalingrad is the turning point of the Second World War not because it was the largest battle (the Battle of Kursk was larger) or the longest (the Siege of Leningrad was 872 days vs. Stalingrad's 200 days) but because it was the first major strategic defeat of the German Wehrmacht in the war and the first encirclement of an entire German Army — it permanently changed the psychological balance of the war from German confidence of victory to German fear of the Soviet capacity for operational-level warfare)); the final walk (the return to the Mamayev Kurgan at the end of the afternoon — the hill in the late afternoon light, the Rodina-Mat silhouette against the sky, the Volga visible below — is the most contemplative experience available to any visitor to a 20th-century war memorial in Europe or Russia; the scale of the statue, the number of the dead, the river that was the "Road of Life" and the "Road of Death" simultaneously make Volgograd the most emotionally resonant city in Russia for any historically aware visitor).