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By Tatyana Moskovchenko
The year 1967 was memorable to all the residents of Volgograd, formerly
Stalingrad. Especially so to those who had taken part in the battle of
Stalingrad. A grand memorial was opened there on the Mamayev Hill. It was
a crucial height during the city’s defence in 1942 and 1943 and the scene
of the most desperate fighting.
The Memorial begins with a large stone at the foot of the Mamayev Hill.
It shows people, young and old, with their heads bowed, carrying wreaths
and flowers. The “Stand and Fight to Death” Square follows. There
is a pool at the centre of it, which symbolises the Volga River, on which
the city stands. A sculpture of a soldier is in the middle of the pool.
He holds a sub-machine gun in one hand and a hand-grenade in the other.
The soldier symbolises the defenders of the city, to whom 60 years ago
the words “Stand and Fight to Death” and “Not a Step Back” were not mere
words.
The next composition, called “Ruined Walls” has inscriptions on it, made
by the defenders of the city with shell fragments, knives... Many inscriptions
tell us the names of some of the heroic defenders of the city of Stalingrad.
The “Square of Heroes” composition comes next. It consists of six sculptures,
collective images of the defenders of the city, and leads to the
“The Hall of Military Glory”. There are flags at half-mast on its walls.
They bear in gold the names of the dead. An Eternal flame burns in the
centre of “The Hall of Military Glory”, in a torch in a huge marble hand.
Soldiers of the local garrison form guard of honor by the Eternal flame.
The mournful, yet beautiful sounds of music by Schumann add to the atmosphere
of “The Hall of Military Glory”, which can leave no one indifferent and
even move people to tears as does the “Square of Grief” composition, which
follows. The composition shows a mother bowing her head in deep grief over
the body of her dead son. Next to the square are the common graves of defenders,
known and unknown.
On top of the Mamayev Hill stands the giant figure of a woman holding a
sword in her upraised hand. The sculpture, called the Motherland, symbolises
a mother guarding her native land, home and family. The sculpture is very
impressive and it can be seen from various parts of the city. At night,
it is illumined.
Every year veterans of the battle of Stalingrad come to the
city on the Volga River to pay tribute to the dead, to share memories with
the younger generation and, of course, to recall those dramatic 200 days
and nights of the battle of Stalingrad.
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