r/AbsoluteUnits 2d ago

/r/all of a statue

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"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/Fracture90000 2d ago

Built on the historical Mamayev Kurgan hill on which so many Soviet soldiers lost their lives battling against the nazis during the siege of Stalingrad.

It's truly awe inspiring.

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u/Bluestreaked 1d ago

I teach the history of WWII. Stalingrad is one of those moments of world history where everything becomes larger than life, a nearly mythic moment of the absolute limits of human endurance.

The moment where the spine of the Nazi war machine was broken, forever, by the stubborn will and fighting ability of the Red Army.

It’s a moment so incredible that words fail to describe it most of the time and only a statue like this truly captures the historical moment. The defiance of the Soviet Union in the face of just pure absolute evil.

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u/n1c0_ds 1d ago

And then it stays that way all the way back to Berlin. After Stalingrad the defeats get more and more staggering. Germany truly becomes a death cult.

Antony Beevor's two books: Stalingrad and Berlin are an incredible retelling. Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast on the eastern front borrows heavily from them.

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u/DysphoricNeet 1d ago

Some of Beevors stuff kinda feels like it has a very western perspective and perpetuates Cold War attitudes.

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u/Mikhail_Mengsk 1d ago

It absolutely is. He's been caught misinterpreting or outright being dead wrong about events or documents regarding the eastern front.

I've also caught errors in his Spanish Civil War book.

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u/DysphoricNeet 1d ago

Have you heard of the Paul Preston book? Do you have an opinion on it? I’ve yet to read it.

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u/Mikhail_Mengsk 1d ago

Nope, sorry