Mamayev Kurgan

This is the name of a hill that was the epicenter of the bloodiest and most decisive battle of World War II.  The battle took place in Stalingrad (today known as Volgograd) between 17 July 1942 and 2 February 1943.  Atop this hill, which changed hands numerous times during the war, is "The Motherland Calls" statue.  The statue is one of the highest in the world and is a part of an enormous memorial complex that was constructed in Volgograd in 1967.  In the West, during the Cold War, very little was shared about this battle.  I had only really known that we had landed at Normandy and liberated Europe from the Nazis.  This proud moment in our history is actually a piece of a much larger pie.  I learned this the hard way when I lived in Uzbekistan, when students asked me some tough questions.  I didn't know nearly as much as I thought I did! I'm trying to make it for it now!  The video I found (below) is truly priceless and is worth anyone's time. The first photo came from this travelogue, which also shows more photos and gives one person's perspective on modern-day Volgograd.

source

 

In an e-mail exchange several years ago with an American who knows way more about history than your typical US citizen, I gave him a bit of trivia:

 

me: Who is America's Caesar?

him: MacArthur

me: Who was perhaps the USSR's MacArthur, Eisenhower and Patton rolled into one? 

him: I don't know any of their generals.

me:  Zhukov

 

And then I sent him this follow-up:

 

If you ever get a chance, watch movies about Russia's march on Berlin.  It's shocking to many in other countries that we don't know much about Zhukov and even Russia's side of WWII.  Like you, I didn't know his name.  Only my recent interest brought this to my attention.  If you can ever watch the YouTube footage of the Red Square parade at the end of the war, Zhukov rides the white horse.  Whereas many Russians rightly remain conflicted about Stalin (crimes being one reason), General Zhukov is somebody they all are proud of.  I would say the world owes him a lot.  Stalingrad was the turning point of WWII.




Zhukov on horse, Victory Parade, Red Square 1945 - source

For other blog posts I have written on this subject, click the titles below:

Operation Barbarossa
The Quest
 Storming of the Reichstag
Victory Day
65 Years