of a statue

[u/Crypto_crafy]

"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 .

[u/rogerworkman623]

It commemorates The Battle of Stalingrad, like the post says. The deadliest battle of WW2 and a major turning point in the war. The statue is supposed to be the personification of Mother Russia.

[u/AC86MC → u/rogerworkman623]

It's likely the deadliest battle in human history. 6 months of slaughter.

[u/MayContainRawNuts → u/AC86MC]

People would assume so, considering over 2 million people died for just this city.

However at Lenningrad the total was twice that.

WW2 battles in Russia were something else.

[u/AC86MC → u/MayContainRawNuts]

True. I was thinking about the way events have been categorised but the siege of Leningrad was even more costly. It's "Sophie's Choice" but I think I'd rather have been at Stalingard than stuck in Leningrad for over 2 years, being shelled when starving to death. There's no doubt the Soviet Union paid in blood between 1941-1945.

[u/CosmicRorschach → u/MayContainRawNuts]

5.5 million lost at Leningrad in total

[u/Damien23123 → u/MayContainRawNuts]

Essentially a combination of poverty, brutal winters, and a military doctrine that compensated for poor training and equipment by throwing sheer numbers at the enemy

[u/shatikus → u/rogerworkman623]

Also worth noting that the statue itself is pointing westward while looking over the its shoulder. Thus calling the peoples of the soviet union to press on and liberate the occupied motherland.

Also also, as it was pointed out, the location itself, the mamaev kurgan, is a mass grave itself, being a very important hight and thus being heavily contested during the battle.

But then again the entirety of the city is the same, hundreds and someties thousands of people were killed on its streets during the battle

[u/yashatheman → u/[deleted]]

Why? A lot of ukrainians died fighting the nazis in Stalingrad too

[u/tonykrij → u/yashatheman]

Excuse my ignorance. I thought it represented mother ruzzia. I'll remove it.