Mamayev Kurgan is a dominant height overlooking the city of Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad) in Southern Russia.  The formation is dominated by a memorial complex commemorating the Battle of Stalingrad (August 1942 to February 1943). The battle, a hard-fought Soviet victory over Axis forces on the Eastern Front of World War II, turned into one of the bloodiest battles in human history. After the war, the Soviet authorities commissioned the enormous Mamayev Kurgan memorial complex. Vasily Chuikov, who led Soviet forces at Stalingrad, lies buried at Mamayev Kurgan, the first Marshal of the Soviet Union to be buried outside Moscow. Among the other people buried there, sniper Vasily Zaytsev was also reburied there in 2006. The monumental memorial was constructed 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! It consists of a concrete sculpture, 52 metres tall, and 85 metres from the feet to the tip of the 27-metre sword, dominating the skyline of the city of Stalingrad. The construction uses concrete, except for the stainless-steel blade of the sword, and is held on its plinth solely by its own weight. The statue is evocative of classical Greek representations of Nike, in particular the flowing drapery, similar to that of the Nike of Samothrace. Russian edition. 24 cards, size 21x9 cm. Shipping: 1st item  9$  each additional +1$ .