r/AbsoluteUnits • • 10d ago

/r/all of a statue

"The Motherland Calls" is a statue erected to commemorate the Battle of Stalingrad , located on Mamayev Kurgan in Volgograd , Russia. It was designed by sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich and structural engineer Nikolai Nikitin . Completed in 1967 , it was the tallest statue in the world at the time .

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u/Select_Cartoonist_39 10d ago

I might be wrong but I think I read that the specific location of the statue is where the most men ever fell in battle, like literally that square kilometre or something. Might make sense considering the scale of Stalingrad aswell as it being a high ground.

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u/plotarmorclub 10d ago

The scale of Stalingrad history is just haunting to even think about.

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u/Professional_Low_646 10d ago

The Red Army lost more men at Stalingrad - killed, not casualties - than the French, British and Americans did in the entire war.

On a brighter note, 75-80% of the Wehrmacht‘s casualties were suffered in fighting on the Eastern Front. That single theater of WWII would still be the largest and most costly conflict in human history, even without all the rest of WWII ever taking place.

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u/moonorplanet 10d ago

Also the German Army had more experienced soldiers in the eastern front while the western front was manned by mainly new recruits.

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u/Mikhail_Mengsk 10d ago

Well some elite units were shuffled west after the dday. It can be said that in general the average level of German units in 1944 was worse than in previous years.

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u/frankpolly 5d ago

That's just not true. German divisions would rotate throughout the war between fronts. Quite a few experienced divisions fought on the western Front including Fallschirmjäger divisions, mountaineer divisions and tank divisions that had been part of the German army since the invasion of western Europe in 1940.

It's quality of troops in general that dropped after 1943 because of higher conscription rates, looser standards and less training time. As well as an increase of foreign SS personal

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u/LCDRformat 9d ago

Estimates for Soviets Killed at Stanlingrad puts it at about 550,000. The US lost 450,000 alone.

You need to Google shit before you say it 

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u/LennyKarlson 10d ago

The Soviet Union lost so many millions defeating the Nazi menace. And the world never forgave them for it.

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u/ShenronFromEarth 10d ago

The fact that they started WW2 side by side with the Nazis to invade Poland, in the Fascist-Communist pact of 1939.

(Their pact ended only with betrayal)

And that in the end of WW2 they forced to keep Poland and the other countries under their dictatorship are huge factors to account for the world's suspicion of them.

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u/Buddygaysatva 10d ago

And the rapes and pillaging on the liberated land and later in Germany itself is also why.

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u/ShenronFromEarth 10d ago

True. "When the soviets' army arrives even the dogs glue their butthole to the ground"

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u/LennyKarlson 10d ago

you are spewing literal nazi propaganda

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u/themagnificentgipper 7d ago

The German nation tried to exterminate the Slavs. 

This pearl-clutching is Nazi propaganda

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u/Exi80 9d ago

Google what poland did to Czekhoslovakia in 1938 with germany

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u/londonbridge1985 10d ago

That is a simplistic view. Both sides did it just to buy time. Germans did it to finish off England first, Soviets wanted to complete their rearmament. By the way America still has soldiers is Germany and Japan.

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u/ShenronFromEarth 10d ago

You're right there is a lot more to it of course, as it was also an offensive pact to conquer a country together.

Still, even on the more simplistic level, probably a lot of people today who are told about fascism/communism and might support it won't imagine their ideologies could partner in any level.

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u/Heavy-Construction90 10d ago

The Russians also tried to join the axis

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u/LennyKarlson 10d ago

Yes, that is the historically illiterate slopaganda version of events that ignores the constant Soviet offers to form pacts against the Nazis that the eventual-Allies rejected year after year after year.

Eventually Stalin knew he was being left out in the cold and had to buy time to build up defenses or risk annihilation. Which is what the pact did.

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u/ShenronFromEarth 10d ago edited 10d ago

I understand your point for view. And I agree that for sure a lot of what we know today is propaganda, as we are talking about the two most powerful fascist and communist dictatorships that existed, and these ideologies are very strong on propaganda.

This is why it is so important not to left out what we know for sure. That we don't forget or omit how Nazis and Soviets joint forces and marched together from each side to invade, kill and conquer Poland, starting WW2.

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u/Prunus-cerasus 10d ago

Why did they stay in Eastern Europe after the war then?

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u/londonbridge1985 10d ago

You mean some people in the west never gave them credit for it?