The 52-meter-tall monument "The Motherland Calls! — the tallest statue in the world when erected in 1967

Mamayev Kurgan (Russian: Мамаев Курган) is a dominant height overlooking the city of Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad) in southern Russia. The name in Russian means "tumulus of Mamai". (Mamai commanded the Tatar Golden Horde in the 1370s — no historical evidence exists of his burial on the site.) Today Mamayev Kurgan features a memorial complex commemorating the Battle of Stalingrad (August 1942 to February 1943). The battle saw a decisive Soviet victory over Axis forces on the Eastern front of World War II. Image File history File linksMetadata Mutter_Heimat. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Mutter_Heimat. ... The Motherland statue in Volgograd (former Stalingrad). ... Volgograd (Russian: ), formerly called Tsaritsyn (Russian: ) (1598–1925) and Stalingrad (Russian: ) (1925–1961) is a city in and the administrative center of Volgograd Oblast, Russia. ... Kurgan is a Türkic word for tumulus, burial mound or barrow, heaped over a burial chamber, or a kurgan cenotaph. ... Mamai (or Mamay) was a powerful military commander of Golden Horde in the 1370s, who resided in the western part of this nomadic state, which is now the Southern Ukrainian Steppes and the Crimean Peninsula. ... Kültigin Monument where first mention of Tatar people is inscribed Tatars (Tatar: Tatarlar/Татарлар), sometimes spelled Tartar (more about the name), is a collective name applied to the Turkic speaking people of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. ... The Golden Horde (Turkish: Altın Ordu) was a Turkic state established in parts of present-day Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan after the break up of the Mongol Empire in the 1240s. ... Combatants Germany Italy Romania Hungary Soviet Union Commanders Friedrich Paulus Erich von Manstein Hermann Hoth Vasiliy Chuikov Aleksandr Vasilyevskiy Strength German Sixth Army German Fourth Panzer Army German SS 9th Anti-Aircraft Division Romanian Third Army Romanian Fourth Army Hungarian Second Army Italian Eighth Army Unknown number of Germans Unknown... Soviet redirects here. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The Eastern Front was the theatre of combat between Nazi Germany and its allies against the Soviet Union during World War II. It was somewhat separate from the other theatres of the war, not only geographically, but also for its scale and ferocity. ... Combatants Major Allied powers: United Kingdom Soviet Union United States France Republic of China and others Major Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Charles de Gaulle Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hirohito Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead...

When forces of the German 6th Army launched their attack against the city centre of Stalingrad on 13 September 1942, Mamayev Kurgan (appearing in military maps as "Height 102.0") saw particularly fierce fighting between the German attackers and the defending soldiers of the Soviet 62nd Army. Control of the hill became vitally important, as it offered control over the city. To defend it, the Soviets had built strong defensive lines on the slopes of the hill, including trenches, barbed-wire and minefields. The Germans pushed forward against the hill, taking heavy casualties. When they finally captured the hill, they started firing on the city centre, as well as on the railway station Stalingrad-1 under the hill. They captured the railway station on 14 September. The 6. ... September 13 is the 256th day of the year (257th in leap years). ... Year 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1942 calendar). ... September 14 is the 257th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (258th in leap years). ...

On the same day, the Soviet 13th Guards Rifle Division commanded by Alexander Rodimtsev arrived in the city from across the river Volga under heavy German artillery fire. The division's 10,000 men immediately rushed into the bloody battle. On 16 September they recaptured Mamayev Kurgan and kept fighting for the railway station, taking heavy losses. By the following day, almost all of them had died. The Soviets kept re-inforcing their units in the city as fast as they could. The Germans assaulted up to twelve times a day, and the Soviets would respond with fierce counter-attacks. The 13th Guards Rifle Division was a Soviet infantry division. ... Alexander Rodimtsev Aleksandr Ilich Rodimtsev (1905 - 1977) was a colonel general in the Soviet Red Army during World War II, twice Hero of the Soviet Union (1937, 1945). ... The Volga, widely viewed as the national river of Russia, flows through the western part of the country. ... September 16 is the 259th day of the year (260th in leap years). ...

The hill changed hands several times. By 27 September 1942, the Germans had again captured half of Mamayev Kurgan. The Soviets held their own positions on the slopes of the hill, as the 284th Rifle Division desperately defended the key stronghold. The defenders held out until 26 January 1943, when the Soviet winter offensive relieved them, trapping and destroying the German forces inside Stalingrad. September 27 is the 270th day of the year (271st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1942 calendar). ... January 26 is the 26th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1943 (MCMXLIII) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1943 calendar). ...

When the battle ended, the blood-soaked soil on the hill was ploughed and mixed with shrapnel: the soil contained between 500 and 1,250 splinters of metal per square meter. The earth on the hill had remained black in the winter, as the snow kept melting in the many fires and explosions. In the following spring the hill would still remain black, as no grass grew on its scorched soil. The hill's formerly steep slopes had become flattened in months of intense shelling and bombardment. Even today it is possible to find fragments of bone and metallic shrapnel still buried deep throughout the hill.

Memorial complex

After the war, the Soviet authorities planned the Mamayev Kurgan memorial complex. It was built between 1959 and 1967 and is crowned by a huge allegorical statue of the Motherland on the top of the hill. The monument, designed by Yevgeny Vuchetich, has the full name "The Motherland Calls!" (Rodina Mat' Zovyot!). It consists of a concrete sculpture, 52 meters tall, and 85 meters from the feet to the tip of the 27 meter sword, dominating the skyline of the city of Stalingrad (later renamed Volgograd). At the time of installation in 1967 it formed the largest free-standing sculpture in the world. The construction uses concrete, except for the stainless-steel blade of the sword. The statue is held on its plinth solely by its own weight. The statue is evocative of the classic Greek representations of Nike, in particular the flowing drapery, similar to that of the Nike of Samothrace. The Motherland statue in Volgograd (former Stalingrad). ... Let Us Beat Swords into Plowshares, by Evgeniy Vuchetich, c. ... In Greek mythology, Nike (Greek Νίκη, pronounced /nike/ NEE-keh, meaning Victory) , was a goddess who personified triumph. ... The Winged Victory of Samothrace The Winged Victory of Samothrace, also called Nike of Samothrace, is a marble sculpture of the Greek goddess Nike (Victory), discovered in 1863 on the island of Samothrace (Greek: Σαμοθρακη, Samothraki) by the French consul and amateur archaeologist Charles Champoiseau. ...

Vasily Chuikov lies buried at Mamayev Kurgan, the first Marshal of the Soviet Union buried outside Moscow. Vasily Chuikov during World War II Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov (Васи́лий Ива́нович Чуйко́в) (February 12, 1900 - March 18, 1982) was a lieutenant general in the Soviet Red Army during World War II, two times Hero of the Soviet Union (1944, 1945), who after the war became a Marshal of the Soviet Union. ... The rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union (Russian: Marshal Sovietskogo Soyuza [Маршал Советского Союза]) was in practice the highest military rank of the Soviet Union. ... For other uses, see Moscow (disambiguation). ...

Picture taken from the top of Mamayev Kurgan and looking down over the Volga river.

Murman Kurgan in Volgograd, Russia. ... Murman Kurgan in Volgograd, Russia. ... For other meanings of the word Volga see Volga (disambiguation) Волга Length 3,690 km Elevation of the source 225 m Average discharge  ? m³/s Area watershed 1. ...

External links

• Mamayev Hill museum in Volgograd, official homepage (in Russian, English, German).
• Satellite photo at Google Maps
• http://en.structurae.de/structures/data/index.cfm?id=s0023638

Coordinates: 48°44′33″N, 44°32′13″E Map of Earth showing lines of latitude (horizontally) and longitude (vertically), Eckert VI projection; large version (pdf, 1. ...