70th anniversary of Stalingrad: my Volgograd photos
Re: 70th anniversary of Stalingrad: my Volgograd photos
This is the entrance to the memorial. The Russian soldier apparently lounging by the entrance is the officer in charge of the honour guard that guards the eternal flame, waiting for the departing squad to emerge.
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Re: 70th anniversary of Stalingrad: my Volgograd photos
It’s a long hike up the hill to the base of the statue. The pathway is lined with the graves of Stalingrad veterans who won the title Hero of the Soviet, who are entitled to be buried here.
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Re: 70th anniversary of Stalingrad: my Volgograd photos
Here we are up close to Mother’s Russia’s foot. She is, as they say, a big mother.
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Re: 70th anniversary of Stalingrad: my Volgograd photos
Here is a Russian Army squad on its way to relieve the honour guard at the eternal flame. They march in an exaggerated goose-step while holding their rifles upright with one hand and swinging the other arm, which must be quite hard to learn. The Russian goose-step is just as pompous and silly as the German goose-step used to be.
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Re: 70th anniversary of Stalingrad: my Volgograd photos
Marshal Chuikov is buried outside the memorial dome. The headstone says VECHNAYA SLAVA (“eternal glory”).
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Re: 70th anniversary of Stalingrad: my Volgograd photos
This is another of the many memorials which appear all over the city. This northern end of the city was the factory district before the war, and it still is. Since the Soviet-era heavy industry has mostly gone broke, and since Putin’s casino economy benefits only the Moscow elite, this is now a zone of derelict factories and crumbling apartment blocks full of people who can’t afford to move somewhere else.
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Re: 70th anniversary of Stalingrad: my Volgograd photos
I went in search of the three famous factories which were fought over in this part of the city: the Barrikady, the Krasny Oktyabr and the Dzerzhinsky Tractor Factory. I had a map showing the locations of all three, but I couldn’t find the Krasny Oktyabr: perhaps it’s been demolished. This is the Barrikady, which is closed and derelict. This is clearly a postwar building: I’m not even certain it’s on the same site as the prewar Barrikady.
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Re: 70th anniversary of Stalingrad: my Volgograd photos
The Dzerzhinsky Tractor Factory, however, is still going strong, although judging by the military presence visible through the gates I don’t think it makes tractors anymore. Here is the inevitable tank and war memorial at the front of the factory.
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Re: 70th anniversary of Stalingrad: my Volgograd photos
And here is Feliks Dzerzhinsky, founder of the Cheka (ancestor of the KGB), still on his plinth outside the factory. In Moscow, of course, his statue outside the KGB building was famously pulled down in 1991, but here in Volgograd he is still in good odour.
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Re: 70th anniversary of Stalingrad: my Volgograd photos
Here we see the heroic proletarians and the tanks they produced during the war.
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Re: 70th anniversary of Stalingrad: my Volgograd photos
This is a plaque in honour of Sergo Ordzhonikidzhe, Stalin’s commissar for heavy industry until he killed himself during the purges, who opened the factory in 1931.
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Re: 70th anniversary of Stalingrad: my Volgograd photos
This modern-style war memorial stands outside a supermarket which looks no more than ten years old, showing that even as Russia slowly develops a modern economy, the cult of the Great Patriotic War is not fading – and certainly not in the hero city of Volgograd.
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Re: 70th anniversary of Stalingrad: my Volgograd photos
I rounded up some of the coverage of the anniversary here:
http://mamayevkurgan.wordpress.com/2013 ... niversary/
http://mamayevkurgan.wordpress.com/2013 ... niversary/
Re: 70th anniversary of Stalingrad: my Volgograd photos
Those are great pictures, as well as the accompanying commentary. I am always interested in any structures left in their bombed out condition as a reminder of what happened, and I don't know if someone could have managed to sneak into the remnants of the flour mill but it almost looked accessible from the sidewalk outside the Defense of Stalingrad Museum.
Re: 70th anniversary of Stalingrad: my Volgograd photos
Here is another shot of the mill. Apart from a little fence, there doesn't seem to be much to stop someone getting inside if they really wanted to. I assume the building is structurally sound, but I don't think I'd want to find out by crawling around inside. Also Russian police tend to be lacking in sense of humour, particularly in relation to war memorials.
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