Mamayev Kurgan
Mamayev Kurgan (
Russian: Мама́ев Курга́н) 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.
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.
On the same day, the Soviet 13th Guards 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 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.
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.
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.
Vasily Chuikov lies buried at Mamayev Kurgan, the first
Marshal of the Soviet Union buried outside
Moscow.
 |
Picture taken from the top of Mamayev Kurgan and looking down over the Volga river. |
*
Mamayev Hill museum in Volgograd, official homepage (in Russian, English, German).
*
Satellite photo at Google Maps
